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Hello friends. im planning to convert my classical guitar to flamenco guitar may i know the depth of the body and size of braces? its engelman top with 2.5 mm thickness. should i thin it to 2 mm?
also can i use classical strings to this flamenco guitar or should i buy flamenco strings? waiting for ur advice
Posts: 15725
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to aqualibguitars)
Only NEED to lower bridge (perhaps plane ebony if it equals too low action to just lower saddle and possible bridge material to below 10mm string to golpe plate)...and put golpe tap plate. Easy job if you don't have to plane any ebony.
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to aqualibguitars)
quote:
ORIGINAL: aqualibguitars
Yes sir im an amatuer luthier and built 8 guitars till yet. so want to give a try
Making the body thinner (narrowing the ribs) will almost certainly require adding wood to the foot, installing new linings, back braces and most likely a new back. To thin the top you'll need to remove the bridge which will entail making a new one that is the correct dimension for flamenco. After that you'll need to set the neck deflection so the setup is for flamenco, glue the new back, purfling and bindings then you can begin the refinishing. Why not just build a new guitar?
Of course you can do what Ricardo suggested but that's not what you asked.
Posts: 1108
Joined: Sep. 29 2009
From: Back in Boston
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to aqualibguitars)
is this classical guitar of yours a factory guitar with a thick finish? a hand built guitar? if the former, you could remove the thick finish which would allow you to thin the woods on the top, sides and back--and the bridge if necessary/the neck angle allows for a lower bridge. once thinned you could then finish it with a thinner finish. if the latter you might want to consider the monetary repercussions of altering the make up, etc. if you are ok with the repercussions you could then proceed as if it were a factory guitar.
of note, a lot of folks shy away from re-finishing as it is difficult to get an even and level thickness. in addition, there is no guarantee the modified guitar will sound flamenco after the many hours of labor. i would agree with what john wrote: cutting up the guitar would be a herculean task and it would be better to build a flamenco from the ground up rather than try to modify a classical.
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to aqualibguitars)
By the time you convert the classical to flamenco you could simply use the time to build a flamenco. Lot's of diminishing returns for the effort of rebuilding a classical. There's no sure way of knowing if you cut down the body and reconstruct it that it will do rasgueado and have the pulsation feel under the right hand.
Lowering the saddle and maybe leveling and recrowning the frets would get you closer. And then just glue or stick a golpeador to the face.
If you do decide to go forward it will teach you a lot, but the result will less than if you build a flamenco.
Posts: 1531
Joined: Nov. 7 2008
From: New York City/San Francisco
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to Ricardo)
quote:
Only NEED to lower bridge (perhaps plane ebony if it equals too low action to just lower saddle and possible bridge material to below 10mm string to golpe plate)...and put golpe tap plate. Easy job if you don't have to plane any ebony.
Weren't Sabicas and our own Ramzi, in fact, playing classical guitars with such simple adjustments?
However, if I may, there is a somehow hallow sound that only a properly built flamenco guitar can give you, and particularly a Blanca, that makes the proposed adjustment a temporary remedy to mortify one's desire for better sound.
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to Ricardo)
quote:
Only NEED to lower bridge (perhaps plane ebony if it equals too low action to just lower saddle and possible bridge material to below 10mm string to golpe plate)...and put golpe tap plate. Easy job if you don't have to plane any ebony.
Yes, thats what i would do and maybe, if the fingerboard is thick and the action at the bridge is high, I would take off the frets and plane the fingerboard in a slight angle (thinner near the soundhole than at the nut) and thereby making the setup at the bridge lower. (called poor mans neck angle asjustment)
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to aqualibguitars)
Ok, so I'm right in the middle of one of these........
and yes, it's a labour of love and may never be as good as if I built from scratch but thats not why I'm doing it.
Won a guitar holiday about six years ago - great. Did I want to take a really good guitar away - no. Buy a cheap Admira classical over there, do course, bring guitar back......Passage of time and thinks I might just do a conversion, see what it's like inside and hopefully lighten up the instrument to give it a more flamenco feel. It's my souvenier and I've learnt a load doing it. I think it will sound better, look better and play better and I can give it a French polish. Whats not to like?
Right in the middle of doing proper bindings having lightened up bracing on .....wait for it ..... a plywood top ha! taken a great chunk of wood from the front top cross brace away, cut the body depth down and you know, it's beginning to sound really quite responsive in the tap.
It's the journey, not the arrival and my memories, learning curve and little piece of Spain from a particular time - thats all, and I bet it will sound more flamenco than when it was.
