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avimuno -> RE: Peña Vargas Guitars..? (Dec. 2 2015 18:08:40)
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Hey guys,
I received my Pena Vargas a few days after the attacks here in Paris. Needless to say that I was really excited when it arrived as it was a welcomed toy to play with in order to forget about the heavy atmosphere here.
I won't bore you with a long review. I have been after a good Conde-style guitar for a while now and before ordering my guitar from David, I was hesitating between a guitar from him or one from Jeronimo Perez. Richard was very happy with his Pena Vargas and I have another friend who was in seventh heaven with his Jeronimo Perez, so talking to them comforted me in the fact that both built beautiful guitars. The question remained as to which one to order. Being friends with Antonio Rey on Facebook, I decided to email him asking which of the two builders he thought made "the best Faustino Conde, like Paco's guitar" (this is quite literally what I asked him). He told me that for him Pena Vargas was the closest. That closed the deal for me. I immediately emailed David and got talking about options.
After exchanging a few emails about what I was after, I went with an indian rosewood spruce top guitar with a 660mm scale, and a slightly harder pulsation than what David builds as standard. The top is finished in an untinted french polish whilst the rest of the guitar of finished with a thin lacquer. The woods are beautiful and the guitar is very well made. It also comes with a nice set of tuning machines, nothing fancy but they work well and have a very smooth operation.
The neck is quite chunky but it's very comfortable to play as I have very big hands. The only negative thing I have to say about the guitar is that the heel is very big, too big even. But from what I understand, this contributes to making the joint between the neck and the body more solid, and provides more mass, helping the sound. I must admit that it is taking some getting used to. It does not necessarily get in the way of playing notes that are higher up the neck, but whenever my left hand is in that area, it feels that there's a big chunk of wood there, which can be a bit weird at first. That said, I am getting used to it pretty fast.
Otherwise, it's a big guitar with a fast action that is very comfortable to play. The original setup is great, very fast with an action that is really low around the first frets, and which progressively become more important as you go up the frets. It sits at a little more than 2mm at the 12th fret. In my experience, this is how most luthiers will set an action since it allows for the player to use a capo up to the higher frets without the strings fretting. It also produce more volume.
That said, I personally like what I call the "Vicente Amigo action", where the strings sit slightly higher than normal on the nut and lower than normal on the bridge. The result of this is that the action is even throughout the neck, it does not do the "low at nut high at bridge" thing, but rather stays around the same height throughout. Vicente Amigo's guitars are setup like that. Despite loosing a little volume, and making the use of a capo on higher frets a bit more complicated, this makes for what I consider to be the ultimate playing experience: incredibly smooth with an amazingly fast feel throughout the neck. My Graciliano Perez is setup like that and it plays like butter. David's original setup allows you to do that since the way he sets up his nut and his bridge gives you enough space if you want to do that, so that was another great point for me.
Sound-wise, after having played it extensively for a few days, and after having experimented with 3 different string sets, I must say that this guitar is probably the best value-for-money Conde-type guitar I have ever owned.
I used to own an amazing Hermanos Sanchis 1F, and have had two Condes (one from the Felipe shop, and one from the Atocha shop), and this Pena Vargas compares very very well with these guitars. It definitely has the thick mid-range, short sustain, snappiness and explosiveness that Condes are famous for. The rosewood back and sides gives the sound more depth than a blanca, and a bigger bottom end, but without making it sound like a classical.
Rasgeados are explosive, alzapuas are crisp and picados are very snappy. Overall it's a very "fast" guitar: the notes jump right off when you play them and have a lot of presence to them. This is highly desirable if you are planning on using this guitar to accompany dancers. That said, there's enough depth in the tone to also make it a great solo instrument. The sound is loud, dry, raspy and thick without being as raw as a Bernal. In terms of sound, I think that Juan Requena's video is a good representation of how these guitars sound.
The pulsation is what I find the most pleasing so far with my guitar... This is where, IMHO, a good Conde will knock Sanchis, Carpio etc off. Both Condes I have owned had a very pleasing "bouncy" feel to them. This is really hard to explain, it has to be experienced in person. To put it in words, the strings feel tense when you are playing picados and arpeggios, but feel loose when you are playing rasgeados and alzapua... a good pulsation is one that oscillates between the two naturally in the most pleasing way for your right hand. The pulsation of the Pena Vargas feels really nice so far, here again, definitely on the Conde side of things.
It's still a very young guitar and the top still has to open in order to give its best, but the guitar is already sounding great, as well as being a lot of fun to play thanks to the pulsation.
In conclusion, I would say that if you are after a good Conde-style guitar that will not have you break the bank then David's guitars are definitely worthy of your consideration. Amazing value for money for an artisan handmade guitar, made by someone who is himself an excellent guitarist, which probably explains why he got it so right.
Hope this helps.
Saludos,
Avi
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