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Posts: 271
Joined: Sep. 19 2011
From: Louisville KY
The guitars of Benito Huipe
Help! I think I'm in trouble! 2 days ago I played a Benito Huipe that blew me away. I had heard of him, but had never had the pleasure of playing one of his guitars. A guy that I study with had a friend visiting from out of town, and he had a 98 Huipe negra that was killer!
I saw some reports that Benito was retired but that don't seem to be the case. I have contacted a friend of his which posted a few times on the foro, and he reports that Benito is still building some guitars. The prices are quite attractive, less than $2000 for a Palo Escrito or Indian Rosewood negra with German Spruce, or a blanca with Spanish Cypress and German Spruce. Any thoughts?
I have searched the foro but haven't found much in the way of concrete information...
Being that I just bought this old Ramirez 2 weeks ago, I shouldn't make the plunge again... Part of me wants to though... With only playing one of his guitars I don't feel that I have near enough experience with his instruments to make the best choice here. I don't see many of his flamencos selling anywhere, and don't know how to take that, for better or worse. I wouldn't want to be stuck holding the bag on an instrument that couldn't be resold, and that's one of the big reasons that I am not jumping quickly to order... That and my wife will kill me or threaten divorce if I go after another guitar...
The friend reports that Benito will give an even better price if I order 2 guitars. So if someone wants to jump in, perhaps there is a discount to be had...
Another thing I'm wondering is why its the same price for Palo Escrito or Indian Rosewood. Seems the Indian Rosewood would fetch a higher price, but this is not so according to the fellow I have spoken with. I have a few steel string guitars and an electric or 2 that I could sell any 1 of them with ease, and put the money into the Huipe if need be. I just have to hear about the experiences of others before I'm willing to do that. He don't have a waiting list, and a guitar can be delivered in about 4/5 weeks.
You guys need to talk me off the ledge, or give me a push. LOL
I kind of wish I hadn't ever played that negra... I was almost ready to try to do some trading with my Ramirez or my Castillo.
RE: The guitars of Benito Huipe (in reply to Shawn Brock)
Shawn,
Though it's a little late, I just wanted to add some info to your post. I've recently been in contact with Benito Huipe. I've communicated with him via email, telephone, and he also sent me a video showing a couple guitars.
My flamenco teacher, Agustin Rios, is old friends with Benito and has bought several guitars from him. After playing a couple of his guitars and routinely hearing Agustin play them, I decided to look into contacting Benito, but I couldn't find any contact info that still worked. By chance, I discovered that he (or his son, I'm not sure) has a Facebook page, and there was his email:
guitarrasbenito.huipe@hotmail.com
There are a few old photos and some fairly low-res videos of his son playing his guitars on his Facebook page. Just enter his name in the Facebook search engine and you should find it.
As for Benito, he seems like a real nice guy. Overall my experience was good. Even through our brief phone calls I could tell he is a bit of a character! If nothing else it was entertaining communicating with him. I hope to meet him some day in person.
If you want to see some pics of the guitar he made for me, here they are:
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