Comments

• hotclubdebrampton Brampton, Ontario - Canada✭✭

  January 2012 Posts: 22

  I am very curious about this particular guitar. I wonder how is the volume compared to the regular steel variety. Anyone has used this nylon one on a regular GJ Jam? Does it compete on volume, projection when soloing? Or should it be targeted for rhythm only? I heard/saw Michael's video and it sounds amazing. Not sure about you guys, but one of the things that hit me first, about GJ guitars, is that they sounded like nylon guitars to me, at least initially (refer to the famous J'attendrai video for the idea)
  Cheers!
  M
• gijsdhaene New

  January 2012 Posts: 20

  Maybe this will help?
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqXvXzhCXqw
  
  @ 2:00 min. Jeffrey Radaich plays on an oval hole with nylon strings. He seems to manage the volume pretty well I think.
• Michael Bauer Chicago, ILProdigy Selmers, Busatos and more…oh my!

  January 2012 Posts: 1,002

  Please do not think that the average nylon string guitar has anything close to the volume that the guitar Jeff is playing displyed. I happen to own that guitar, a 1991 Favino Jazz N, and it is a very special guitar, built in a completely different way than the Gitane, or in fact either of the other two nylon string Gypsy guitars I have had. The Favino has a floating bridge, not a set classical bridge, uses cypress, not rosewood, and is every bit as loud as most steel string guitars. I think of it as a cross between a gypsy guitar and a flamenco guitar, but one that prefers to be played with a pick. I recently sold an exceptional Manouche Concert nylon string on this site, and it is pretty loud compared to a typical classical guitar, but the Favino is much louder. I am still trying to figure out how J.P. did it.
  
  This Gitane may be a very good guitar, but the typical nylon string, is not going to generate the volume you need as a lead instrument to cut in a big jam (maybe a small one?). Amplified they are great and have a very unique and (to me) appealing sound. Germany's Ottorino Galli uses nylon strings exclusively, and he makes them sing and dance, but he plays with amplification on stage, and he is primarily a rhythm player. I personally love the sound of nylon strings on rhythm, but it is a softer sound than steel strings generate.
  
  The beauty of this Gitane to me, like my old Manouche and the Rodrigo Shopis that replaced it, is that they can do double duty as a classical/fingerstyle guitar, and that you can bang away on them with a pick in a hotel room and not get calls from the management. I think they are fun guitars to play as well, and have their own sound.
  
  So consider getting one, but please don't use the Favino as an indicator of what you are going to get, because the odds are almost certain that it won't be that powerful.

  I've never been a guitar player, but I've played one on stage.