Breaking in my new DG-300

blindjimmy

At the Albuquerque 2008 Djangofest, my jj300 was played by the guitar player from the band Jazz from Paris , from England , which included John Vickers of Manouche guitars. He used my guitar during S Wrembles clinic for demonstrations, and he got the sounds out of that thing that we buy these guitars for . How great does it feel when someone makes your guitar sound better than you ever did ? Yet another instance of it's not the instrument, it's the player. And, i bought a Manouche d hole !

Ian Rossiter

As another Freezing Northern Alberta Winter sets in, Humidification becomes even more important. I keep my Guitars out about half the time, and in cases with sound hole humidifiers for the other half. I've got the Planet Waves in the Gitanes' & Nylon String, & Kyser's in the Flattops. When the Guitars are out, they're humidified via regular Room Humidifiers,( we have at least 3 in the house,bloody dry in these parts,year round.)
I keep this regiment up year-round. We're severely landlocked here and it's really,really dry. The temperatures drop to -40c and usually -50c for about a week during the winter.
The 300 has held up really well to the seasonal changes so far. I recieved it in the summer, and even when temps climbed into the +35c range,to days of sweltering mugginess,and violent thunderstorms (my favorite),and the past 2 months of Fall, the neck hasn't budged!! The action has stayed stable as well.
Can't wait to see how it holds up this winter!!! I've had my 255 for a few years now and as long as I can keep it humidified, it does just fine.

Ian Rossiter

So glad I tried the DuPont, it's a real pleasure to play this guitar now.
Anybody else try it?? What were the results?

Ian Rossiter

Still gettin better. It's having a few action/relief issues right now;the weather here is insane, daily temperature changes of up to+4c to-30c and back to - 14 in a 36hr period!! I also tried the cork-trick under the tailpiece, it really made a noticeable difference!! It cleaned up some ugly overtones,but the real cool thing was it brought out this great midrange/woody sound. It's hard to describe, but it's good!!

Il Trovatore

Lately I've been thinking about putting leather under the tail piece to reduce some vibrations/sympathetic noise, but I guess I wondered if its just throwing a random swatch of leather under there or we can buy the red/green ones somewhere. Thanks. Have you thought about doing this?

Ian Rossiter

Yep, I've actually got a piece of Green felt to go in there, but I just haven't gotten around to installing it yet.

Il Trovatore

Is it just a piece of felt you picked up randomly or did you get it from a shop?

Ian Rossiter

The guys at the 12th Fret in Toronto gave it to me. I just haven't gotten around to installing it yet.

dmin7th

Ian Rossiter wrote:

So glad I tried the DuPont, it's a real pleasure to play this guitar now.
Anybody else try it?? What were the results?

I replaced my bridge with a Dupont a month or so ago. If I had to do it over again, I would have started with a #2 instead of a #3, as I really had to take quite a bit off of it to get the action down to a reasonable height (it was really high before I started sanding).

I think it's definitely an improvement, but now I have a Dupont Nomade to compare it with. They are night and day different in tone, and I much prefer the Dupont. I still think the Gitane is a decent guitar for the money though, and I'm hanging on to mine for the foreseeable future.

Ian Rossiter

Out of couriosity, I popped the old bridge back on, just to compare. I wanted to see how the breaking-in process had progressed. I've been playing it alot more since the DuPont mod.
Anyways, the guitar has really opened up nicely. The Tone isn't nearly as ugly, and oddly enough the top dosen't feel like a trampoline like it had. The cork wedge under the tailpiece really helps with the overtones and wetness.
The Alberta winter has taken its toll; even with the extremely mild temps and constant humidification, the neck still backbowed like crazy. I really haven't taken it outside lately. It's either on a stand in a properly humidified room, or in a case with a planet waves humidifier. I've adjusted the neck of course, and have gone up to the 11 gauge Argies.
Anyway, still comming along nicely.