Review of new GJ models at NAMM

dennis

Yo. So everyone’s asking me about guitars at NAMM. I should warn people that I’m not a gear head and have zero bias. In fact, someone asked me yesterday if i could choose one GJ guitar to buy which one would it be, I simply replied that I couldn’t and that I’d rather try a guitar blindfolded until I found one that spoke to me, and I’d choose that one.

So with that said, here are some models that I tried:

Godin GJ guitar:

I was the one responsible for this guitar. It’s something that started over 10 years ago when I first met Robert Godin. I kept pestering the Godin company to make a GJ guitar. It wasn’t until 2013 that we all sat down together to work out details. The first thing I told them was that there were lots of budget companies from Asia making GJ guitars (that was in 2013, and now in 2018 , there are even more!!), and thus, it would be better to do something different. My idea was for them to make a stage guitar to solve all amplification issues. Leave your fancy guitar at home or for prestigious gigs. Do noisy gigs or outdoor festival gigs with the Godin. That’s the idea. It should have the option to have the acoustic sound their multiacs are famous for, and it should have a stimer style pick-up. Then you can mix and match as you please.

It’s a stage guitar. Let the Asian companies do their budget thing; they do it well and can probably do it better than anyone else for the budget price.

It took 5 years to make the first prototypes due to a number of logistical issues. I’ve been in touch with them throughout most of the process. Anyway, back in December, they sent the prototype to LR Bagg for the conception of the microphone system. I was in touch with Lloyd from LR Bagg about how the mic should sound.

Godin received the finished guitars yesterday morning. So everyone heard them for the first time an hour before NAMM officially started. So important thing to keep in mind: these are still prototype models and are not in production yet. At NAMM , they are simply making the news official that they have a GJ model in the works.

My thoughts: The stimer style lipstick pick up is great when plugged in to a tube amp. You can get close to that gritty tone that Django had in the late 40s. The mic system is nice but I need to play with it a bit more. There are two mic systems: a piezo system and an actual internal mic. The piezo system sounds like the typical bigtone sound. The actual mic is still a bit hard to talk about because I really need to experiment with a lot more. I think there’s potential in it, and with a bit of tweaking, was able to get something closer to what the average Selmer sounds like.

That said, an actual mic is dependent on the actual acoustic sound of a guitar. So for the mic to sound like a Selmer, the guitar itself needs to sound like a Selmer. This is where things can get tricky. In order to make a feedback resistant instrument , they had to redesign the properties of the instrument, so to get an extremely accurate Selmer tone without building a Selmer guitar is tricky (maybe even impossible). You have to get as close as you can to simulate it, and then hope that the micing system can come as close as possible to the real deal. In this department, I think there’s still research to be done. It doesn’t sound bad but it doesn’t quite like a Selmer guitar just yet.

I also asked them to make the body as thick as a Selmer guitar. They said they couldn’t do it for whichever reason, I forget. If they can find a way to do it, that’d be great because as many of u know, the way we play also involves the way we hold the instrument, and right now I had to adjust my technique to the thin body. Not a huge deal but it took some light adjustment.

The neck: the scale length is the Selmer scale length, but unfortunately the actual height ( from low E to high E) is that of a normal acoustic guitar, so again I had to readjust my technique to compensate for the different string spacing. Kinda like if you’re a classical guitar, and someone hands you a classical guitar with the neck of an electric guitar. In that respect, it doesn’t have the feel of a GJ guitar yet. They asked for my feedback, I gave them my honest answer. I really hope they’ll take my feedback seriously and make the necessary changes. If they do, I will give my full endorsement to the instrument.

The guitars were quite easy to play but maybe a bit too easy considering that they had .11s on them. I think they could use just a bit more tension, so that people who play with .10s can have that same traditional Selmer feel. When a guitar is set up too much like an electric guitar, it becomes too easy to play and thus too difficult to play using the traditional acoustic technique

Final verdict: It’s going in the right direction. The sound is almost there! The critical point is will they consider my feedback? Today, I will bring all the GJ players to their booth for their impressions. I already had Emmett Mahoney try it out with me, and he had the same thoughts.

If they ignore my feedback and release the instrument as it is, then it’s not a bad instrument at all. For people who play this style seriously, it would mean that we have to make small adjustment to our playing style that shouldn’t be too difficult. But then, it’s no longer really a GJ guitar in feel, is it？Therefore, you can no longer compare it to actual GJ guitars. If they release it as is, I would still play it in noisy venues.

I’ll post the reviews of the other instrument shortly.

dennis

Eastman:

I think this is the one guitar everyone seemed to be excited about!

Unfortunately, there’s a lot I cannot say because their booth is on the main floor with all the cacophony happening. I wasn’t able to hear the true tone of the instrument. I’ll try again today.

