bthartman -> RE: Guitar with a 50s Madrid Sound?? (Mar. 7 2012 21:25:56)
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Thought I'd chime in, though this thread is a few months old at this point. I decided about a year ago to start looking for someone to build one "really nice guitar" for me after playing all kinds of music on average guitars (Gibson, Fender, Giannini, La Patrie and Alhambra). I started taking Flamenco lessons about 3 years ago. I started looking seriously for a luthier in the Pacific NW last summer. John Park was one of the builders I was interested in, as I had played an older Flamenco Negra of his at Rosewood Guitar in Seattle. As it turned out, John was at the GAL convention and exhibit in Tacoma at the end of last July. I talked to 7 Flamenco luthiers at the public exhibit, including John, and while all the guitars were decent John's negra just blew me away. He had just finished it and put strings on it before getting in his car to drive down to Tacoma, and he was surprised at what he had done as well. I can't recall exactly what, but he had tried something new with the bracing. The instrument was great. It had a true growl when you really dug into it, but it also mellowed out considerably if you let up on it. John played some classical as well as some jazz on it, and it just worked great for everything. Anyway, after saving up some money I commissioned John to make a negra for me in December. The two main differences from the one he showed me was I wanted a slightly shorter scale length (640mm as opposed to 650) and with tuning machines instead of the pegs he had used (and I went back and forth for awhile about those). Just talked with John, and my guitar should be ready around the beginning of April. He reports that it plays beautifully, and the shorter scale length really isn't compromising the sound at all.
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