Bom dia from Portugal and some questions

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belkis

Posts: 2
Joined: Oct. 25 2013

Bom dia from Portugal and some questions

Bom dia everyone,

my wife and me live on a small farm in central Portugal. We live in a "simple" self-sufficient way: growing our own vegetables, raising animals, and having a lot of fun! We are off-grid (producing our own electricity with solar panels), and have our own water source. We have no television, minimal internet connection (+/-1 hour per week), and we use our car rarely, about once a month (a 4x4, because we live in the middle of nowhere). We live in a small house, about 20 m2 (200 square ft) and we each work about 25-30 hours a week on our farm to sustain ourselves, so we have "a lot" of free time. The weather is very nice, 300 days of sun per year. We live outside most of the time. But it can get very hot during the summer, and very rainy during the winter. A typical mediterranean climate.

Not so many years ago, we were part of the "modern" way of life. We lived in a huge, 3 bathroom house with a lot of utterly useless stuff. We had very well-paid jobs that kept us occupied for at least 80 hours per week. We arrived home exhausted, with just enough energy left for watching a stupid movie on tv.

So where does this story lead to? We both learnt classical guitar when we were teenagers, many years ago (classical school, 5 years with a teacher). Since we have a lot of free time now and no tv and almost no internet, we picked up our guitars (hand-made models from famous luthiers, we could afford a lot in the past;) and started to play, regularly, a couple of hours per day.

In my "stuff" from the past, I found some dvd's and books of Graf-Martinez: Flamenco method vol I and II. So I started to learn flamenco on my classical guitar. Yes I know, the sound and action etc is completely different, but I still enjoyed playing flamenco on my classical guitar. But I am now coming to a point that I will seriously damage my guitar if I go on playing (no golpeador). And I don't want to glue a golpeador on my guitar.

My choices are limited, if I want to go on playing flamenco. There are no musical instrument shops in our neighborhood {40km/25 miles around us).

- I could buy a cheap classical model online and glue a golpeador on that guitar, but I decided it's time to have a more flamenco sounding guitar.

- I could buy a new flamenco guitar on internet. Well, maybe as a last resort. I really don't want to buy a guitar without hearing how it sounds.

- I could buy a second-hand flamenco guitar online. Same remark....

- I could go to a shop and try several flamenco guitars. I would like that, but in our neighborhood there are no shops and further away, I have not been able to find a shop that sells at least some different models of flamenco guitars. All shops I have been to, had electric, classical and acoustic guitars but no choice in flamenco guitars...

It's a long story but as we live in a very simple way (materialistically), storytelling becomes a fundamental way of life...

My questions are:

-Could anyone tell us if there are any shops in Portugal that offer a decent range of flamenco guitars (Lisboa, Coimbra, Porto,..)

-Spain is not that far, Salamanca is 200km, Madrid 350km, Granada 400km. I am willing (reluctantly) to drive that distance to find a good guitar. Maybe someone on this forum could advice on a luthier that offers a good beginner flamenco model?

-Is there anyone in the Central Portugal area willing to sell her or his second hand flamenco guitar?

Thanks a lot,
Greetings from Portugal
Rudi

ps there are quite a lot of gypsies living in our area, but I haven't found any yet that are still playing the flamenco guitar....the times they are a-changing

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 25 2013 16:28:39

El Kiko

Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland

RE: Bom dia from Portugal and some q... (in reply to belkis)

para um primeiro post, eso tem que ser o maior ainda .. um novo recorde

_____________________________

Don't trust Atoms.....they make up everything.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 25 2013 17:25:14

gerundino63

Posts: 1746
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: Bom dia from Portugal and some q... (in reply to belkis)

Hi Belkis,

Welcome to the foro!
Wow! A big step you both made in your live! Where do you come from orriginally?

On your classical guitar you can use "kling-on. Works good for a golpe and is not permanent.
http://www.casabenelly.nl/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=151107

For a guitar I would suggest Anders Eliasson.
He lives in Beas, between Sevilla and huelva.
He is a very respected Luthier, and make stunning flamenco guitars.
Also he is a member from this foro.

http://www.eliassonguitars.com

Simce you have limited internet time, I put the websites with them....:-)

_____________________________

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 25 2013 17:35:32

Erik van Goch

Posts: 1787
Joined: Jul. 17 2012
From: Netherlands

RE: Bom dia from Portugal and some q... (in reply to belkis)

Welcome to the foro and greetings from holland. I totally love your way of life. You can protect your precent guitar using a carton or plastic plate added using paper made tape (the kind used by wall paperers). It can be added/removed without damaging your guitar although i would not advice to keep it on for weeks without changing the tape every now and then. Maybe static plastic used to cover windows is applicable as well but i have no experience with that.

As far as buying a flamenco guitar is concerned, ears and hands that are used to play top class guitars might not like a beginners guitar. Personally i don't mind playing my old triplex Ibanez classical guitar from the early 70ties (when they still made very hand friendly guitars) but if i had to buy myself a nice flamenco guitar i probably would try to find myself a nice handmade one. The favorite one in my possession is a 1a Jose Ramirez from 1977.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 25 2013 19:15:45

belkis

Posts: 2
Joined: Oct. 25 2013

RE: Bom dia from Portugal and some q... (in reply to gerundino63)

Thanks for your reactions.

For those who are interested, we are Belgians (flemish), but funnily enough, we worked in quite a few countries but never in Belgium. My last job before "retiring" to our Portuguese farm, was in the east of the Netherlands.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 26 2013 13:10:11

FredGuitarraOle

Posts: 898
Joined: Dec. 6 2012
From: Lisboa, Portugal

RE: Bom dia from Portugal and some q... (in reply to belkis)

Hello Rudi and welcome! I really liked reading your story! You and your wife have one of the things I appreciate the most in life, peace and quiet. Sadly I don't have much of that nowadays...

From your indications you must be living near Guarda, right? Although Granada can't be 400 km away, it's more like 800 km give or take. Don't be surprised that the gypsies over here don't play Flamenco, that's pretty normal. I live in Lisboa but I'm from a small village near Tomar and I've known for all my life a gypsy family that has settled there many years ago. They know nothing about Flamenco, they only listen to portuguese gypsy music (basically songs with a rumba rythm). It's pretty much like that with all portuguese gypsies, Flamenco never crossed the border. Some gypsy families that live near the border with Extremadura may know some Tangos and stuff, but that's about it.

Regarding Flamenco guitars you really have to go to Spain or order one. I have looked for them in many music shops here in Lisboa and they simply don't sell them around here. I think Madrid is your best choice, it's not very far from where you live and you will find a great variety of Flamenco guitars there.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 27 2013 1:31:41