Gitane vs. Aria

Kurt

I was in a store recently and noticed that a low-end japanese manufacturer, Aria, now makes a selmac style guitar. MM-10 with a D-Hole, and the MM-20 with the Oval-Hole. At $299, this is not the price of a high end guitar, but the one I played didn't feel too bad or sound too bad.

Has anyone played one of these Aria Selmacs?

Has anyone done a side by side comparison of the Aria Selmac and a Gitane Selmac? If so what did you think?

I've always been very skeptical of the fact that Gitane wants $600+ for one of their guitars when it seems more like the quality of a $200 Epiphone. Am I missing something here?

nwilkins

the Gitanes are far superior to the Arias and in fact are very good guitars in their own right - they are good enough that $600 is a good deal! The arias are not bad considering how cheap they are, but like I said nowhere near the Gitanes.

rhythmkick

I tried a Gitane 255 and both models of the Aria, as well I had all played for me so I could listen to projection etc.
I felt the Aria was a cheap, dull sounding instrument next to the gitane, no resonance and just a tiny bark. The Gitane lit up the room in comparison.
But as said before, they are decent for the $$, and it's hard to find a simple cutaway for the price.
I'm waiting for Shelly Park to move into the neigborhood, play on some real Canadian planks!

django335

Hello,
I am new to this forum, and I love all the great info!
Regarding the Aria MM guitars, a friend just got one and I have had the pleasure of trying one out. He got his for 179$ U.S. !
After some serious tweaking, and me carving and sanding his bridge into a more Selmer like shape, the tone is there!
It was a bit "hollow" before I shaped the bridge and made shims to raise the action. But now it has more bass and projection.
I have played a Gitane, but was not impressed by the lack of projection in the treble range. I did like it's mellowness and warmth and would still say it was slightly better in terms of overall quality.
For the money, if one can do some adjusting, the Aria is a steal.

sockeye

Music123 has the Arias for the pretty unbelievable price of $199, including shipping.

Very tempting...

John

Bob Holo

I played the Aria D Hole at a tradeshow recently and was underwhelmed. The fit, feel, playability & sound were tantamount to those $99 guitars you see at guitar center... you know, the ones with the gig bag, lesson book and "free polishing cloth" thrown in to make it a package deal. It felt very "toy-like" and had a boxy stuffy sound. Sorry to any Aria enthusiasts out there... I don't mean to offend... it is only my opinion... but the lowest-end Gitane is significantly above the Aria from fit / finish & sound perspectives. By the way - the Aria, Gitane & Dell Arte booths were pretty close so I would consider this pretty close to an A/B. My preference for budget guitars was:

1.) Gitane
2.) Dell Arte's new Chinese line (TML - IE, Johnson / Paris Swing)
3.) Aria

Some of the Dell Arte Chinese guitars sounded good - but the JJ300 Gitane ruled the show for budget Selmacs - it was that good. it is also >$1,000, but it is a fine fine fine rig. The new D250M with the reworked neck (it used to be Stratocaster-like, now has a more traditional profile) was a monster too - definitely a killer deal under $1,000

drolling

Bob Holo wrote:

The new D250M with the reworked neck (it used to be Stratocaster-like, now has a more traditional profile) was a monster too - definitely a killer deal under $1,000

Sounds like you were at NAMM. I've always wanted to check it out.

When did they rework the 250's neck profile? Just the maple model or the rosewood & the slotted peghead 255 as well?

This is great news- Love the tone of my maple 250, but that neck is just too thin- my hand cramps up fast. Is it as fat as the Jorgenson model's?

The neck on my 50s strat is huge by comparison. The profile of the 250M's closer to those pointy headstock *shredder* electrics of the 80s. Don't know what Saga was thinking.

Thanks for the review, Bob!

nixpix

Bob (and anyone else), what's your feeling on the difference in value between the Gitane JJ DG300, DG250M, and a Dell'Arte Pigalle? It seems like the Pigalle is competing in the Gitane price range. Unfortunately, I don't live where there are a lot of these guitars (that I know of) to try out.

V-dub

Bob Holo wrote:

I played the Aria D Hole at a tradeshow recently and was underwhelmed. The fit, feel, playability & sound were tantamount to those $99 guitars you see at guitar center...

Thats funny, because I was at NAMM and I played that exact guitar as well and really enjoyed it. Of course, it was hard to hear anything with all the shred metal in the background, but I thought it felt great for rhythm: the action was ery loose and the rhythm was very percussive and chunky. Sure, it looks like crap, but I thought it was decent otherwise. I actually wanted to buy it right there, but couldn't find an Aria rep to talk to.

My favorite of NAMM was the prototype Saga Gitane Lulo Reinhardt. It was a joy to play.

drolling

V-dub wrote:

My favorite of NAMM was the prototype Saga Gitane Lulo Reinhardt. It was a joy to play.

Care to elaborate? I've been wondering about that one myself, and the info on Saga's site is typically vague and centered on cosmetics.

How would you compare the neck profile to the JJ? String height & tension? The same crummy bridge as used on the rest of the line?

Bob Holo

IIRC, the Lulu model at the show had a different bridge... one of the new Gitane models had what looked almost like a Dupont bridge - but with compensation on the B string - I can't remember whether it was the LuLu or the new 14 fret D. The necks of the JJ & the LuLu were different - the JJ was a little more beefy and squared off. The neck on the D250M was ?? well ?? truthfully I don't remember - I just remember that it felt like a real neck and so I turned to the Gitane rep standing next to me and said: "Hey, when did you start putting real necks on the D250m - this is cool!" He didn't know. I didn't really make a note of what it was - just that it felt comfortable. I can remember that it wasn't as buffed as the JJ neck - and my perception was that it was a flattened C profile but don't take that to the bank... I just remember thinking: "This is cool." and banging out J'Attendere while two well-coiffed yuppies stood there looking at me as if they were proud of themselves for being so adventurous as to listen to music other than Enya. I hope they liked it.

Yep, it was NAMM - great show. The Jorgenson concert at the Marriott Anaheim Ballroom was great. I missed the Nolan concert the prior late afternoon because I was getting fitted for Sensaphonics earplugs and headsets. When I play a lot - my right ear rings - the Sensaphonics molded earplugs can be set to 9db attenuation which will quadruple my exposure time to loud sounds without coloring the tone.

The Aria at the show wasn't the $200 one - or at least the one I played wasn't - it had built in electronics with a jack coming out of the bottom bout. It was a 14 fret with a hole somewhere between a D & a "bean" ... sort of a squared off D hole. It had a rounded boaty neck sort of reminiscent of budget archtops from the 1940s (Kay, Harmony...) and the top just didn't feel lively. The tone was decent enough - it just didn't jump up and speak. I was playing it and the "pro" came along (the guy they hire to play the guitars to attract people into the booth) He asked me if he could play it - so I gave it to him... he kept trying to play it but it would go out of tune so he kept stopping to tune it up about every 20 seconds or so. Maybe the tuners were just adjusted poorly or loose - as they looked like the same tuners Gitane uses on the D500 which seem to work fine. I'm sure it could be tuned up a bit and no two guitars are alike so there are probably Arias out there that have a bigger voice. I didn't "hate" it or anything - it just seemed toy like.