Richard Jernigan -> RE: Unusual bracing... (Jan. 19 2016 16:50:01)
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The first Bernabe I played was at Ivor Marants's shop in London, some time in the late 1960s. It had only three braces, one down the middle, the other two symmetrically placed on either side. I thought it was loud, but a bit coarse compared to the Ramirez 1a's Mairants had at the time. That same week I played both a Contreras and a Bernabe at Len Williams's Guitar Center. I liked his Ramirez 1a's better. But as I mentioned elsewhere, in 1991 I preferred the Contreras I bought from Manuel, Sr. to the other guitars I tried in Madrid that week. My impression was that Bernabe and Contreras had improved significantly, and the Ramirez were not quite up to those of the '60s and 70s. But of course, only a direct comparison in the same room would have been valid, and someone else might have had a different impression altogether, depending upon how they played and what they wanted to hear. RNJ
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