Here are my first impressions:

Both guitars were priced at 1250$ US (at least according to the labels). The guitars were well set-up which is a great thing. As many know, the Altamiras don’t come set-up. I will address this issue in my Altamira review later. Anyway, so the instruments were well set up and I hope that they do this for every guitar!

The guitar has the typical feel of your average GJ guitar. Not a paper thin electric guitar neck like some of the Saga models.

Sound: Unfortunately, I cannot say much without trying the instrument in a better environment. The main floor at NAMM is pure chaos. What I did hear was that the instruments had a lot of treble, so the instrument definitely cuts through the chaos at NAMM. But is it a good thing? I can’t tell until I can hear the bass and mid range of the guitar. More feedback to come if I can find a place to try the instrument quietly.

So far my impressions are good though. I will write about Altamira and Saga shortly, and then my final verdict about budget instruments

geese_com

Thanks for the info! The Godin GJ guitar does look very promising.

Scoredog

with a piezo system you could add a Tone Dexter having recorded your better guitar at home and apply it to the Godin, just saying.

Jim Kaznosky

I'm more curious about the Eastman.

Jazzaferri

Thanks for your insights Dennis. As you say its early days yet and hopefully Robert is listening.

renzok

truly an ambassador of the way, thanks for your insights Denis !

dennis

Altamira:

This where I spent most of my time because it was in a more quiet area, except for that one time for 4:40 pm until 5:10, a bass player from across the booth repeated 2 bars of slap bass non-stop (i’m not kidding).

Anyway, it was the CEO of Altamira (Hanson) and **** manning the booth. I’ve posted reviews of Altamira guitars on FB before. Quite frankly, the sound is there. It has a typical average GJ guitar sound (yes i know GJ guitars can have different sounds), moreso than the Saga Gitanes but also more expensive... BUT, they showed me a new budget model that’s retailing for 650$!

Aesthetically, this model is very plain looking, but it has roughly the same sound as the more expensive models.

As I’ve written in past reviews of Altamira, the main concern is that none of their guitars are set-up in any way out of the box. Not being set up is not necessarily a bad thing, as Saga ‘s guitars are often like that as well but still somewhat playable. With Altamiras, many guitars out of the box are almost unplayable.

So if you ever consider buying an Altamira, you need to make sure you buy it from a dealer who can set up for you, or you know someone who can do that job for you. I know that **** does do this with his guitars, and he showed me ones he set up for the booth. Definely a significant improvement over the out of the box guitars that Hanson brought over!

People are already familiar with Altamira so there’s not much more to add. The necks are closer to traditional Selmer necks than many of the paper thin Saga Gitane models.

From what I remember, almost if not all Altamira models are cheaper than Eastman guitars, but do not come set up unless you buy it from a dealer who can do this for you. Tommy told me he spends an hour or two setting up each Altamira from his shop. That’s a lot of work!

There were a few other models at the booth. I particularly liked a model that was about 850$ if i’m not mistaken, I forget the name. Even then, it’s all subjective.

dennis

SAGA:

Nothing new, but they had all their GJ models on display. They were not set up but they were still playable. Everyone knows about Gitanes so not much to say. My personal favorite models are the DG-255 or the one that’s maple I think DG-250M. These are not the most expensive models either. The only thing I ;m not a huge fan of is the paper thin neck. The tone isn’t as characteristic as the Altmiras but it’s not atrocious either. It’s an OK tone. But for the price and resale value, the price can’t be beat... That was until Altamira revealed their 650$ model. This will be an interesting competition!

I will post more about the Eastman if I can get a chance to try it properly, and then give my final verdict.

It should be noted that the Eastmens arew more expensive than Altamira and the base models of Saga

richter4208

Great report Denis....keep us updated

McQ

Thank you, Denis!

The Altamira offerings sound really interesting, and it's so nice to hear a secondary source confirming and vouching for the setup work that **** does on all his guitars. I know I was really impressed with the videos that Christiaan van Hemert released with him as a guest. That goes a long way when thinking about a purchase. I've owned a Josh Hegg setup guitar (Gitane 300), who as most know does the setup for DjangoBooks store guitar purchases. That Josh Hegg 300 side by side a stock 300 it just blew it away. Being able to buy with a trusted setup is a huge confidence boost and advantage.

I really appreciate hearing about things about the neck profiles. After a couple decades playing, it's something that has become really important to me:

After not getting along at all with the Gitane 300 (Jorgenson) neck because of the square shoulders, my current Gitane 310 (Lulo model) neck has allowed for much easier reach and fingerings, and feels and very similar in thickness and shape to most Eastman flat top acoustic models I've played (including the AC312 Martin 000 style I currently own). I'd call it a medium C. I'd mistakenly thought the scale length of the Gitane was a challenge, but I've come to discover it was the neck profile.