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Posts: 2879
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England
RE: I just bought this Blanca (in reply to silddx)
quote:
I’m sure Daryl will be delighted his new lovingly hand built guitar is like your first cheapo factory banger.
yeah daryl you couldve got the same guitar by only spending £500!
oh yeah! i dont know him personally but knew hed been stephens apprentice. Stephen was looking for new apprentice after my course finished, i wouldve loved to stay on and learn from him but we were about to have a child and i didnt have the balls to change my life so drastically. I mean he may not have even had me! hahah
Hey Stu i am an online student of Kai's(amazing teacher, really knows how to approach things to help one understand). I'm older and need all the help i can with this-Kai's instruction has been the best of any online learning i've done(and i've taken more than a few in steel string guitar, clawhammer banjo, and mandolin. All have been very good, but FlamencoExplained is exceptional imo).
i saw the one video regarding the sizzle of the Rasqueado and i was immediately smitten with the tone. Waited a day and emailed Kai as i figured he had brought it home a while to possible purchase for himself. He emailed back and told me he really liked it, would like to own it but could not justify adding another guitar at the moment. He was keeping one more day to video a lesson(which dropped last friday) and then planned to return it to Ale i think last friday also.
Kai sent an email introducing me to Ale and we started discussion on the purchase. He had planned to keep it as his "shop" guitar for folks to demo.
I had already looked Ale up and checked out his website, then i researched around to find other builds of his to hear and see what others said regarding the tone, playability, etc
I found nothing but very positive reviews. All of his guitars that i heard respond really well and have strong tones, and the people all mentioned very nice setups and ease of play.
Normally i ask about every spec and detail, the only think i asked was the scale length. Later i did ask if it was cypress back/sides and it is. I still haven't seen pictures of it-lol. We are having extremely cold weather here in the USA where i live so i told Ale to hold off shipping until a few weeks-typically around early/mid March the weather is stable in the 40-60 degrees F.
We just had a huge flood over the weekend after a couple days nonstop rain, many friends houses were flooded. Mine was safe thankfully. Then sunday the temps dropped into the 20's and snow, all week we are having temps at night into the low teens.
Ale is going to take some nice pictures and do some video soundclips of it before shipping so as soon as i have a few of those i'll post here. It will be neat to see what i purchased- I have no idea what the headstock or rosette looks like, other than in Kai's videos and even with the lesson he filmed i don't think it showed the headstock-i was focused on the sound of the guitar the whole time anyhow.
Posts: 2879
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England
RE: I just bought this Blanca (in reply to darylcrisp)
good stuff daryl. I like your 'go getter' attitude to getting the guitar! thats a nice little story.
will you post a video when it arrives? (or at least some pictures!?)
urgh i saw news reports of terrible floods in US..sorry to hear that. hopefully the incoming guitar will help raise the mood in the face of the grim weather!
RE: I just bought this Blanca (in reply to darylcrisp)
OrsonW thank you for posting that. i do believe that is one and the same. and it makes sense that its the first picture due to being the most recent built(i assume).
i do remember noticing "something going on" with the binding in the videos but did not retain it in thoughts as i was more interested in the tone. appears to have a "flash" every so often(something similar in the rosette also).
soon i should have some photos to post.
i went to FlamencoExplained and watched the video Kai loaded last friday and paid more attention to the visuals of the guitar. it looks much better than the photo in the gallery. look more subdued in actual use on the video. its a unique design for sure.
in this gallery of photos i really like that Flamenco with the pegs(picture 8,9,10) based on looks. Love to hear it.
how do you "quote" a reply. i don't see any icon to click to add a quote and make a reply that someone posted. i've looked top and bottom?
RE: I just bought this Blanca (in reply to darylcrisp)
Congratulations, that looks/sounds like a marvelous guitar. One note of warning, don't ever mix the pegs. I did once with my Ramirez when it didn't fit a case, assuming each peg would fit in every hole but found out the hard way they don't.
Hope you'll have as much luck with this one as my father had when he ordered/received his classical Ramirez in 1962 which plays and sounds like a dream. That one turned out to be a great investment and so might yours.
_____________________________
The smaller the object of your focus the bigger the result.
Posts: 2879
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England
RE: I just bought this Blanca (in reply to devilhand)
How much did you pay for your current guitar devilhand?
quote:
This makes me want to buy a flamenco guitar
What? And 5 years of being here and being told to buy a flamenco guitar doesn't? Listening to /watching pros playing flamenco guitars doesn't? Trying to play flamenco technique on a classical(?) Doesn't?
Why don't you go to a guitar shop and at least try playing a few flamencos. See the difference
RE: I just bought this Blanca (in reply to darylcrisp)
quote:
Btw, Kai Narezo is located in Spain? I thought he was from the West coast, Usa.
from the FlamencoExplained site:
Kai learned flamenco the old-fashioned way, by taking lessons with great guitarists in New York and Spain and spending hundreds (maybe thousands?) of hours in dance studios. He’d been playing flamenco for almost 10 years – 2 of them in Spain – when he decided to get some formal music education, so he got a scholarship to Berklee and managed to graduate in 2 years. Berklee taught him how to talk about music in a way that seems to make sense to a lot of people.
While in Boston he began gigging constantly, both as a soloist and accompanist, in addition to teaching and recording.
After graduating Kai moved back to NYC, where he began to teach at the American Institute of Guitar, where he had initially studied with Dennis Koster, and gigging all over New York.
After 9-11 Kai moved to Los Angeles, where he continued gigging and teaching and also opened Universal Exports, a small recording studio in Hollywood. Among other recording gigs, Kai recorded the first 1,200 videos for the Guitar Salon International YouTube channel. He also recorded two albums of his own music during this time.
In L.A. Kai taught at Pasadena City College and CSU Dominguez Hills, as well as teaching at CSU’s Summer Arts course, first in California and for the last five years in Granada. And he taught many many private students.
In 2020 Kai and Tara got married and pulled up stakes to set up Flamenco Explained headquarters in Granada, Spain, where they live and work now.
In addition to Dennis, some of the important guitarist/teachers in Kai’s life have been Juan Fernandez, Miguel Angel Cortes, Enrique de Melchor, El Viejin and David Cerreduela.
RE: I just bought this Blanca (in reply to darylcrisp)
Ale emailed me yesterday and is planning to take some good pictures and meet with a "very good Flamenco player" to shoot some video this or next week. Soon as he sends these i will post here.
I didn't ask who the player was, i like to keep it fun and have some excitement in the wait.
After that he will ship it to me from Spain to the USA. That is working out good especially as our weather here has been really hard the last two weeks. Things are looking better this and next week as temps rise.
RE: I just bought this Blanca (in reply to darylcrisp)
quote:
Stephen was looking for new apprentice after my course finished
So Stu, you were at one of the Stephen's courses in La Herradura, nice. I was there as well in June 2019.
I met Alessandro Perciaccante during my course with Stephen, he was not Stephen's apprentice at the time but became one shortly after that course. Alejandro is a very cool and pleasant guy, I enjoyed his friendship during my stay in La Herradura. He was there building guitars and although not involved in the course he helped when I asked him. I played a negra he finished at the time, it was a very nice guitar.
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(or at least some pictures!?) 
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