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to everybody that can help me about Gallato rs1939 1 serie

year of construction and origin (Asia or Europe)

I think was the first bunch of guitars made after the dissolution of the collaboration with Geronimo Mateos...........

Ps: Mr Serge Gallato received about 10 email on my same question.......he never answered.........
I dont believe he is a great comunicator..........no comment :evil:
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Comments

  • SteveGSteveG ✭✭
    edited March 2011 Posts: 29
    Hi. I tried to find out the answer to the same question. As far as I can tell the maker claims that they are made in France, but that some work is Asian. It looks like the materials are selected in France, shipped to Asia, made there, shipped back to France where the tuners and tailpiece (both made in-house in France) are installed, and the guitar is set up.

    If your French is reasonable have a look at this forum, be sure to read all 4 pages:

    Edit March 2011. Links are dead. :cry:

    http://www.manoucheries.com/phpBB2/view ... a44ff64e14

    I did it using google translate, thus ;
    http://translate.google.com/translate?u ... n&ie=UTF-8

    The post on carbon footprint is the one to watch for. It is several pages in.
  • JazzDawgJazzDawg New
    Posts: 264
    Well, I don't sell, play, or know the luthier, but this question was posed on another thread, http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=7172. Take a look at it for some further insight.

    I did look in to buying one of these guitars a while back, but funds limited my ability to get one. Basically, there are at least 2 models offered, one is a cheaper model, assembled in Asia from material shipped to them from the shop, and another is made in either France or Spain.

    Don't know much else than what I've seen posted, but the dealer listed in that above post may be able to give you more info.
  • klaatuklaatu Nova ScotiaProdigy Rodrigo Shopis D'Artagnan, 1950s Jacques Castelluccia
    Posts: 1,665
    This is what Serge Gallato told me when I asked about the provenance of the Gallato RS 1939:

    I can assure you that this guitar hasn't any outside-european part. Wood usually comes from spain or germany, and the guitar is handcrafted in France or Spain, because I've got two workshops. Even the tuning keys are made in Montauban, France. If you really want a gypsy guitar made in France only, you can have it. You just have to tell it to the webmaster of my website when you buy it, and he'll know which guitar to send you. I'll pass him the word.

    I bought one and have been very pleased with it. It's much better than any Asian guitar I have played.
    Benny

    "It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
    -- Orson Welles
  • SteveGSteveG ✭✭
    Posts: 29
    :D It would be nice if the post i quoted was proven to be wrong. With lots of items "made in XXXX" means " finally assembled in XXXX from components made in China".

    I was perplexed by some of the claims made about these guitars by the sellers.

    One that I found a few times was that :

    "...the metal is re-pressed to 4 times the density of brass... A secret of the Selmer sound comes from this brass alloy tail piece..."

    This must be a result of poor translation, perhaps talking about the tailpiece being work hardened, because multiple stampings will not make brass denser than gold, as the seller(s) claim.

    Another statement made by sellers is that these guitars are " exact copies " or " exact clones " of Selmer #452. Yet in the pictures and videos there appears to be no pliage. Maybe Selmer #452 lacked pliage. Some advertised as RS 1939 have back and sides of maple, and some are pictured as having D holes. It seems that these guitars don't have the grafted headstock that many Selmers of that time had. This could well be the ideas of the sellers, perhaps poor translation, or maybe they are hyperbole, or just plain error. I don't know, but it was enough to introduce doubt in my mind.

    I've never seen a Gallato guitar, much less held one. My only source of information has been the internet, which can be a pretty suspect at times.

    Good luck finding solid information. I'd like to hear about the conclusions you reach.
    It sounds like Ben in the post above this one is impressed with his.
  • Posts: 19
    I think Serge Gallato is only a businness man, he lie knowing is lieing, may be the last bunch of guitars are only assembled in asia.........but he never will admit this........it is only a matter of businness , I'm sure in some part of the world there are luthiers very good and in asia sure works good luthiers, why not?
    But the problem is the credibility of Serge..........I spoke with Geronimo Mateos............I cant tell you what he told me without his autorization but sure it is not a good picture...... :roll:
  • klaatuklaatu Nova ScotiaProdigy Rodrigo Shopis D'Artagnan, 1950s Jacques Castelluccia
    Posts: 1,665
    SteveG wrote:
    I did it using google translate, thus ;
    http://translate.google.com/translate?u ... n&ie=UTF-8

    The translation is most illuminating. I especially was able to glean a lot from this post:
    As I said, I have shown these guitars several luthiers. No one told me that the table was in lime And if so then hat because scratching sounds of thunder

    ... and this one
    Speak not of Dupont striped unhappy here, you'll take an oat
    Benny

    "It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
    -- Orson Welles
  • fraterfrater Prodigy
    Posts: 763
    Here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JqHU_gc ... re=related

    At one point Gallato says something about part of the job being done in Asia. In any case, the maple D hole in the video looks just fine to me!
  • klaatuklaatu Nova ScotiaProdigy Rodrigo Shopis D'Artagnan, 1950s Jacques Castelluccia
    Posts: 1,665
    Wherever it's built, it's a lot of guitar for the money, IMHO.

    BTW, mine does not have a pliage, but it does have the groovy grafted headstock. I wonder if the original Mateos-built Gallato 452 had the pliage? That was also supposed to be a replica of Serge's Selmer. Does anyone know?
    Benny

    "It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
    -- Orson Welles
  • fraterfrater Prodigy
    Posts: 763
    No pliage even in the 452.
  • klaatuklaatu Nova ScotiaProdigy Rodrigo Shopis D'Artagnan, 1950s Jacques Castelluccia
    Posts: 1,665
    Does anyone make a guitar with a pliage these days?
    Benny

    "It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
    -- Orson Welles
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