Saga DG-250M Gitane

paid $615 incl shipping.incl. hardshell case. ordered from "online guitar and cello".

i asked that it be shipped with 0.10's medium height. online guitar was willing to switch to your string preference. i asked about "manouche" style strings. (dell arte', savarez aregentine new concept, john pearse, among other mfgs.) i was told they would put them on if i was willing to wait for them to be ordered. i was not. it arrived with phosphor bronze strings which were too strident. i switched the phosphor for a set of john pearse "nuages" strings to more accurately reproduce the django sound.

my set up was still too high. i have tendonitis and need it LOW. fortunatly, the longer scale length on these guitars accomodates low action and light strings. (john jorgenson is using 010's) the increased string tension keeps them from being floppy and you can hit them really hard. i'm using a 3.0mm dunlop stubby pick. i have it set so there is a little bit of buzz. my django cd's reveal string/fret buzz from django's guitar.

this is the loudest acoustic guitar i own. the long scale length means my fingers have to reach a bit farther than i'm used to. it's worth it though. this will not sound anything like your taylor, tacoma, martin or any other "regular" guitar. it's more akin to a brash and trashy dobro sound. lots of barking high mid. slightly nasal. it souonds just like the gypsy guitar recordings. a cigarette smoky tone with a dark/bright autumn bite.

where the fret board crosses the top, you can see the thickness of the lacquer. it's really thick! i would like to hear one that didn't have such a heavy coat on it but all the ones i've seen are like that.

before i bought it, i tried one out alonside a similar dell arte version that sold for 2500. the dell arte, while posessing a somewhat more delicate and complex tone did not play $1900 better. i am very pleased with this dg250.

Made 2004 in China; imported by the San Francisco based Saga Musical Instruments. This is a "gypsy" style guitar, copied from the French Selmer guitars of the 1930's...the favored guitar of Django Reinhardt. Fairly accurate copy, although this guitar uses maple back and sides where Django preferred a rosewood guitar. Back and sides are laminated, just as the Selmers were laminated. Top is solid spruce. Ebony board on a LONG scale, 26.38", a single squared cutaway. I replace the cheesy brass tailpiece with one that I designed and fabricated...yes, the Selmers used a nearly identical tp. Mine is made from birdseye maple over ebony....one piece maple neck. Quality machines, appear to be a very good knock off of Grover Sta-tites...actually better than the grovers.

Came with a thermo-plastic shell over foam case. Servicable at the very least.

Overall, the construction quality is on par with American marques and the better Japanese instruments. Quite impressive. Could be a bit lighter, with maybe a touch thinner finish.

Tone is accurate to the "gypsy" sound. I'd like it to be a bit more than that, maybe a bit louder...but it's really suitable for a lot of styles and I'm looking forward to trying several. More low end clarity than a Martin dread, and more cut than many archtops I've played. I like it....a lot.

Action was WAY too low. I dressed the frets, made a taller bridge from Brazilian Rosewood, and am using 11-47 phosphor bronze strings. Maple necks tend to shrink more than mahogany necks, and I'm sure this one will be no exception...I'd give it a 10 for fit and finish, but the action brings the score down a point...

This will be a durable guitar...I'm wishing it was a bit lighter as I believe that would make it louder. Solid guitar.

I'm in my 42nd year of guitar playing; I also make guitars...Wendler Instruments at www.gtrz.com .

The main reason for looking at this style of guitar is my fingers just won't take the abuse of medium gauge strings anymore. With the ex light strings, I can play for hours before my fingertip skin splits.

I'd buy another in a hearbeat...in fact, I'm going to start looking for a modern, small shop luthier that specializes in the style.

Those that are electric guitarists who have never been able to warm up to an acoustic due to the (relatively)heavy strings should look at the "SelMac" design. Should be a shredders delight.

Here's a soundclip link.... http://www.electrocoustic.com/audio/Autumn%20Leaves.mp3

Made in 2003 or 2004. Same features as the other reviews below. Solid headstock which looks odd since most gypsy guitars have slotted heads. Cheap tuners and tailpiece that can be replaced. Bronze strings that definitely is out of place in this guitar.

