estebanana -> RE: Francisco Navarro Student or Factory Flamenco? (Apr. 15 2014 1:34:48)
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I've tried really hard to dislike Mexican guitars in the $1000.00 - $2000.00 price range. but I can't in the end justify not liking them. I've seen a lot of them many Castillos and a couple dozen Monalvos have crossed my bench for work. Are they the end al be all guitars? Perhaps not, but some of them have served well as professional players guitars. Are they now quite consistent in structural integrity and good sound, yes certainly. Mexican guitars got a bad rap for a long time, but today you can hold up the best of them with most Spanish makers at the same price level. The best hand built guitars from Navarro I've seen were quite good, a pro could use one for career if they picked the right one. I know of one pro who uses one last I checked. If you are looking for a top tier guitar from Mexico or anywhere else be prepared to pay more money than $2000.00- But if you want your first guitar or an affordable extra second guitar in the $950.00 to $1800.00 niche the three Mexican makers Montalvo, Castillo and Navarro are all good bets. If you go for one of their more expansive guitars you will also get a good guitar, but you're on your own judging it. I'll risk a story that might not even be good for me to tell: I built a seven string classical for a Brazilian composer performer, fantastic guitar in my opinion. He had to move from the US back to Brazil, he sold my guitar and bought a Montalvo. My guitar was expensive and the Montalvo was not as expensive. He made some money back to help defray the costs of moving back. He recorded with my guitar and his band mates came up to me after shows to say they really liked the sound he had with my guitar. he like the guitar and recorded with it. So I know it had appeal and I have no doubt it will get better and time goes by. That guitar does not have a big brassy voice, it is more intimate with sweet responsive trebles, really good intonation and a spectrum of tone color easy to draw out. What I would say was a good studio recording guitar. In the right conditions it is a precision tool. I made it that way. He took home a Montalvo. The seven strings I have played at that shop have big voices, they are robust and strong, really healthy good guitars. They have a different sound than mine. My seven strings are quite good, but I can't make everyones perfect guitar from a cost against sound stand point. I take into account all the factors the player asks for, scale length, sound port, width at nut saddle neck shape. All these things get dailed in special for each customer. That's one big reason why individual builders command higher prices. We work with tight perimeters and specs dictated by the client. Sometimes a guitarist can find a compromise in a premade guitar, but more often in the higher price ranges they just ask a custom builder to make one for them. It saves time and effort searching endlessly for something that the customer may not find. In the area of under $2000.00 premade guitars the niche is full of good guitars right now. It's a proper price range to get a first guitar because a beginner might not be fully sure of how they even want to play stylistically yet. The specifics of what a beginner wants are not formulated in the players head yet from actual experience. People who start a project like flamenco guitar playing have a notion of what it might be like, but until they play for 6 months or two years the new starter might not know which questions to ask or who to get a good flamenco sound from any guitar. It's better to not throw all your money into a custom guitar right at the start. Grow gradually and trade up as you go along while you learn which guitars suit you. And hopefully later you come to one of the custom makers to build you a guitar after you know more about it. I'm just being honest, in hopes that as players grow they will patronize individual guitar makers. And having my own guitar, which was top tier in sound and playibility swapped out for a Montalvo stung in the beginning. But as I thought about it, it's just the business and there's no reason to be insecure. The guitar now belongs to another player and it has NOT surfaced on the open market so it's a keeper. The guitar a starter buys for $1400.00 might stay with them for life, be a keeper too, but five years down the line they might give me a call, or another custom builder a chance.
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