Cafe American Guitars?

Bones

Hey Jim,

If it is the Gallato dealer, I bought an oval hole from him a while back and I do know that he actually did go to France to get it from Serge because it was shipped from there.

Took a while to get here but I was quite happy with the transaction. As far as I know he is the only dealer for the Gallatos in the US.

As far as the Café Americain, I have no experience with them.

Shawn

I'm with Bones on this one. In fact, coincidentally, I bought my Gallato at the same time as him. I bought the Modele Noire Gallato and it has been an absolute dream of a guitar. I'm not sure why they seem to give off so many bad vibes, yes, they have an Asian made model which I believe is called the "Modele Django" which appears to be an entry level guitar. I can assure you that the higher priced Gallato's are not entry level, in fact, I'd put them up against some of the better known luthier made guitars any day of the week.

As Bones stated, I can attest that the dealer (presumably the same one who posted here) did in fact go to France to pick up my guitar by hand. I was in constant contact with him throughout the process of having it built, and I'm more than satisfied with the craftsmanship. Heck, I can probably even get some close up pictures of my guitar to give you guys an idea that these Gallato's are genuinely well built instruments.

crookedpinky

Gallatos are reasonably well respected in Europe - I've seen and heard Tchavolo playing a Gallato Noire in the cafe in Samois square and it sounded great. Serge Gallato has explained clearly that while his higher end guitars - i.e. above 1400 euros or so - are made in Europe his entry level models are largely built in Asia and finished off/set up in France, hence their lower price of 400 euros or so.

A good look at Gallatos entry level shows it to be a reasonably faithful copy of a Selmer whereas the Cafe Americains just don't seem to be.

The lack of evidence or detail about a Cafe Americain "workshop" in France doesn't help the claim - explicit or implied - that these are being built in France. The evidence suggests that they are made in China.

DeuxDoigts_Tonnerre

Well, today I ran into a Café American guitar at the Music-go-round in Duluth, GA. They sell tons of used gear and get some interesting stuff occasionally. They were asking $300 but it was stung up with regular electric guitar strings, and it sounded awful. I made a "constructive suggestion" to the store attendant. I told him that this guitar really needs some Saverese Argentines, or at least some d'addario gypsy jazz strings to even have a chance at sounding like it is supposed to sound. So he thanked me for the suggestion and wrote it down so he could order some proper gypsy jazz strings. Planning to go there next week to see if it made any difference in the sound.

They also had an Altamira M01F (DiMauro style with the F holes) that I had played previously. That one had proper gypsy jazz strings and it sounded great. In fact, I was starting to get attached to the M01F, but they were asking street price, and I already have an Altamira M30D that I got from good ol' Michael Horowitz at Djangobooks.com ;)

constantine

Cafe Americains are Aiersi's with a bit of lipstick. Everything single "budget" guitar on this site is markedly better.

DeuxDoigts_Tonnerre

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/99177#Comment_99177

LOL... yeah, this guitar had some bright reddish-looking binding on the body.  Almost looked like red celluloid or tortoise shell material.  Looked kinda cool, but again, the sound was definitely NOT there.

In fact, they had a beat-up Aria Classical guitar there with old nappy strings, which sounded more "Gypsy" for rhythm than the Café American did.  They only wanted $79 for the Aria. 

AndrewUlle

I remember several years ago contacting a dealer of Cafe Americain who insisted they "came from France." I was pretty sure no luthier-build guitar from Europe could be bought for $400 new. LOL

crookedpinky

I contacted the seller as well after he posted a Cafe Americain guitar on Ebay UK. In his description he gave a story of how he visited the French workshop where these guitars are made on an annual basis and bought a batch of them. He was clearly implying that a) they were made in France and b) built by hand in a small workshop. Anybody who knows anything about these guitars would recognise them for what they, far eastern - most likely Chinese - cheap and often inaccurate copies.

I contacted him telling him that I was touring France that summer and I would like to visit the workshop and would he tell me where it was located. Guess what, he didn't reply.

I have nothing against Chinese or far eastern made guitars, in fact I've imported a few myself and they've been great value for money. Typically they've cost around £250 including a case and shipping. What I detest though is a charlatan like the guy who represents these Cafe Americains as something they're most definitely not.

ChrisMartin

I think everyone had already worked out the truth about the Cafe American brand, but it is the Gallato brand that has caused more confusion.  Yes, they now openly advertise a 'budget' model made in China but it was the continued pretence that the top range models were 'Made in France' that was misleading.  I had it on good authority (someone who has been there) that these come from the same factory as the Altamiras.  

Then there is that old story about how the first couple of years production was supposedly by Geronimo Mateos and these are the better ones to get, an oft repeated hype that some use to try to keep prices up.  Well, I read somewhere, that the reason Gallato and Mateos terminated their partnership was that after making the first two or three, Mateos himself sub-contracted to another Asian factory to make them as he was flat out (just him and his son?) making Spanish guitars.  Gallato found out about this and decided to cut out the middle man and go to the source himself. If that is true, then even the hyped up Mateos Gallatos may be just another mass-produced factory guitar.  Significantly both Gallato and Mateos have kept silent about the reasons for going their own way. 

Now all of this raises that old argument about does it really matter where a guitar is made? I recently bought one of the Asian made DellArte guitars and am very pleased with it, but it does not pretend to be anything other than what it is.  Obviously there is a difference between something hand made by a craftsman and something made by robots on a production line. So, as the traditions for this type of guitar come from the Italian/Sicilian migration to France since the 1930s so it is understandable that a luthier trained and working in that environment, possibly with a direct line back to the old names will have more direct knowledge of the tricks of the trade.  (Dupont trained with Favino and Anastasio, Castelluccia, Favino, Papallardo passed on the the sons and so on).  But, alternatively, just because something was made by hand, in France (or wherever) does not mean it is necessarily of great quality. On the other hand the Chinese, like the Koreans and Japanese before them have perfected factory manufacturing now such that they can make anything you want, from cheap junk, to top quality manufactured goods depending on what you ask for and how much you want to pay. 

So, both have their place in the world, and back to the original thread, the problem that has dogged Gallatos all this time, is the misleading claims and refusal to give straight answers. I am not questioning the quality of the product, I have never played one, but this history of apparently selling guitars made in an Asian factory and trying to pretend they are made in France has had a detrimental effect on the name and the brand. 

Bones

Yeah Chris, exactly there is nothing wrong with a high quality Asian factory guitar. In fact, some operations are BEST done with automated machines. It's the design of the guitar (specs, dimensions, wood, etc.) that matters. I have 2 Gallatos (an oval hole and a D-hole) and they are both well made and sound great, loud and dry. They are great guitars for the price and every bit as good or better than some higher priced luthier guitars that I have played. I think the specs are based on an original Selmer that is owned by Serge Gallato. That said, these are the older "Angelo Debarre" models and I have not tried one of their newer budget models.