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My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca   You are logged in as Guest
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JuanDaBomb

Posts: 189
Joined: May 18 2011
 

My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca 

Hello,

Long time forum lurker, first time poster :-) Anyway I thought the time was right to create my account and share some photos of my new Shelton-Farretta Blanca!

Some specs:
- premium grade Caucasian spruce top,
- premium grade Mediterranean cypress back and sides,
- Spanish Cedar neck,
- Gabon ebony fingerboard,
- Rosewood bindings, overlay, and bridge,
- 52mm nut, 60mm saddle spacing, 660mm scale.

The sound of the guitar is absolutely wonderful. The notes have a strong, loud attack that quickly decay into an excellent sustain. It's very pleasing to the ear. I once read their flamenco guitars described as "having that old, classic flamenco sound", and I think I have to agree. The guitar is loud, of course, and rich in harmonics, with deep authoritative basses and trebles that react nicely depending on how you pick at them. The sound is well balanced. The guitar is very "energetic"; it vibrates more enthusiastically than other guitars I've played. Overall, I'm really impressed with its acoustics. It's also very light.

The setup of the guitar is spot-on and the result is a flamenco guitar that is very satisfying to play. The action is nice and low, but not too buzzy. It'll buzz quite nicely when played hard, though :) . The neck is super comfy in my medium-to-large sized hands; it feels just right in terms of profile and thickness. The strings sit close to the soundboard. The intonation is on the money; the guitar is quite easy to tune and plays in tune nicely everywhere along the fret board (which is much more than I can say about my Ramirez R4....).

Visually, the guitar is beautiful. The woods used are of excellent quality, in particular the top, which has a remarkably uniform color and pattern to it. I like the contrast of the colorful rosette and the dark rosewood bindings against the pale spruce and cypress; the finish is clear which I prefer since I like the natural wood colors.

When I contacted Mr. Shelton about purchasing a guitar, it so happened that they were just completing a pair of Blancas at a new price level of $2,000 US, and that these 2 guitars represented the basic end of a new price structure for their Blanca guitar, the difference between the basic and higher end versions lying in the ornamentation (purfling, decorative line beneath the overlay, so on). So I eventually decided to purchase this one (the other one is very similar except for the rosette). The price included a nice Gator hard case.

My expectations were exceeded with this guitar. There really isn't anything about it that I don't like. I'm very happy with it and would wholeheartedly recommend this model to anyone in the market for a Blanca in this price range. They are also very nice people to deal with, and respond quickly and thoroughly to emails.

-Juan





























The complete photo set can be found here

Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 19 2011 21:03:54
 
rombsix

Posts: 7808
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

Amazing looking guitar!

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Ramzi

http://www.youtube.com/rombsix
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 19 2011 21:47:54
 
tmock

Posts: 143
Joined: Jan. 23 2005
From: New York, New York

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

Congrats, Juan! That's a beautiful guitar, and from your description it plays well, too. And all at a good price!

I like the tuner buttons. Cool headstock carve, too. Looks deadly!
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 19 2011 23:21:53
 
GuitarVlog

Posts: 441
Joined: Mar. 19 2009
From: San Francisco Bay Area

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

Beautiful guitar!


$2000??!! Really? I don't remember John mentioning this awesome deal!


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  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 20 2011 0:16:21
 
JuanDaBomb

Posts: 189
Joined: May 18 2011
 

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

rombsix: Thanks! It looks even nicer in person

tmock: Thanks, man! It really does play well. I actually had the choice of button style, since I contacted them just before the tuners were to be installed So long as it had black buttons, I said! I also like the headstock; it's a good modern touch, I think.

