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Need to buy guitar - Camps/Navarro
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bernd
Posts: 680
Joined: Feb. 15 2004
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RE: Need to buy guitar - Camps/Navarro (in reply to escot)
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Hi escot, my review on the Camps Primera was published in No 6/2006. 2 month earlier the Camps brothers showed me this wonderful guitar on the international Frankfurt Music Fair. If it might help you, I can send you a manuscript copy by Email. Regarding the Navarro Student I´m sorry to have no personal info this guitar. Whether you still consider this (or any) guitar, check the following: 1) Straight neck is a MUST! 2) Playability at nut 3) Playability at bridge 4) Frets 5) Cracks 6) Golpeador 7) Sound To 1) If the neck is not straight - meaning: no twisting sideways - you will have to pay some extra amount to correct this by a guitar maker. This can be very cost intensively! To 2) I have seen guitars where the nut was changed by the owner. If the nut is too high, you´ll need more force to press down the strings at the first fret. Thats quite uncomfortable. A too low nut makes string buzzing on open strings by normal mezzoforte stroke (giving me the rest of frustration). Play also strong apoyando strokes on the trebble strings up the fretboard. Some guitars stop "singing" from the 10th fret on. If so, I´ll directly decline. Whether e.g. the Alamansa loses substance around the 15th or 16th fret, I would tolerate this. Action at 12th fret of more than 4.5 mm is a no-go! To 3) The action at bridge is very important to the i- and m-golpe technique. The higher the action the more you´ll have to need a longer nail plate. Very good are 7 to 7.5 mm. Actions under 7 mm can disturb, because the nails can touch the top and making noise by playing picados and arpegios. 9.5 mm is just acceptable, but you need a long nail plate for not beeing hurt by playing an i-golpe above the E6 string. This is often a problem with small hands. An absolute no-go for me in person is any action beyond 9.5 mm. The lower the action the better to play! But note too: The lower the bridge the lower the volume, especially under 7 mm. To 4) Put your thump + index finger on each side on the outside fingerboard edge at the first fret playing position and move slowly upwards to the 12th at the body joint. If you feel any fretwires coming over the edge, this is an indicator for wood drying. When the fretboard drys, it becomes a little bit smaller. In this case you´ll have to pay attention on the top besides the fretboard. Sometimes there a long cracks to find (dryness cracks caused by the fretboard). Both - wider fret wire and dryness cracks - should help to push the price down. To 5) As in addition to point 4, take attentive looks to the complete top for cracks, especially around the bridge. Some dings around the golpeador are ok. Whether the guitar is all-solid, pay attention to the complete body. Note that cracks must be repaired and cause extra cost. To 6) The golpeador should be installed with a small gap of 0.5 to 1 mm to the bridge. This is important if it must be replaced to a new one, because you can wipe off the dissolver from the bridge. Without this gap here is a serious risk for dissolving the bridge, if a layman is doing it. If there is no golpeador, the guitar cannot be used as a flamenca, because the top will be damaged! Some lower priced flamencas have just one small golpeador under the first string. If so, you cannot play an i-golpe above the 6th string. Some flamencas have a two-piece golpeador with an additional one above the 6th string. You can play all golpes, but the space between the strings is unprotected. So I always prefer a one-piece big one giving maximum protection. If the installed golpeador lifts up or dissolves, it needs to be renewed. To 7) Play and hear what you like best! I pay attention to an equally percussive tone, fast response with an aggressive punch and a kind of substance that we call in German "snotty". In Spanish the term is "rancio" - a kind of special dirtyness making the guitar more flamenco. I´ve played some Almansas 447 bringing all this quite effectively, but also some dead ladies of this model, too. The more you pay the more you get - normally, if you make a good deal. Regarding your question whether the Camps is sufficient, I cannot make your decission. My way is to check the instruments, write a pro & contra list and to wait some time. Sometimes I make a rational decission between the basics and the price or the extras and its price. My experience is that it makes more fun playing a better guitar.
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Date Jan. 8 2013 13:12:17
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