Where can I find an affordable selmer-maccaferri repro?

imranj

Just wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of a nice selmer-mac repro. Price range $600-$800. I saw the Gitane D500, looks nice. If anyone's playing one, how does it play? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Oh.. and I love this site!

guit_box

Ebay has the best prices, but elderly, music123, and musician's friend also carry the Gitanes. Most of the online dealers will match advertised prices if one of them is out of stock. ($625 is the best new price I've seen) I have a used D-500 that I'm planning to list on ebay in the next week since I recently bought a DG-255 to replace it.

imranj

thanks for the info. as far as the models go, what are the differences in quality between the D500 and DG255? they seem to be similiar in price and ofcourse the sound hole is different. other than that, what are the advantages/disadvantages of each?

drolling

Guitar Player magazine did a pretty thorough review of 2 Gitanes a few months back. The main difference between these guitars is the neck scale length and width. The D-500 has a wide fingerboard (think classical) and a regular scale, whereas the 255 has a narrower fretboard and a long scale (almost 27 inch) thin neck. The former is traditionally used for rhythm and the latter for lead. Both are composed of the same (laminated) woods and both have a thick polyester finish. These are cheap, mass-produced guitars and cannot really be compared to a real Selmer or a hand built luthiers creation. That having been said, I think they are wonderful for guys like me who have been listening to Django for years, but dont have the $$ (or the chops) to justify the purchase of a really fine instrument. Django himself started on a short scale grand bouche (D-500) and switched over to the oval hole (D-255) later in his career. Both will get you a lot closer to the Gypsy Jazz sound than a Telecaster. I know Ive hardly touched mine since getting a D500 and a 250 maple last year. For more info, you might want to try harmony central review section and Sagas website. I hope this helps some.

Josh Hegg

I have owned both a D-500 as well as a DG-250M
The D-500 has the shorter scale length but a better neck then the 250M. It is a bit thicker and it feels more like a better guitar. The DG-250M has a supper thin neck but the long scale length. The 250M is a good guitar for a first buy because you can not only learn rhythm but can work on lead lines while getting used to the longer length and the "French" fret markers (dot on G 10th fret rather then on the 9th) I like the DG-250M when set up well but had to fit a Dupont bridge to get it to play well. The intonation with the stock bridge is bad and the sound is choked. Both guitars are loud but don't really have that gypsy sound. They have more of a gypsy sound then a Taylor but not a really good gypsy sound. The one other thing I really don't like about the DG-250M is the string tension. It is not the easiest guitar to play. I have put a silk and steel sting on to help and it is better but not nearly as nice as other well made gypsy guitars. The tuners and tail piece on both or just okay and would be the first thing other then the bridge that would need to be replaced. Both are great first gypsy guitars and will allow you to learn with having a guitar that fits to look and style of the music.

Cheers