Need a good setup for my Gitane

Josh Hegg · January 2007

Mostly that you have to put them in their own category. Can't treat them like Flat Tops and they are not Arch Tops. They are like a flat top with a bridge from an arch top with a neck like a classical with a tone like a guitar with a broken brace! They are light, easy to break and hard to listen to if you don't know what to listen for. They have a zero fret... Most guitars these days don't. So if your used to setting a guitar up that has a nut the zero fret is just another crazy thing to try and work around.

I don't want to put any tech down at all. It's just that these guitars are crazy and take some learning time. The best thing you can do as a player is learn for your self what the guitar/you needs. That way you can inform your tech. Any good tach will listen to you and try to work with you. And the most important thing is this: Don't let any one tell you there is a problem with the guitar just because is can't be set up like a flat top.

Cheers,
Josh

WillH · December 2015

Hi everyone,

I'm both new here and new to gypsy guitars (I just bought my first Gitane DG255 about a week ago). I'm also having some intonation problems.

It plays great with open chords (E, G, C, a little less so with D) and with barre chords off the low E (F, G, A, etc.), but I can definitely hear that the D and G strings are somewhat flat at the 12th fret.

I've tried as advised above and moved the bridge ends around to try to match the high and low E open and octave notes as closely as possible, but the middle strings are still (to me) glaringly flat.

I'd like to take it to a professional to set up, but the one shop near me (in South West England) very disappointingly say they only work on guitars they have sold.

Can anyone offer advice on how to find a gypsy guitar tech that knows how to properly set up/intonate a DG255?

Thanks in advance and I look forward to reading a lot of good stuff and meeting a lot of good people here.

All the best,

Will