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Posts: 18
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: San Francisco, Ca
Fusion Flamenco Guitar??
Any recommendations for what to use in LOUD settings where gypsy king/dance and fusion style flamenco is played? Something That isn't too delicate and can take a beating, yet have quality and a good pick up?
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Ottmar Liebert, etc....What ever you want to call that style...
This reminds me of a Gypsy Kings performance a couple of years ago at Wolf Trap, a venue just outside of Washington, DC. The Gypsy Kings were billed as performing (and I am quoting precisely here) "fiery flamenco tunes like Bamboleo." Now, the Gypsy Kings are very good at what they do. I like them a lot. They have a "Spanish" and "Gypsyish" sound. But Bamboleo does not come close to being flamenco. Likewise with Ottmar Liebert. One can like him for what he does, but it most assuredly is not flamenco.
This is not meant as a reflection on you, Edster, but I feared the worst when you mentioned some musical style I had never heard of called "fusion flamenco." I don't think it exists, because what I think you meant by "fusion" (at least as represented by your examples) would render futile any attempt to define it as flamenco.
Cheers,
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
RE: Fusion Flamenco Guitar?? (in reply to BarkellWH)
quote:
Any recommendations for what to use in LOUD settings where gypsy king/dance and fusion style flamenco is played? Something That isn't too delicate and can take a beating, yet have quality and a good pick up?
anything i guess...lots of possibilities what you really asking is a good way to amplify a nylon string guitar with a loud band right? but tend to side with BarkelWH...just a bad way of describing music...at least put a hyphen in there...Flamenco-Raga or Flamenco-Grunge or etc etc...sounds like your playing Rumba... heaps of things out there... Ahlambra is a fairly safe bet...not too pricy they even do a FUSION-CROSSOVER model [theres that hyphen again] a friend bought one recently who plays in a 13 piece bollywood-House FUSION group sounds good through a pa system...http://guitarsonline.com.au/jma/index.php?option=com_expose&Itemid=30 click Alhambra then click crossover models..
Well , I guess Cordoba guitars can fit. At some point Gypsy Kings used them. Never got to play on one but I read and heard that they have a good balance between the bridge pickup and the mic. They have blancas and negras models, most of them , at least from that I'v seen, fitted with a classical bridge , rather then a flamenco , so it should fit your style of playing , I guess.
The louder you play the more the piezo balance is an issue. The most balanced guitar I remember was godin nylon....but not so great for playing flamenco even rumbas on. My GK cordoba I got back in 99 still rocks at super high volume with very little feedback depending on speaker placement, and seems perfectly balanced.
I've never heard anyone get a good flamenco sound in that kind of environment, especially at the club level. A concert is a bit different. If you have to have the volume, and want to attempt a flamenco tone, get the best flamenco guitar you can and put a pickup in it.
I have used a conde with a Mclish pickup and a mike. I roll off the pickup when playing rhythm, so at least there is a good tone then. With a good mike(I use a rode knockoff of the neuman 184) and reasonable overall volume levels, the mike can deliver enough volume while playing rhythm. But I don't work with a kit drummer, only a congero.
When I have to play single note solos over a rhythm section, I use a volume pedal to bring in the pickup, but at the expense of tone. With a good reverb, and a decent guitar, you can get a good lead sound, just not a flamenco sound. Sucks. Really takes a lot of the fun out of playing in that setting to me. I mean, who wants to compromise their sound?
Go do a concert and they will want to run the pickup direct, which can ruin you entirely or not depending on the quality of the engineer and the gear. If you insist and setup the mike, they will have to handle your volume changes as you use the volume pedal to roll on the pickup. In that case, separate the two signals going into the board.
Ricardo, I used to have a Cordoba C5 and it did the job, just a bit 'plastic' sounding, but overall..not bad...
Mark, my Bay area buddy, thank you for the honest and humble response...I have an Esteve elec with fishman problend and a Navarro Reyes with fishman matrix pick up....They sound awesome as well..The navarro is amazing being that its the Special Grand Concert....Only thing that bothers me about it is the french polish which is so delicate, I have to be really carefull.....
I was hoping to get a HSL 2F or 1F and install a pick up.
Printable Version
[theres that hyphen again] 
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