Richard Jernigan -> RE: converting classical guitar to flamenco (Feb. 28 2014 18:32:54)
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ORIGINAL: gj Michelob quote:
Only NEED to lower bridge (perhaps plane ebony if it equals too low action to just lower saddle and possible bridge material to below 10mm string to golpe plate)...and put golpe tap plate. Easy job if you don't have to plane any ebony. Weren't Sabicas and our own Ramzi, in fact, playing classical guitars with such simple adjustments? Early in his career Sabicas played an Esteso, of which I have no knowledge. However, Esteso and Santos Hernandez, his fellow Manuel Ramirez oficial were among the pioneers of the divergence of the modern flamenco guitar from its ancestors, the designs of Antonio Torres and Manuel Ramirez. Richard Brune argues, convincingly I think, that 19th-century Spanish guitar design was more strongly influenced by flamenco tocaores than by classical players, since there were many more tocaores than classical players at the time. http://www.classicalguitardelcamp.com/download/file.php?id=22751&mode=view Of course Torres was strongly influenced by the classical players Julian Arcas and Francisco Tarrega. Players of both styles were known to frequent the shop of Manuel Ramirez. By the time I saw Sabicas the first time in the early 1960s he was playing Barberos, and at least once an Arcangel Fernandez, by Barbero's disciple. These were both decidedly what we would nowadays call flamencos. Later in his career Sabicas played a Ramirez blanca--and always seemed to have one or two available for sale. Except for the cedar top, this guitar is a very flamenco design. Jose Ramirez III comments in his book that he could introduce no innovations in his flamenco guitars, due to the conservatism of the tocaores. I have had a 1967 example of this model since it was new--it's definitely flamenco. A different flamenco design, the tablao guitar of Manuel's older brother and teacher, Jose Ramirez I, didn't last much beyond the lifetime of its originator. It had a considerably larger plantilla than the Torres/Manuel Ramirez design, and a shallower body. RNJ
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