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RE: Show us your Flamenco guitars !! (in reply to hopkinWFG)
I went to Madrid in 1962 to try and buy an Arcangel Fernandez – sadly I couldn’t afford it so I bought one made by Juan Alvarez from Arcanagel's shop. It was my first real flamenco guitar. It served well enough for the next 6 years but by the end I was playing in quite big venues (unamplified as we did in those days) and it just wasn’t loud enough. It now needs some work done to make it playable.
Due to the Sterling Crisis the amount of currency allowed for foreign travel in 1968 was £50 per person – not enough to buy a decent guitar even if you didn’t eat! My wife and I took a tent and set off to drive to Madrid. On the way we met some friends who gave us some currency from the allowances of their two children and I bought this Ramirez. It is a wonderful, light, cedar top flamenco typical of this period. I played it for the next 20 years and it travelled with me all over Europe including a memorable week in the Manoel Theatre in Malta (built 1731). The guitar is still in great shape and a pleasure to play.
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RE: Show us your Flamenco guitars !! (in reply to tk)
This 1989 guitar was an unexpected purchase.. I played some of the guitars of Antonio Ariza in Granada. They were OK but I was not excited by them. He told me that he had one more with “some mistakes”. It was so good to play that I happily took from him. It is a light, brash “in your face” guitar and one of the few where the number 6 string doesn’t lose quality when tuned down to D. RIP Antonio I am still in love with your guitar.
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RE: Show us your Flamenco guitars !! (in reply to hopkinWFG)
These two Bellidos tell a story about guitar making. The 1990 peghead is simply the best guitar I have owned and the one that I used during my most active playing period. It is the first bit of property I would save if there was a fire. It would be very difficult to replace however much money I had.. So why would I want to buy another one in 1996? Well it was a kind of backup as I was always worried some stage hand would stick the end of a ladder through the guitar at rehearsals.
The real story of these guitars is revealed when you look inside with a mirror. The 1990 “concert model” has a slimmed down version of the Fleta classical guitar bracing system with 9 fan struts. It also has a 10mm wide 1mm high strap stretching right across the guitar under the bridge – like Anders I think. The 1996 “professional model” – others might call it a 2a - has very simple decoration, the top attached to the sides with continuous lining strip, and a simple 5 fan strut bracing system. The remarkable thing is that they are so similar in all the things that really matter (mainly pulsacion). So remember it ain’t in the bracing that matters, it is in the experience, head, hands and heart of the luthier.
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RE: Show us your Flamenco guitars !! (in reply to hopkinWFG)
Two Condes. I hope this post won’t be banned.
So what do you expect from a 2003 A26 that has almost certainly been assembled from a kit of machine made parts? I am never sure whether the stiff (thick?) tops are a design feature or just typical factory approach that tries to minimise the number of returned cracked instruments. However if you choose wisely (and there are plenty to choose from) you can get a pretty good A26 with perfect balance across the strings and well behaved in front of a mic. Sadly when I bought this my fingers were beginning to deteriorate and the rather fat neck now makes it a bit difficult to play.
The 1965 Viuda y Sobrinos de Domingo Esteso is the result of a recurring dream that one day I would go to an auction and find a “sleeper guitar” – a wonderful bargain instrument that nobody else had noticed.. Well, after years of looking I finally found one a few years ago. It had obviously seen heavy use but after re fretting, a few tweaks and some minimal refreshment to the FP it has turned about to be wonderful guitar.
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RE: Show us your Flamenco guitars !! (in reply to Andy Culpepper)
quote:
A blanca man through and through, I like it!
I am open minded but I have never found a negra that I like. Perhaps good negras are rare?
My first consideration is always to find a really good guitar that works for me and not worry about the details (pegs, machines, scale length, woods, finish, cosmetics etc.)
RE: Show us your Flamenco guitars !! (in reply to tk)
I keep hearing about Condes stiff tops. Curiously the one Media Luna I came accross had quite the opposite of a soundboard. It was what I like to call "flappy". Flappy like a butterfly. Just in the way I like it.
RE: Show us your Flamenco guitars !! (in reply to Ruphus)
quote:
I keep hearing about Condes stiff tops. Curiously the one Media Luna I came accross had quite the opposite of a soundboard. It was what I like to call "flappy". Flappy like a butterfly. Just in the way I like it.
I was only referring to guitars from C Felipe V after the old boys had died in the late 1980s. Older guitars and those from Attocha and Gravina don't bear much relationship to these except in the shape of the headstock.
Flappy like a butterfly, sting like a bee - that's how they used to make them.
Posts: 503
Joined: Jun. 14 2014
From: Encinitas, CA USA
RE: Show us your Flamenco guitars !! (in reply to tk)
This is my new guitar I bought earlier this year from a local private dealer who has quite a large collection. My intention was just to go look and try out some guitars but he made me a deal I could not walk away from. Its a 2015 Juan Antonio Correa Marin who is the grandson of Antonio Marin Montero.
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Ah well, there was a fantastic passion there, in my case anyway. I discovered flamenco very early on. It grips you in a way that you can't get away - Paco Pena
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