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Ricardo -> RE: Your dream guitar? (Oct. 26 2023 11:58:39)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Morante
quote:
I consider myself very lucky that I got my hands on one of these:
The Spanish guitar has hardly changed (only evolucionada) since Torres. It is difficult to adjust and repair. Why is there no innovation as in the electric guitar?
The aesthetic of the flamenco guitar is mainly for accompanying the cante. This aesthetic was established, primarily, by melchor, Niño Ricardo, Morao, etc. At the time, M. Ramirez had previously hit on something and his apprentices delivered their versions, that became “standard”, in stark contrast to J. Ramirez Tablao guitar. This thing was carried on by Esteso’s nephew and so Sobrinos de Esteso is the “standard” instrument, with very little innovation since M. Ramirez, that gets recorded along side great singers, most often (Conde is very similar to Esteso). Much of this info is from Ramirez III who, starting with the massive or radical innovation of Cedar top, admits the problems with flamenco guitarists not accepting most alterations to what Melchor or Ricardo were successfully using. He said anything he tried resulted in “no good” or “Buena guitarra pero, no es flamenco”. So he stuck with his great Uncle’s ideas mainly (admitting his Dad was stubborn and tried to keep the Tablao guitar going in vain).
As a comparison to electric guitar, my preferred genre being “Rock”. It is interesting to notice the prime guitar heroes tended to do personal alterations. Van Halen, Yngwie, Gilbert…would take some sort of ‘Strat” style body or general concept, and start replacing parts, removing pickups, scallop the neck, etc. In Ynqwie’s case, it was probably an influence of Blackmore. But underlying it all tends to be either a Gibson Les Paul idea, or a fender Strat idea, Frankenstein style. So I see a parallel aesthetic here….it is either the M. Ramirez style or the Conde Style that carries on. Then there came PRS…which is like Reyes or something that has the same elements but some little detail that sets it apart and now you have to pay for it and for no special reason (other than your hero started using it, separate from the pack), it takes on its own aesthetic, so now there are 3 styles of guitar.
In terms of replacement parts for a flamenco, this is a problem because it is not a block of cheap wood with magnets. It is a real acoustic living creature that needs to have all the parts working together….change one thing and it all is different. At least we can change golpeadores, bones/nuts, and tuners/pegs to keep it going way beyond human life spans.
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