Best place to buy a Gitane

Sarge

Hey guys, ive been debating whether to take the full plunge into gypsy jazz guitar or not. Ive been playing around with the style on my mandolin and octave mandolin a little bit and its been a lot of fun. It'll be interesting though because i havent really played much guitar

Anywho, if I do finally take the plunge i'm pretty sure im gonna get one of those gitane 255's. My question is where is the best place online, in your opinion, to purchase one. What place might do a halfway decent setup? I was thinking either elderly.com or from gianna violin's gypsy guitar site (i got my eastman mandolin from them and was quite pleased with it)

Also, do the gitanes normally come with a case, or is that normally and extra charge.

-Thanks fella's

...also, ive already looked into upgrades

Bob Holo

Actually, this site is (Djangobooks) and I'd say that even if they weren't friends. Michael's prices are great and Josh is one of the best GJ setup guys on this side of the pond and they work together.

A distant second retailer would be Elderly.com - they don't have a lot of experience setting up GJ guitars, but I've never heard of them "messing up" a GJ guitar and they do fret levels on guitars before they leave the shop which is one of the things you'll want done on a Gitane. Elderly is an excellent web retailer of musical instruments in general and they happen to carry Gitane GJ guitars so they do a very good job for a "generalist" web retailer. I actually bought a Gitane from Elderly before I knew about Djangobooks.com and Elderly did just fine by me though Josh and I both did some setup work on that guitar eventually.

For setup guys - again, my contacts are regional, but Josh of Djangobooks in Tacoma, WA. and John Saba of "Dusty Strings" in Seattle, WA and Mike Burdette of "Portland Fretworks" in Portland, OR, are great setup guys who are knowledgeable about these guitars (and believe me, working on GJ guitars is NOT like working on flattops or electrics... Selmacs are different beasts and working on them as though they were flat tops or electrics can lead to problems in tone and playability. I've actually seen setup guys notch the zero fret and install archtop bridges... both of which are just horrible things to do to a GJ guitar and that demonstrate that the setup guy doesn't understand the inherent design of the GJ guitar.

My connections are admittedly "Northwest" based - and I don't know where you hail from - I'm sure there are people in other geographic areas - and of course if you're in France - it would be tough to beat Francois Charle as a setup guy... he was setting up Selmers, Favinos, Busatos & DiMauros when Birelli was a kid.

BluesBop Harry

Yes I second that...buy from this site...it's unbeatable
Great prices, lots of setup options (by a guy that knows these guitars and is also a player), cases, etc. Everything you need.
A piece of advice: Get a new replacement bridge by Josh Hegg when you buy your Gitane, it's a BIG improvement. And he really knows his stuff, I mean the guy even uses different species of rosewood depending on the sound you want. I would also request a fret level and maybe a clear pickguard but the bridge it's first priority.

Good luck!