Casa Montalvo Review (Full Version)

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dformell -> Casa Montalvo Review (May 3 2011 21:36:28)

Hello Everybody,

Before you read this article please note that I’m not gaining anything monetarily by writing it and am doing so by my own free will. I few people on this forum have made inquires about Casa Montalvo guitars so I thought that I would be the guinea pig and buy one. I bought the traditional flamenco guitar model thinking that it would be o.k., say maybe comparable to the Yamaha CG171SF. I was pleasantly surprised! The guitar has a great sound, not real bright nor is it warm but roughly in between, a good all-around instrument. It also has, believe it or not, some nice overtones. The volume is respectable, not a blow the walls of your local café cantante volume like a Stephen Faulk or Andy Culpeper guitar but respectable. The intonation is spot on and the playability is excellent; my guitar plays like butter! The guitar I bought has a solid cedar top with Mexican cypress back & sides plus a bone nut/saddle. The Mexican cypress is actually prettier to the eye than it’s Spanish counterpart. The tuners are cheap but functional, for an all solid wood guitar at $650.00 you can’t complain. To summarize things, The Casa Montalvo traditional flamenco guitar is a great instrument for the money and is better than factory made guitars costing twice as much.
Casa Montalvo guitars are made in Paracho, Mexico and sold by Berkeley Musical Instrument Exchange. The owner, George Katechis Montalvo has the guitars made to his specifications and he also does the final setup/inspection. When I have more time I’ll upload pictures of my guitar.

Dan



GuitarVlog -> RE: Casa Montalvo Review (May 4 2011 0:31:08)

No surprise to me, Dan. I've gone to George's and William's shop several times and thought that their under $1k flamencas were pretty good for the money. They do some excellent set-ups and William knows the guitars in his shop very well. If you can describe what sort of tone you are looking for, there's a good chance that he will quickly zero-in on the right guitar for you.
[:)]

Too bad you haven't tried some of their "upper-end" flamencas. I've been lucky to have left the shop with my wallet.
[:D]



dformell -> RE: Casa Montalvo Review (May 4 2011 5:36:34)

Hey Guitar Vlog, I'm jealous of you, being located in Farmington Hills, Michigan we don't have to much here in terms of quality nylon string guitar dealers. Perhaps you can help me, what are your impressions of the "upper end" flamenco models of George Montalvo? I'm looking at the Bouchet flamenco model & the Torres classical; If the Torres model had maple back/sides I would buy it. Anyways, your opinion would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Dan



GuitarVlog -> RE: Casa Montalvo Review (May 6 2011 21:14:16)

quote:

ORIGINAL: dformell
Perhaps you can help me, what are your impressions of the "upper end" flamenco models of George Montalvo? I'm looking at the Bouchet flamenco model & the Torres classical; If the Torres model had maple back/sides I would buy it. Anyways, your opinion would be greatly appreciated.

The last big batch that I sampled were all negras. I haven't recently played a lot of their blancas. Tonally, you might not be looking for the same thing that I was.

As far as the negras go, I liked the tone of the Fletas and the Friedrichs. The Hausers don't seem to work well. William didn't offer me a Bouchet or Torres based on what he sensed were my interests. I was searching for an instrument suited for solo performance and that would lend lots of color to the falsetas.



Michael1917 -> RE: Casa Montalvo Review (May 25 2011 1:14:53)

I tried a flamenco blanca and a negra for under $1000. Both guitars were better made than any factory stuff I've seen in that price range and were set up well. The blanca I tried I believe was as good -- not better, but just as good -- as the student models being put out by Francisco Navarro, but I would recommend that a person play several of each first before making a commitment. The one complaint I had with both the negra and the flamenco was the seemingly never-ending sustain. It went on and on. Drove me batty. It's not bad for a $650 guitar. I would argue that the Cordoba 32EF or 45FM, at around $750, have a crisper more traditional sound.



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