Guitar sizes

oasisdweller

Hi,
I'm what you'd call a little guy but I still want to play Gypsy Jazz like the big boys. I just picked up a Dell-Arte DG-H2 and I find it physically very uncomfortable to play, almost as if the body is too big. Are there different size guitars and how do you go about finding them? Or am I holding it wrong or something?
Thank you, I'll take my answer off the air :-)
Joel

placidothecat

I believe your guitar is a Favino sized guitar, which has the larger lower bout and is deeper than the Selmer style body. It also has a longer scale. A big feeling (and sounding) guitar, yes. If you want a smaller Gypsy guitar, maybe look at a 12 fret, 25.5" scale, Selmer body-sized, Grand Bouche style guitar. Something like a Cigano GJ-15, as one example.

oasisdweller

Thank you for the reply.

kimmo

oasisdweller wrote:

I just picked up a Dell-Arte DG-H2 and I find it physically very uncomfortable to play, almost as if the body is too big. Are there different size guitars and how do you go about finding them? Or am I holding it wrong or something?

I don't know, how you hold your guitar, because you didn't attache any pics. However, very small changes can be significant. Check out these photos of Samson, Dorado and Tchavolo Schmitt (especially Dorado in the middle):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/19215641@N00/275085950

They are holding their guitar a little sideways, so
a) you dont have to reach your right arm over your guitar (very big difference for small guys like me) and
b) your sound is louder because your guitars bottom doesn't get damped by your body.

Just push the neck a little further, pointing the headstock slightly diagonally forward, at least that helped me a lot.

oasisdweller

Thank you Kimmo, that was very helpful because I Love this guitar otherwise and was hoping I wouldn't have to give it up. It needs a few things like a fret filing and maybe some new tuning pegs but otherwise it sounds great, especially for the short money that it cost.