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Posts: 3497
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
Rafael Romero Guiitars
After reading Foroflamenco posts for some time now, I finally decided to become a registered member. I am a retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer who spent most of my career overseas and who currently consults, I have been in love with flamenco since I was a teenager, although I have been studying flamenco for only the last four years. Before that, my playing was limited to the usual three-chord folk guitar. I'll never play front and center at a flamenco festival, but what I have learned brings me great joy, and I hope to continue learning.
I have a question concerning the luthier Rafael Romero whose shop is located in Cadiz. I have heard good things about his work but have never seen his guitars. I currently own a beautiful Vicente Carrillo negra, and am looking for a good blanca to complement it. I have a possibility of obtaining a Rafael Romero blanca and would appreciate any experience or thoughts anyone may have regarding his guitars.
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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: Rafael Romero Guiitars (in reply to BarkellWH)
Welcome to the foro. I have played once a romero blanca (the owner told me it cost him about 1000euros), and i think it was great! When you go with handmade spanish guitars, from luthiers living in Spain you just can't go wrong!
Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: Rafael Romero Guiitars (in reply to BarkellWH)
Did a Google search, further up this page. Plenty of comments, though there is also a canteor by that name, I think. our good friend Tom was carrying them in the US for a while.
RE: Rafael Romero Guiitars (in reply to BarkellWH)
Hi!
I own a blanca from him, and it's a great guitar! The first thing that everybody mention when playing it, is "how easy to play on it"! It has a lot of color or flavour, sharp and punchy when You need it, yet can be lyrical as well.
First his prices wasn't that high, but went up soon as he became known by more and more people as usual. I've played several other good guitars as Bernal, Sanchis Carpio, some Conde, Contreras, Ramirez..Some was better but in that price-range none.
Thanks for the responses. They seem to confirm that Rafael Romero is a very good luthier, and I am leaning toward purchasing the blanca that is available. That he started out as a flamenco guitarist himself probably increased his sensitivity to those elements of a guitar prized by flamencos.
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: Rafael Romero Guiitars (in reply to BarkellWH)
I have two Rafael Romero guitars, the 120 negra model bought on the internet, made probably by his apprentice and a 1A blanca which I bought directly from him in San Fernando five years ago. Both guitars are nice. He of course said of the 120 model played like the slightly more expensive 150 model. The 1A blanca is definitely a better guitar, lovely sound and easy to play. But he has other guitars to be sold mainly to professionals, the headstock is a lot more elaborate and a negra costing €4500 five years back. He apparently moved to another place but still in San Fernando.
RE: Rafael Romero Guiitars (in reply to BarkellWH)
R Romero guitars can be good guitars, but be aware that many of the models are not made by him. Its a small factory business and it has been promoted a lot on various internet guitar shop sites. What they sometimes forget is to say which guitar is by Rafael and which is not.
Its normal Spanish business (Conde, Sanchis, Bernal, Ramirez) So be aware that there are differencs in quality on the different models and that because one guitar is good, doesnt mean that another is also good because it might be made by someone else.
Rafael´s guitars are beautifully made, great examples of furniture construction. His favourite trick was to have his guitars played in his entrance hall, which was fully tiled. The guitars sounded great, but back home they sounded dead. Lots of kids from Cádiz bought these masterpieces and sold them within a year.
To buy a guitar you have to play it. The sound on your computer is far from reality.
…and take along a guitar you are familiar with, or take someone with a good guitar who plays well. You will learn more from comparison than you will playing a single guitar in strange room.
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