Buying a better guitar

lgenoni

I have both a castelluccia model swing ed an gitane dg255.
I am really satisfied by both, obviously the castelluccia has a mutch better tone and sound, but I would not be fair is I'd say my gitane has a wet sound and to mutch bassiness. my gitave is really dry and bright (I changed the bridge btw).

The castelluccia has a really genuine selmer sound, which i really like.

Anyway, if you have the possibility try an hand made guitar (also my castelluccia is around your budget). There are plenty of luthier made guitars in the same price range of top gitanes and dell'arte, if you can also an used one, so yopu have the possibilityt to talk with the previous owner and to play it before you decide if you want to buy it.

Luigi

klaatu

bluetrain wrote:

The soundclips I've heard about Manouches left me with this image that they are very bright sounding. One thing I try to avoid is to have this painfully bright high end. Of course it can be a lot up to the style of the player, strings, plectrum etc. but anyway. How would you describe the sounds you're getting out of your Gallato?

I agree with you - so much depends on the player, as well as the setup. It's hard to judge from sound clips for that reason. Stochelo will still sound like Stochelo, no matter what guitar he plays. Give me Stochelo's Selmer (I wish!) and I can effortlessly make it sound like crap. I also have to say that I have very little experience with gypsy guitars. We're rather isolated in Nova Scotia. So I can only give you my impressions, without much to go on in terms of comparison.

My Manouche, to my ears, has good volume and a pretty decent sound but is a little bass heavy and somewhat reverbarant. Both Dell'Artes I have owned had great volume and nice mids and highs but lacked definition in the bass. The Gallato by comparison is crisper and punchier and is very well balanced across the entire tonal range. It has what I think of as a "dry" sound. It is also brand new and has not had a chance to open up yet.

bluetrain wrote:

Did you call straight to Norman Ort or just wrote emails? Good hint, maybe I write some message to ValleyandBlues (apparently Serge Gallato).

Norman and I communicated entirely by e-mail. You should be able to reach Serge through pmail on Djangobooks. Look at the following item, fourth entry - there is a message from Serge with a PM link.
http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5879&highlight=gallato+1939

BTW, when I characterized the Manouche as "stiff," I was referring to the playability, not the sound. In fairness, this may be a function of setup. The action is fairly high to counteract what Michael Horowitz refers to as the "dreaded hump where the neck meets the body." Also the D'Addario strings I use are somewhat stiff in feel. The Gallato has a much lower action and Argentine strings.

I am going to get a chance to try my friend's new Dupont this weekend, which will give me a better idea of what a gypsy guitar should sound like in my hands. Also going to Django in June this year, and hence will be able to compare the Gallato to a great many other instruments. Will post a more complete review at a later date.

Samuel

What's a good upgrade from a Gitane 300? Not that I'm in any way good enough yet to justify spending thousands on a new guitar, but I like to dream

I don't think I could spend $3-4k for a Dupont MD50 or something, but what are some good guitars in the $1.5 to $2k range? Or is it more worthwhile to look for a used guitar that is selling in that range?

Just planning for the future

frater

Hi Ben,

I bought my Manouche second hand from a guy who had managed to mess enough with the neck so that the intonation was a problem. My luthier took care of that and now the guitar has a low action, perfect intonation and plays like butter. I suggest you ask your luthier to take a look at the fretboard... it's really worth the price.

P.S.
Manouche are definitely not too bright sounding... the highs are very compressed but not too piercing. I like that, even if they're probably not the right guitars to bring at a campifire jam...

klaatu

Hi frater,

Yes, I've actually done that. However, one of my bandmates is thinking about buying the Manouche from me, and his luthier has told him the same thing that mine did - that it's not an unusual problem and can be alleviated without spending a lot of money. I think I'll wait to see if he buys it and let him deal with it through his own guy.

In truth, the reason I bought the Gallato was simply that I wanted a European-built guitar, and the price was very attractive. It's very true, as some people have pointed out, that for a few hundred Euros more you can get a guitar from Castellucia, Mateos, or other similar makers. Based on posts in this forum and e-mail conversations with Norman and Serge, I decided to take a chance on this one, and so far I am very happy with it.

The Gallato sounds better to me than any of the other gypsy guitars I have owned, that's about all I know at this point. It will be interesting to compare it to a wider range of instruments at Django in June and get the reactions of people more knowledgable than I. I will report back on that.

Michael Bauer

I had the same problem with the hump the first winter with my Manouche oval hole. I got a full fret level and a humidifier and have never had a recurrence. In fact, the action can be too low now. Barry Warhaftig told me that they figured out what caused the problem and fixed it on later guitars. Still, those early Manouches sound so good, it's worth dealing with. My d-holes (one steel, one nylon) have never had the problem at all.

klaatu

Michael,

My Manouche is a very early one, serial # 38. My luthier pointed out that improper humidification was probably a contributing factor, which echoes what you said. Good to hear that they eventually licked the problem.

It's a bit worse than just a hump on mine - the fretboard is visibly separated from the top on the bass side from the 11th to about the 15th fret, and there are signs of some attempts at regluing in a few spots, notably just above the oval hole, where a small piece of fretboard appears to have broken off at one time.

Fortunately, I didn't pay a lot for it - I bought it a couple of years ago from Barry's predecessor, who had been using it as a demo model, and he made me fully aware of the issues before I bought it. In all fairness, it has served me well, and I've more than gotten my money's worth from it. I probably should keep it around as a beater, but I'm trying to keep my guitar population down to six at one time (not all gypsy guitars).