Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
Hi. I recently acquired a little 60s Hofner Flamenco which judging by the state of the strings, hadn't been played in a long time. After cleaning and re-stringing (Maris) I was disappointed to find that it sounded completely dead with no sustain and little volume from the treble strings. However as time goes by (2 months) and with a lot of playing (every day) it gets better and better.
When it first arrived it had a mild musty (possibly damp) smell inside and I'm wondering if it had been stored somewhere damp (I'm in the UK) and if this could have caused the initial "deadness". Any thoughts?
Initial thoughts are 'yes'. If it was damp, be very wary about trying to dry it out too quickly with heat or it may warp. This could be a possibility anyway - I'm sure Anders would have some thoughts on this.
Is this the Hofner from Ebay recently: £71, yes? Is it definitely a flamenco guitar? I couldn't tell from the pics and so many of the guitars advertised on ebay as flamencos are classicals.
Jon: Yes, I'm keeping an eye on it but so far OK and the neck is dead true. No evidence of it having been wet-damp but smelled like it had over-wintered in an unheated room in a junk shop! No it's not one from Ebay and yes it is labelled Flamenco, S/N 6062 which I understand is from 1962. No sign of any golpe activity on its (until now) unprotected top so I suspect this may be its first Flamenco experience......which is rather nice after 43 years. It doesn't sound brilliant (yet) but its very small size means it is extremely comfortable to sit with in both positions and my poor Burguet has hung almost unplayed since it arrived.
Peter: Yes, how is that?! I think everyone agrees that guitars respond to playing but I've always been puzzled at how this can be. My college-level physics provokes the question but doesn't yield an answer
Dampness, or excessive humidity, makes guitars sound less lively. This is because the wood takes in the moisture and becomes waterlogged. This is noticable here in Cadiz where the sea breeze (Poniente) can raise humidity to 80% and the land breeze (Levante) can lower it to 20% overnight.