Very good sound for the price. I think this will compete with the $1000-$2000 gypsy guitars out in the market. It is loud, clear and it sings. The body is very thin and the headstock is very small so it would be a little difficult to change strings since the pegs are too close to each other. I would rather have the slotted headstock with the tuning pegs spaced further apart. Don't know what kind of spruce this is but it looks darker than other spruces and doesn't have the headroom like Euro spruce. Just tap the soundboard and listen to the ring. I hope it will open up with a couple of years of playingl.

Setup is fine, no pickups, bookmatched top and wood ebony? bridge is compensated. Finish is thin and clear. Saga should have put a light orange stain on this like they do with the oval hole models. The rosette has yellow and brown lines, they should have gone with another color.

I think it will last for a long time. I didn't see any strap buttons. This is a good guitar for gigging.

don't have any experience with saga

I've been playing for almost ten years. This is definitely an improvement over the older Saga gitanes made in Japan. It has a tone that is closer to the gypsy sound. Still it's not a Dupont or a Favino but I would highly recommend it for the beginner and the intermediate players who don't have the budget of $2k-3k to buy a handmade guitar. I like the maple model better than the rosewood. I wish it had a slight orange stain to make the birdseye maple look more stunning. I wish it had better quality tuners and tailpiece. I wish it had a different colored rosette, maybe stick with black and white or black and red. And the headstock should have been slotted like the DG-500s. This is a good deal of a guitar and with a few improvements that I mentioned which doesn't cost much nor doesn't take much time, I think Saga will be selling more of these guitars. The guitar's rating would be very good.

Chinese made in 2003, this 21 fret guitar features a natural spruce top with some nice 'bear claw' figuring. The neck joins the body at the 14th fret and the single cutaway allows easy access to the 17th fret. The rest of this gloss finished instrument is maple. The 'bird's eye' laminate on the sides, book-matched back and headstock is very attractive. The tuners are single open-backed 3 to a side. The neck scale is almost 27", medium frets on an ebony board. The bone nut is standard width. No acessories included. Cases for these guitars are difficult to find and I've no idea of where to begin looking for extra long allen key needed to adjust the truss rod.

This guitar is designed to cut through the rhythm section in a 'hot club' band setting. Tone is loud and bright with a lot more bass response than I was expecting. Once I replaced the medium bronze strings with light silver-coated 'Manouche' style strings the guitar really opened up. Lots of twang & sustain AND very even string to string volume. A little thin & percussive for chording, this guitar is optimal for single string lead work.

The Chinese are building better and better guitars. This one is an example. Gorgeous woods and surprisingly good fretwork (my D-500 needed some filing). Plastic insert on the tailpiece was loose and required regluing. Some strings do not align perfectly with the slots on the rosewood bridge. Couple of tiny dings in the finish of the spuce top. The tuners don't exactly inspire confidence, but I must say that this guitar played beautifully right out of the box. It's a little heavier than my Gitane D-500, and somehow seems more solid in construction.

As I said, this guitar seems tougher than the D-500. The finish is thick polyester common to most modern factory built instruments. No strap buttons - gypsy jazz is mean't to be played sitting down. Django came over to play with Duke Ellington without a backup, In fact, he didn't bring a guitar at all. I've played electric solid bodies for years without backup, but acoustics are so fragile in comparison, I'd probably bring along the D-500.

Ordered online. Never tried contacting Saga. I know an excellent local luthier with whom I'm certain I could entrust any future repair work to.

Been playing for many years and have long been interested in the music of Django Rienhardt. Picking near the bridge on my old flat top never gave me the sound I was looking for. This guitar is a recreation of a 1941 Selmer 'petite bouche' Modele Jazz. In spite of its long scale, the slimmer neck and higher action make this guitar much more fun to play than the D-500, which is based on Mario Maccaferri's original 1932 design. Having both these guitars is the gypsy jazz equivalent of owning both a Fender and a Gibson.