GuitarVlog: I don't believe the $2000 price is even on their website yet. I don't know precisely when they started telling people, but I contacted them about a month ago, and took delivery of it last week. I do know they have another one ready to go; it's practically this one's twin except for the rosette.
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 20 2011 1:30:57
 
HolyEvil

Posts: 1240
Joined: Nov. 6 2008
From: Sydney, Australia

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

this is an extremely good deal... too bad i'm all out of cash..
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 21 2011 2:58:48
 
mrMagenta

Posts: 942
Joined: Oct. 25 2006
From: Sweden

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

beautiful!
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 23 2011 16:21:13
 
beno

Posts: 881
Joined: Nov. 3 2006
From: Hungary

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

quote:

Amazing looking guitar!
Agreed! It looks beautiful, and I like the headstock very much, but my first feeling about it's pike was - when its gonna chip down?!?! Anyway, congrats, it's surely going to give You great times playing it!
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 23 2011 19:34:44
 
vuduchyld

 

Posts: 170
Joined: Feb. 20 2011
 

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

holy crap...wish I was in the market. That looks amazing.

Would be nice to have that arrowhead on the top of the headstock to poke dancers with!
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 23 2011 19:46:34
 
ralexander

Posts: 797
Joined: Jun. 1 2010
From: Halifax, Nova Scotia

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

Juan - welcome to the foro, and thanks for sharing this review - looks and sounds like a very nice guitar, especially for that kind of money. And once again, we're hearing raves about the playability of these guitars. I think we're rather lucky as players when luthiers of this level offer less ornamented guitars for a discounted price.

Hope to hear a soundclip of this one sometime - btw I dig the avatar
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 23 2011 22:19:53
 
HeavyWood

 

Posts: 37
Joined: Apr. 19 2010
From: San Antonio, TX

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

Juan-

Congratulations on the new guitar!
Excellent pictures and description...
Very appropriate to have Our Lady blessing it!

Please post a video or sound recording of the
Shelton-Farretta if you are able.


Guitar Vlog-

Here is the link to a forum thread about '1a guitars' where
John Shelton mentioned this lower price point model guitar.

I talked to John via email about their guitars and he is very helpful:

http://www.foroflamenco.com/tm.asp?m=148870&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=1a&tmode=&smode=&s=#148870
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 23 2011 22:26:56
 
Patrick

Posts: 1189
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Portland, Oregon

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

I just posted a clip in another tread.
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 23 2011 23:30:29
 
JuanDaBomb

Posts: 189
Joined: May 18 2011
 

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

Thanks guys!

beno:
I think you'd have to give it a pretty good sideways whack to break the tip. Seems pretty sturdy.

ralexander:
Thanks for the warm welcome! I agree with what you say, about being lucky as players. It does feel like a privilege. I tend to believe there is a fairly good market for a guitar like this. For myself, it fit the bill quite well.

HeavyWood:
Yeah, I thought she'd make a good back drop to the photo! I think it looks nice.

About an audio clip, unfortunately I don't have any recording equipment, nor would I know how to do it although I could probably figure it out. Plus, my playing probably wouldn't do the guitar much justice. I'll see if I can figure something out.
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 24 2011 7:59:16
 
Michael1917

 

Posts: 146
Joined: Jan. 5 2007
 

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

Wow! What a beautiful guitar. She looks wonderful. I may have to look into that. Recently, I found a 1975 Shelton-Farretta that I'm having refretted and a new saddle. But she still plays wonderfully and has a very traditional flamenco sound. They're nice guitars.
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 25 2011 1:20:09
 
JuanDaBomb

Posts: 189
Joined: May 18 2011
 

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to Michael1917

Hey, that's pretty cool! I actually saw one on eBay not too long ago, it was a 197-something, I don't exactly remember which year. Yours wouldn't happen to be that one, would it?
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 25 2011 2:06:06
 
Guitarproject

 

Posts: 35
Joined: May 29 2011
From: Armenia , Yerevan

RE: My new Shelton-Farretta Blanca (in reply to JuanDaBomb

The pattern on the head is really very beautiful
  REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |  Date May 29 2011 16:20:32
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