Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
I've been playing flamenco for a while, and now I'm looking to buy a new instrument, a quality made one. The thing is, that I live in Costa Rica, and there is no way to test any kind of flamenco guitars (music shops doesn't have flamenco guitars here).
I've been thinking on getting a Francisco Navarro Concert model, but idk if he ships internationally or not. Besides, I don't know if I'm going to have to pay too much for an imported instrument. And obviously I haven't played any Navarro guitars, so I'm doing this blindly, not knowing if it's going to be the right thing or not.
Luthiers here are asking for $3500 and $4000 for a flamenco guitar, and they're out of my budget. My budget is between $2000 - $2800.
Does anybody know any info or prices for shipment? And of course I want to know what do you guys think about this guitars. I've read that Navarro guitars are fantastic instruments, but I haven't played any so...
I was in the same boat as you a little while ago and ordered a guitar from one of the foro luthiers, Anders Eliasson. With delivery + importatation tax the extra costs were quite substantial. On the flip side, Anders recently upped his prices, so she was a bargain even with the extra costs. My only regret was that I didn't use that money to go see Anders and collect the guitar in person. The importation tax was a shock though, turned out to be about 1/4 of the declared value. If something similar exists in Costa Rica you might do better to fly to a store that stocks Mexican built guitars. Also, I wonder if there are luthiers closer to home in Cuba? We plan to get my daughter a new handmade Cuban violin for about 500 euros which seems crazy cheap by European standards. There's a bunch of Cuban musicians visiting Gwada at the moment, I'll ask them if they know of flamenco luthiers.
RE: Flamenco Guitar in Costa Rica (in reply to vardeminer)
TGerman, I'll PM you too.
Thanks, Dudnote for your answer. Of course, any time you want to hangout and play a few Tangos or Bulerias
Yeah, that's one of my main concerns. I mean, the importation taxes are just too high and I really want to spend that money in a better instrument, not taxes.
And I'm really thinking about what you told me: use that money to collect the guitar in person... Could be a good experience, and also I make sure that the instrument I'm buying is the right for me.
I decided to take a look in some stores here, see what they have. I played like 6 or 7 guitars yesterday. A few Yamahas where just a joke, not even entry level instruments. Then I had the chance to play a Manuel Rodriguez C3 Flamenca, with sycamore back and sides (laminated) and spruce for the top... To be honest, I didn't like it one single bit. The action was too high and there were no golpeadores in the guitar... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? How do you sell a flamenco guitar without golpeadores, at least?
Well, I'm not sure what to do yet. I'm still looking for the best option.
RE: Flamenco Guitar in Costa Rica (in reply to vardeminer)
Here in Barcelona we have a Luthier shop with really nice staff, I just went the other day with my brother but I'm not sure about the international shipments, maybe you can ask them: http://casaluthier.com/es/
RE: Flamenco Guitar in Costa Rica (in reply to vardeminer)
Hi to all.
It's been a while since I post here, but I was able to solve the problem of the guitar to buy in Costa Rica :p
By the way, thanks for those that sent me some messages offering guitars. I am sorry that I wasn't able to respond quickly.
I ended up going to a local luthier, called Martin Mendez. I bought a custom made guitar from him, and I had to wait a few months until he was able to do it. It was worth it, though. Price was close to 2200$.
The guitar is beautiful, cypress for back and sides, outstanding german spruce for the top, cedar and ebony for the neck, and cocobolo for some details in the back, the bridge and in the head. Beautiful. The sound is amazing, and is super comfortable to play, and to me it has a very nice flamenco sound.
So there you go. If you are in Costa Rica, make sure to google Mr Martin Mendez. He's super kind, and I ended up going more than a few times to check his shop, where we talked about woods, how flamenco guitar construction varies from classical guitars, and stuff like that. He also prefers to build flamenco guitars, so that's another cool thing hehe.
He does not currently ship to other countries, but he's seeking options to do it. He has so many work, though, that he wasn't able to just make some guitars to offer...
Thanks to all for the responses. I will post some pictures laterrrr.
Printable Version
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread