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Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland
RE: is this guitar a good one ? (in reply to Flamencito)
I dont like the inlays on fret 3, 5, 7 , 10 and 12 .... !!
a very light coloured wood for the fret board , what is it .. Find out what all the bits are made of , I see the top is a heavy grained wood .....By the pics alone I am not that impressed ..
I would expect a 1930's guitar to have a fair amount of wear and tear in the usual places ..like the neck ..front and back and the sound board ....golpeadores??
I think you need more info and talk then to the luthiers here....
RE: is this guitar a good one ? (in reply to ronney2s)
Yeah, it MIGHT be fine but its hit a lot of points against it. Dot inlays, weird fretboard wood, no luthier signature, from Valencia.....my guitar is from Valencia and it sounds fine but it's a crap shoot cus it's spit out of a factory....
Posts: 482
Joined: May 6 2009
From: Iran (living in London)
RE: is this guitar a good one ? (in reply to ronney2s)
Sorry for the long shaggy dog story in advance! Around 3 years ago, in a music shop in Denmark Street, London I came across a guitar almost identical to this except for the position markers on yours. Although there was no date on the label, the tag on the guitar suggested that it was made in 1958 and they wanted £900 for it (I know, they were having a laugh). The guitar was definitely a classical in my opinion. I played it, not impressed at all but having said that the strings had seen better days and a new set of strings could change the situation! As I was going to Valencia to week after I asked the man in the shop if I could take a couple of photos to show to Ricardo himself. He agreed and there you go, here are the photos:
I supposed that the guitar was made by Ricardo Sanchis Carpio but when I showed them to him, he said that it was one of his father’s guitars (Ricardo Sanchis Badia). He also mentioned the name on the label and said that the guy who built the guitar was executed during the Spanish Civil Wars. I don’t speak Spanish but his son David was translating the conversation. I asked him about the woods and he took out of his pocket a couple of walnuts and said something which David said that he meant the wood is something similar to walnut! Also when I mentioned that the guitar is a classical guitar, he said that it could be either (or perhaps both as we know that in the olden days there wasn’t much differentiation).
As for this guitar my friend, the position markers suggest that it is a classical guitar and whether it is a good guitar or not; as someone else said there’s only one way to find out!
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RE: is this guitar a good one ? (in reply to ronney2s)
The tapa is probably pinsapa, a local wood which used to be common on cheap guitars because pinabeto was unavailable or too expensive.
In the 70´s I bought a similar guitar in Calella de la Costa (Cataluña) for 900 pts (about 4 pounds). I still have it and it is quite sturdy and sounds good.
Not to be confused with a hand made concert instrument.
RE: is this guitar a good one ? (in reply to ronney2s)
I have a customer who has one very much like that. I put a new finger board on it 4 years ago and refinished the neck. It sounds good. It's not super flamenco the way we think of flamenco guitar today, just a small modest classical guitar. It sounds great when you play things like Tarrega, Sor, ect.
I bet that one is similar. More of a collector guitar which still plays, but not an important historical guitar in the monetary sense of investment. You take chance. I have a friend who has an early 50's Ramirez that is a small Torresish guitar, he will not sell it. It sounds wonderful, although not really a big money guitar.
I love guitars like this one, but you have to be careful what you pay for them. Like many US parlour guitars they are a labor of love both to collect and maintain.
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When I clear off my current urgent list I'm going to make a few small cuties like that. One for my girfriend who has small hands. I'll put a 640 scale on it. Those old plantillas have such grace, beautiful shoulders and waist with flatter bottoms.
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