Posts: 3487
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to gj Michelob)
quote:
ORIGINAL: gj Michelob
quote:
Only NEED to lower bridge (perhaps plane ebony if it equals too low action to just lower saddle and possible bridge material to below 10mm string to golpe plate)...and put golpe tap plate. Easy job if you don't have to plane any ebony.
Weren't Sabicas and our own Ramzi, in fact, playing classical guitars with such simple adjustments?
Early in his career Sabicas played an Esteso, of which I have no knowledge. However, Esteso and Santos Hernandez, his fellow Manuel Ramirez oficial were among the pioneers of the divergence of the modern flamenco guitar from its ancestors, the designs of Antonio Torres and Manuel Ramirez.
Richard Brune argues, convincingly I think, that 19th-century Spanish guitar design was more strongly influenced by flamenco tocaores than by classical players, since there were many more tocaores than classical players at the time.
Of course Torres was strongly influenced by the classical players Julian Arcas and Francisco Tarrega. Players of both styles were known to frequent the shop of Manuel Ramirez.
By the time I saw Sabicas the first time in the early 1960s he was playing Barberos, and at least once an Arcangel Fernandez, by Barbero's disciple. These were both decidedly what we would nowadays call flamencos.
Later in his career Sabicas played a Ramirez blanca--and always seemed to have one or two available for sale. Except for the cedar top, this guitar is a very flamenco design. Jose Ramirez III comments in his book that he could introduce no innovations in his flamenco guitars, due to the conservatism of the tocaores. I have had a 1967 example of this model since it was new--it's definitely flamenco.
A different flamenco design, the tablao guitar of Manuel's older brother and teacher, Jose Ramirez I, didn't last much beyond the lifetime of its originator. It had a considerably larger plantilla than the Torres/Manuel Ramirez design, and a shallower body.
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Richard Jernigan
A different flamenco design, the tablao guitar of Manuel's older brother and teacher, Jose Ramirez I, didn't last much beyond the lifetime of its originator. It had a considerably larger plantilla than the Torres/Manuel Ramirez design, and a shallower body.
RNJ
FWIW, a friend in Madrid told me that Ramirez has started making a somewhat updated version of the earlier tablao style guitar. The official "unveiling" will be at Musikmesse in Frankfurt, Germany in March. The Ramirez exhibit will reportedly focus on flamenco this year and they will have Victor Monge "Serranito" on hand on March, 15 performing and signing CDs.
There is a mention of the new guitar on their website but not much in the way of details.
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to aqualibguitars)
I've booked the least expensive room at the Emperador Frankfurt in order to attend this gala event and paid a special fee to allow my dogs to stay in the room with me.
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Posts: 1770
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to aqualibguitars)
You can use both, what you like in sound. The only thing you can consider is a higher tension string. To avoid too much buzzing and to play and sound a bit "punchier"
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to aqualibguitars)
Specific flamenco-strings are mostly a marketing fad, in my (flamenco-wise limited) experience. I'm now using high tension Dynacore Titaniums, that make my modest yet all-solid blanca really shine. I always found these strings too bright on my classicals, but here they work great.
_____________________________
4 guitars, the one that matters here: Prudencio Saez mod. 22, blanca - sounding better every day
Posts: 3487
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to gj Michelob)
quote:
ORIGINAL: gj Michelob
But it is otherwise gender neutral, isn't it?
"La guitarra"….."blanca"….."negra"….
I even have a hard time writing "flamenco guitar" sometimes in English. But then, English doesn't have the utterly pervasive gender awareness of many other languages.
Posts: 3497
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
quote:
English doesn't have the utterly pervasive gender awareness of many other languages.
So true. Among the most interesting is German. German not only has the masculine and feminine genders ("der" and "die"), it also has the neuter ("das"). And to make it even more confusing, it's not the actual person, place or thing that has gender in German, but the WORD that stands for the actual thing. That's why a “car” can be either das Auto (neuter) or der Wagen (masculine). One of the terms for "girl" is das Madchen, neuter when one would expect feminine.
And that's just the easy part of learning the German language. Mark Twain once observed: "It's easier to decline two drinks than one German adjective."
Back to the gender of the guitar. Here German has it right and keeps it feminine: die Gitarre.
Cheers,
Bill
_____________________________
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: converting classical guitar to f... (in reply to keith)
Escudero also played an early '70s Ramirez classical for a long time, don't remember the year but I do remember the guitar; Dennis Koster bought it from him and played it for a while.
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