Very nice and great swinging!! Great jazz box too and even better tone -- is that a ES175? Man, makes me wanna take out the Epi for a spin, plug it into the ol' black face Princeton reverb and chop through some 2 note chords...much as I absolutely love a great le pompe sound, that perfect archtop tone on rhythm is just something else.
Jangle_JamieScottish HighlandsNewDe Rijk, some Gitanes and quite a few others
Posts: 279
One other thing is does your Stringphonic 503 have a tailpiece stamped with an 'S'? If they're using the Saga tailpieces (which it looks like they are), I would recommend swapping it for a better quality brass one - Miller, Killy Nonis, Gallato, DR - as I've found the Saga ones ring a bit.
quinngMiamisburg Ohio NewAltimira M01, dell arte basic 503
Posts: 37
@Jangle_Jamie it has a DR tail piece, but it does feel kinda cheap or lighter than expected
quinngMiamisburg Ohio NewAltimira M01, dell arte basic 503
Posts: 37
Well after playing religiously for the last couple days I'm definitely starting to feel a lot better about it, put some 1510s on it and it plays better and sounds better for sure, definitely can take the action down a little bit, but some of the overtones are absolutely distracting, it has a DR tail piece, but it seems like no matter what foam, soft side of Velcro, string, etc.. doesn't seem to help , it seems that the other strings are ringing ahead of the bridge instead of of behind it? I'm really determined to make this work, because realistically I can't drop 4-5k anytime soon for a DuPont or something crazy.
Go with your gut, if you don't like it, then you don't like it. Simple.
Your guitar is rosewood, and rosewood guitars have more overtones. I've found that mahogany guitars tend to have a drier more fundamental sound without the overtones associated with rosewood and even maple.
But in all honestly, there's something quirky about gypsy jazz guitars in general. For instance, the tops are usually so thin that they can "feedback" on certain notes. The guitar can have a perfect setup and still have areas of ringing because it has a long scale length and is built so lightweight. I had a Dupont with this sympathetic ringing issue on certain notes that was incurable, it was santos rosewood. Some people don't even hear the issue. My last bandmate said, "that's a good type of buzzing sound" but it drove me crazy.
I can see why an overbuilt guitar like an Altamira can sound desirable for someone who wants a simple sounding jazz box with the familiarity of an electric guitar speed neck.
@quinngdo you have any buddies who play in the style? Another thing to do is have one of them play it so you can hear how the guitar projects to the listener. In my experience, this can be really helpful because to be perfectly blunt, these guitars can often sound worse to the actual player. Also, you can hone in a bit more on where the "sweet spot" is for tone because while traditionally, you more frequently get the "Django sound" playing close to the bridge, some guitars can sound better closer to the oval (if petite bouche). Some players even play throughout the distance from neck to bridge simply for the different tonal characteristics; in a lesson with Antoine, he made a huge point about how much tone comes from your shoulder and also that the more relaxed you are, the easier it is to play throughout that space for different tonal characteristics (for instance, you'll get a more "archtop" tone closer to the neck on most DJ guitars). If you watch some of Antoine's performances, he often moves all over the full distance between bridge and neck to get different tone colors...should also add Antoine uses Dunlop gators, or at least he did as of a couple years ago (and on that note, maybe try experimenting with different picks as well, you might find less overtones simply from different materials and string attack as well).
Actually, one more piece of advice, try some bridge shims. You made me remember that one of the worst parts about my Gitane is all the crazy, wet overtones and I corrected that by cutting up an old credit card and shimming the bridge under the high E and low E (if you try this out, make sure the shims make contact with the moustache pieces as well...although I have no proof of this, I think doing so tends to make the guitar sound a bit better when using shims). Should add I'm not not a huge fan of shims for the same reason, they tend to deaden the sound a bit imo...but in this case, maybe it would be helpful to try some out.
Comments
Very nice and great swinging!! Great jazz box too and even better tone -- is that a ES175? Man, makes me wanna take out the Epi for a spin, plug it into the ol' black face Princeton reverb and chop through some 2 note chords...much as I absolutely love a great le pompe sound, that perfect archtop tone on rhythm is just something else.
Thanks!…1962 ES175 in the black and white promo, ES 336 in the casual restaurant gig.
www.scoredog.tv
One other thing is does your Stringphonic 503 have a tailpiece stamped with an 'S'? If they're using the Saga tailpieces (which it looks like they are), I would recommend swapping it for a better quality brass one - Miller, Killy Nonis, Gallato, DR - as I've found the Saga ones ring a bit.
Killer 175!
haha, fun band there...yay you!
@Jangle_Jamie it has a DR tail piece, but it does feel kinda cheap or lighter than expected
Well after playing religiously for the last couple days I'm definitely starting to feel a lot better about it, put some 1510s on it and it plays better and sounds better for sure, definitely can take the action down a little bit, but some of the overtones are absolutely distracting, it has a DR tail piece, but it seems like no matter what foam, soft side of Velcro, string, etc.. doesn't seem to help , it seems that the other strings are ringing ahead of the bridge instead of of behind it? I'm really determined to make this work, because realistically I can't drop 4-5k anytime soon for a DuPont or something crazy.
Go with your gut, if you don't like it, then you don't like it. Simple.
Your guitar is rosewood, and rosewood guitars have more overtones. I've found that mahogany guitars tend to have a drier more fundamental sound without the overtones associated with rosewood and even maple.
But in all honestly, there's something quirky about gypsy jazz guitars in general. For instance, the tops are usually so thin that they can "feedback" on certain notes. The guitar can have a perfect setup and still have areas of ringing because it has a long scale length and is built so lightweight. I had a Dupont with this sympathetic ringing issue on certain notes that was incurable, it was santos rosewood. Some people don't even hear the issue. My last bandmate said, "that's a good type of buzzing sound" but it drove me crazy.
I can see why an overbuilt guitar like an Altamira can sound desirable for someone who wants a simple sounding jazz box with the familiarity of an electric guitar speed neck.
@quinng do you have any buddies who play in the style? Another thing to do is have one of them play it so you can hear how the guitar projects to the listener. In my experience, this can be really helpful because to be perfectly blunt, these guitars can often sound worse to the actual player. Also, you can hone in a bit more on where the "sweet spot" is for tone because while traditionally, you more frequently get the "Django sound" playing close to the bridge, some guitars can sound better closer to the oval (if petite bouche). Some players even play throughout the distance from neck to bridge simply for the different tonal characteristics; in a lesson with Antoine, he made a huge point about how much tone comes from your shoulder and also that the more relaxed you are, the easier it is to play throughout that space for different tonal characteristics (for instance, you'll get a more "archtop" tone closer to the neck on most DJ guitars). If you watch some of Antoine's performances, he often moves all over the full distance between bridge and neck to get different tone colors...should also add Antoine uses Dunlop gators, or at least he did as of a couple years ago (and on that note, maybe try experimenting with different picks as well, you might find less overtones simply from different materials and string attack as well).
Actually, one more piece of advice, try some bridge shims. You made me remember that one of the worst parts about my Gitane is all the crazy, wet overtones and I corrected that by cutting up an old credit card and shimming the bridge under the high E and low E (if you try this out, make sure the shims make contact with the moustache pieces as well...although I have no proof of this, I think doing so tends to make the guitar sound a bit better when using shims). Should add I'm not not a huge fan of shims for the same reason, they tend to deaden the sound a bit imo...but in this case, maybe it would be helpful to try some out.