Gitane vs. Aria

Bob Holo

I went back to my pictures - it was the 14 fret D that had the new style of bridge... here is a blown up section of a picture I took of it...

sockeye

Looks like they're putting leather under the tailpiece now?

Bob Holo

They killed some naugas... but no cow was injured in the production of this instrument...

That might just be because this was a production sample - according to the Gitane rep, the scratches on the top were from John Jorgenson putting it through its paces and giving his feedback. I think it was the only one in existence at the time. The wood insert, however, was real and the picture doesn't do it justice... it was beautiful. He said they're going to eventually put wood tailpiece inserts in all the models. I didn't ask about the naugahyde. It looked cool, I had to shine a penlight up under the tailpiece to see that it was not "real" leather. it was a high quality modern naugahyde. It didn't look like those bad barco-loungers from the 1970s.

klaatu

Bob Holo wrote:

I went back to my pictures - it was the 14 fret D that had the new style of bridge... here is a blown up section of a picture I took of it...

What do you mean by "new style of bridge?" Are they getting it right at last?

chap

I finally got to play on one of these Aria guitars. I believe it was a MM20 or the oval hole model. Not bad looking. Matte-ish french polish. But here's the thing. The entire bridge is flush with the top--no feet. the tailpiece was also almost flush with the guitar with little to no gap underneath. They do have a slight arch in the front and back as if they do have slightly arched braces and are not just making a flat top with a floating bridge(although this bridge does not "float" in any way. The whole tone was muted and flat. There seemed to be little to no real resonance--almost like the top was somehow being kept from vibrating. The result was that all tone seemed to be coming just from the strings making for a very thin sound. Imagine your kid's walmart acoustic that comes in the cardboard box--only prettier and with a fairly decent neck. The nut is horrible though. There is however a zero fret. Having an intro guitar that sounds like this will not help the genre or add to the pool of players. If this had been my first gypsy guitar, I might have lost interest. Discourage anyone considering this guitar unless like the previous poster, they have the knowhow to fix it! The Gitane may not be the best guitar out there, but at least it is a gypsy guitar.

HCPhilly

Hey guys, you should just save up a few more dollars and get yourself a Manouche. My reasoning is that instead of getting a starter guitar that you will soon outgrow, just get your 2nd guitar first, and save the hassle of trying to unload a Gitane.
I was very impressed with the Manouche guitars, so much so that
I will help in getting the word out about this still a bit unknown company. The Gitanes are ok for the money, but that's about it. The Manouche guitars have much better tone and feel.