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Gitane D-500 research
Longhorn6120
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Hello everyone. First time post from a proud new Gitane D-500 owner :-)
A little about myself, I’ve been playing a little over 40 years. Mostly Gretsch guitars in a rockabilly trio or bass guitar/stand-up bass in country bands various. I’ve no musical training, only ever played by ear, but I’ve got by OK. I’ve always been fascinated by Django and that unique sound, but was always a bit too intimidated to even try. Now, as I ease into my early ‘60s, I’ve lucked into a grande bouche at a killer price so I’m hanging up the Gretsches for a while and seeing how far I can get down the GJ track.
So, the guitar then. It has a heel block number starting 1002, the little bit of research I’ve done so far leads me to believe that’s February 2010. Apart from a tiny nick in the binding on the front edge of the lower bout (and I really mean tiny) the guitar is minty mint - it’s like it’s come straight from the factory. I picked it up for £400, with a Kinsman hardshell 6-catch case - I’m pretty pleased with that. Seller was a super-nice guy too.
Gitane is not a name I’ve come across before so I’m keen to find out as much as I can about the model and also Gitane/Saga in general (I played in a band once where the lead singer had a Blueridge parlour acoustic which was a beautiful little thing with a great voice, another Saga brand I believe). I know they are Chinese built, but so is my iPhone so we know those guys can build stuff properly, and this guitar certainly looks and sounds like it’s worth the £1k-ish price tag a new one is currently commanding.
So, first things first, the serial number. Is the heel block stamp the official serial number or is it the (sequential?) number on the left hand side of the label? Talking of which, are those label numbers really hand-written? It looks like it might be, but by a very steady hand. Possible I guess…
And that branded heel block stamp, can we glean anything more from that? Every one I’ve seen online (and my own) has a few zeros followed by 2-digit number at the end. Monthly total? Weekly? Daily…?
Also out of interest, does anyone know when Saga started producing these guitars? Mine is in the 10xxx range so if they’d made over 10,000 by early 2010 they must have started a while ago or they were turning them out pretty quick. Or both.
One more question (for now), does anyone know if the label number is exclusive to the model (D-500), exclusive to the brand (Gitane) or applicable to all Saga guitars?
Apologies for so many questions on my first post. Right now my interest is somewhat focused on the guitar, but rest assured I shall be back, bending your ears on all things Django and GJ in general.
Many thanks in advance for any light anyone can shed on things.
Comments
Welcome to the forum! And Happy New Guitar Day.
I can't answer any of your questions as I have no direct experience with Saga guitars. If you haven't already, look for the search bar on the right side of the page under the Who's Online and Today's Birthdays. You can try various searches as a lot of things have been discussed on this board. Sometimes it is helpful to just use Google directly but add djangobooks to your search terms and it will direct you back to links here. Here's one such post I found about a D-500 with various numbers/identification questions and mention of Chinese knockoffs. All good stuff. And again, welcome.
OP, this probably doesn't help you very much but it does appear Saga is only producing the D-255 and D-500 as no other Gitanes appear in their 2025 catalog (page 21):
https://www.sagamusic.com/pdf/CCAT/Saga_CCAT_2025_Complete_v9.pdf
Hopefully Michael chimes in on this as I'm sure his knowledge of Saga Cigano/Gitane is extensive as anyone on the planet...but I do recall reading that the Gitane D-500 model was based upon the original Selmer Maccaferri D hole build to be faithful as possible for a factory model.
Also, just checked my D-250M (which I believe was built in 2008) and it's serial # 1,528 without any 0s at the end.
Saga,
The contact page on your web site does not appear to be working. Could you please explain the Cigano serial number format? My Cigano GJ-10 is: 08080912.
I have heard that the serial number format for Gitane guitars is the first four numbers indicate year and month, so for my guitar, that would indicate 2008, August.
Thanks,
John P.
John,
You are correct. The first 2 digits are the year, and the 3rd and fourth are the month of manufacture.
Best regards,
Tom Molyneaux
Saga Musical Instruments
www.sagamusic.com
Best regards,
Tom Molyneaux
Saga Musical Instruments
www.sagamusic.com
Congrats on the new guitar - £400 is a fair price and it’s a good guitar for the money, it should serve you well as a starter guitar in this genre. I take it as you paid sterling that you are based in the UK - there are a few Brits on this forum so if you let us know whereabouts you live we can point you in the direction of local scenes.
I believe Saga started making this model around about 2001/02. The lineage goes back a bit further than that and can be traced back to CSL in the 1970s, a British based company although the guitars were made in Japan. They were then taken on by Ibanez and sold as the MAC10 with a label handsigned by Mario Maccaferri himself. At some point production transferred to Saga who sold them as the MAC100S in the 90s, still made in Japan at that point but without Maccaferri’s involvement . Interest in Selmer style guitars was given a boost by Sweet and Lowdown which led to the Gitane range, made in China and with quite a few options including signature models and a rather nice birds-eye maple. Although they retailed at close to a grand it was quite easy to find them much cheaper than that in shops - I paid £400 for my 250m in 2013. And yes you could go into a half-decent guitar shop and find them in the racks - those were the days!
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Gitanes but it’s fair to say that the general view is that they have been overtaken by other brands such as Altamira and Eastman producing more authentic sounding guitars at a similar price. Saga’s own Cigano is often thought to be a better guitar even though it was sold as a budget version of the Gitane. Getting any decent gypsy guitar for 400 is an achievement these days and it should serve you well until you have saved up for a luthier built guitar!
I’ve probably got some details about Saga wrong this is just what I’ve picked up over years of chats with other guitarists at jams etc it’s very hard to find out information about these things but I am sure there are folk on this forum with better knowledge than me who can weigh in.
I think my first gypsy guitar was a Gitane. It was, if I remember, very loud but pretty obnoxious. In that sense, it probably suited my playing at the time.
Congrats on your D500 purchase!
The heel Block inside my old 94/95 2nd edition serial # 008 D500 shows OOO2 I don't know if this is meaningful or not.
Josh Hegg(RIP) back in '08 built a perfect intonation bridge for my guitar. It is very fundamental tonal for lead notes but very rhythm bassy and I like that! I keep it out of respect for a wonderful man who is greatly remembered! Enjoy your D500!
Thanks so much for all your replies folks, it's all very helpful.
.. back in about 2004, e-bay was flooded with Gitane D-500 guitars in the $300-$400 price range. I bought three, and I have played the heck out of them. Great materials for a great price. I did modify them, narrowing the necks and doing frets. One has a magnetic pickup, and is pretty much my go-to for gigging in wine bars and stuff. Folks say that this is not the real GJ sound. That is OK with me. Just give me something that is versatile, and that I can carry around in a soft case. One has nothing written on the paper label inside, and with the usual '000's and '111's on the heel. The other has S# around 500, and 2600. Great value in my book.
Rad - my old D500 sn008 looks like the middle one in your three pic with the brown/orange color. Mine though has an outer rosette ring darker color and ebony binding top and back and fret board. Luthier Josh Hegg back in '06/07 said "I've seen some older D500s where the the 21-24 fret board extension into the sound hole has lifted up interfering with upper fret playability interference. Your lucky yours is good!" Glad I kept mine and you gig with your!
Cheers! Rocky