Finally purchased a the brand New DG250M which is hard to come by these days. No electronics on the guitar.

1st POINT: Great skinny neck. Really great for electric guitar types who hate to struggle with big fat acoustic necks. Good for youngsters too. For a 10 to 16 YO way easier to play than a Seagull.

2nd: Longer scale 670mm which is standard for "lead" gypsy style guitars. The nut width is also the standard 1 13/16 or 45mm. I prefer 1 7/8 or 48mm for these style guitars. I don't think you youngsters will mind the longer scale but you will notice it.

3rd:
Hardware is very good. Not Waverly tuners but still decent. A Machine Head change be necessary though in a few years. Copy Selmer tailpiece seems decent enough But I will change it out for a more expensive French version.

4th: the bridge is also very good. Surprisingly good. However these arched all ebony or mahongy wood bridges tend to dip after a few years. Be ready to replace. I'll most likely be installing a BIGTONE bridge which has a built in piezo pickup.

5th: the guitar is very pretty with blonde birds eye maple on back and sides.

6th: Guitar comes with NO ACCESSORIES. An extra long hex wrench is needed to adjust the truss rod so beware! make sure the neck is how you like it before you purchase it.

7th: The fret marker on the number 10 or D Fret will drive experienced players crazy at first. THIS IS STANDARD on French GYPSY GUITARS. Slowly I'm getting used to it BUT I switch guitars a bunch in performance and I'm concerned that I'm gonna make a huge doink.

Full specs are at the sagamusic.com website.
Click on instruments-->Gitane

My rating: Good choice of hardware and finish. Time will tell how good. Overall though it would be a disservice to give it a 7 OR a 10 based on the price for this quality.

Complicated subject for these style guitars. As the Grypon salesguy said: "some players pick up a gypsy guitar and make it sound terrific -other players make it sound poor".

This guitar is not overly "Gypsied" out. If you use normal acoustic strings the guitar the sound is very normal BUT it's not a dreadnaught. IF you use Manouche style strings you can achieve the desired Gypsy Twang and BITE which is mostly the reason for this design. This guitar is decently LOUD compared to other maples I've played. I likey.

BIG POINT: You want to use light or extra light gauge strings!! This is great for youngsters. Slim neck, light strings..you can play it all day without getting any hand or arm tension. If I was 17 again I wouldn't put this guitar down.
Rating of 7> Not the best Gypsy sound but still way better than any other guitar I've played in this price range. BUT even better this guitar works for other genres. That is not true of a $3200 gypsy guitar.

Negative here we come:
I've had to move my bridge up towards the neck to adjust high E on the D string and high A on the G string. This sucks. Since this guitar is designed for all the HIGH NOTE playing and the moustache bridge is suppose look like one aligned piece of wood -this issue is rather LARGE! Now my moustache looks like it needs a barber!! The overall intonation though is EXCELLENT. I use 2 digital tuners to make sure tuning problems are not ME (Intellitouch and a Boss).

Action is very good. If I were 18 I'd say the action was killer but I've found that a professional setup guy can most always improve the action and feel. Still very decent out of the factory job.

Really nice quality finish on the DG250M.
No strap buttons at all.
An extra long hex wrench is needed to adjust the truss rod.

Seems like a very well made instrument. Strong neck, good hardware.

N/A. Dealers don't usually offer much FREE support post purchase. Walk in the next day with your new guitar and they'll want to charge you for a neck adjustment. ugh.

Bottom line: I just saved myself 2200 bucks but NOT PURCHASING an overpriced gypsy guitar which can be used for one genre only. Thank you Saga Music in offering a resonable priced instrument for poorer musicians.

The guitar is good enough to bother to replace hardware. Good enough quality to invest time and money into making it play and sound it's best. Good enough to use for everyday gigs. That is not true of many other guitars under $800.

If I played the Fairmont Hotel I wouldn't bring it BUT for Tommy's Pub its perfect.