Gypsy jazz guitars...anyone seen any around (for sale in stores)

Keira-WitherKay

last year i started my quest for a real LOUD acoustic guitar ... i'm patient and been checking out dobro's and resonators and the usual fare of acoustics ....

the general consensus on the jazz site i also visit regularly is that a gypsy jazz guitar will be louder by far than any so called normal acoustics...and yes more midrangey which is what cuts......and i see internationally there are a slew of these guitars available.... and it seems (if one trusts online opinion) that many eastern/chinese ones are available which are no more expensive than an epiphone but are acceptable quality ............YET i never see any here in SA

so anyone seen any eastern made Gypsy jazz guitars in any local stores.... ?? and NO i don't want a boutique /custom made one... this guitar needs acoustic volume but is not gonna be my main guitar so willing to spend a bit but NOT interested in spending a fortune

i believe the eastern made name to look out for is Gitane... solid tops... fair quality but loud and affordable too .............aria make one too BUT i believe they not "true" gypsy jazz guitars and not as loud

and like before if anyone thinks they know of any other acoustic which sounds LOUD by that i mean loud enough to keep up with a banjo ....let me know...... it can look beat up/ugly etc and it needn't have warm tone in fact i'd prefer a more midrange tone ..;.but it must be loud enough to be played unplugged on single notes and cut through for jazz solo's when played unpugged with a soft drummer with brushes and a double bass

i'm tempted to try a 6 string banjo with beefier strings but that may be just too shrill for my needs,,,

Malkav

I've never seen one in person, though I do have quite an affinity to them as I absolutely adore gypsy jazz ?

There's a really fantastic player named Jon Jorgenson who has a signature gypsy jazz style guitar made by a company called Saga, it's an eastern made one if memory serves me correctly - He in fact explains the differences between regular acoustics and gypsy acoustics in this video and also shows a few models out of their range:

All reviews and info I've found on them so far does paint them in a very positive light given the price, though the regular work still applies (setup etc).

This is basically the forum for gypsy jazz players, you can find a lot of info about affordable ones in here: http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/

Also for what it's worth a deep bowl center hole placement style Ovation (but I mean a proper one) is pretty damn loud as well, definitely the loudest acoustics I've ever come across (and I have tried literally hundreds), owing to a couple of their structural differences, also a very midrange prominent acoustic owing to the bowl thing cause without having right angles inside like a normal acoustic it tends not to cancel out so much of that frequency range. They do a thing called a contour bowl now which is way more comforable to sit with, still slides a little though so I tend to end up sitting with a strap on regardless, my ovation is a side hole style one though, still very mid range dominant, they just don't project as much as the design is intended to help reduce feedback (I was playing in an electro swing style gypsy jazz band and even though the volume of my guitar was competing with full on club level low end and volume I literally never had a single feedback issue)

Just for good measure here's another Jorgenson video talking about his guitars again ?

Wildaker

Living in France for years and being nuts about Jazz Manouche, I've played a lot of these, from vintage Selmers, Favinos and Di Mauros, cheaply-made 1950s and 1960s rip-offs, through to many of the modern copies, from fancy luthiers and mass-production lines alike.

I've never found a cheap one that had to volume or the tone that the real things do (and that includes the entry-level Duponts, although Maurice Dupont's up-market instruments are superb). Once you get into the mid market—around €1,000, or R15K—quality is variable, but good guitars can be found. My Gallato RS1939 cost me about that a few years ago, and its tone and volume are just fine, even if it's a bit overweight (a good Selmer-style guitar should weigh under 4 Kg, ideally 3.6 Kg, and mine is a little over 4 Kg—less weight means, generally, more sound!). However, there are some real dogs around at that price, too—you really need to play before buying.

The entry-level Gitanes look the part and are quite playable, but don't have the sound at all—thin, and quite quiet. The John Jorgenson signature DG-300 is OK, however, as is the DG-320 (although for cutting through, you're probably better of with the petit bouche DG-300. I guess the DG-310 should be fine, too, but I've never played one.

(If you can find an old CSL Gypsy, by the way, they're great.)

And you'll need the right strings. I've paid far too much for the modern clones by various manufacturers, but the traditional Savarez Argentine strings remain the best, in my view (although Stochelo Rosenberg uses silk and steels, I believe, and he's far from shabby on the Selmer...).

Maybe a good National or Dobro is louder, but if you want volume and three-dimensional tone, I can't think of an obvious alternative...

And no, I haven't seen any in local stores. ☹

studmissile

Speak of the devil... I've never seen one
http://www.gumtree.co.za/a-musical-instruments/rustenburg/vintage-1950-markneucken-vogtland-vol-jazz-guitar/1001087019090910003701909

Wildaker

That may be many things (possibly all at once), but a Gypsy Jazz guitar it is not!