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My name is David Abbott. I am a luthier from South Wales. I played classical guitar from 5-28 years old also learning a little flamenco before I finished playing all together. I now make full time and have come to this forum for help and inspiration. I am a classical builder and firmly believe that the best sounding classical guitar is actually a flamenco with nice reverb! This puts me at odds with most of the classical world that requires sustain for days that's far removed from what people on this site would consider good. I truly believe that with the help of people on this forum that I can make something that appeals to both the flamenco players and classical players alike. Thanks for having me and I can't wait to start asking questions! Hwyl fawr David
Good to see you here at last, David. For me a good flamenco guitar is rather dry with little sustain but tastes differ. For both audiences you are kind of in negra territory. But they differ beyond that in attack, wood, construction, dimensions and action.
I think the fundamental question you’re posing as a reason for coming here is an excellent starting point for a thread or two.
I’m kind of the opposite from you as I make predominantly Flamenco guitars and dabble in Classicals. My take on it is that, at its essence, there isn’t that much difference between a traditional classical guitar and traditional flamenco guitar, outside the flamenco setup. The dimensions will define the character of the guitar, so if you use your knowledge of traditional classical making and apply it to essentially the same instrument, but with a flamenco bridge with bracing and top dimensions adjusted to that bridge, and make the sides narrow-ish, like an old Santos, then you’ll get a good flamenco guitar out of that. For sure it will be a totally respectable starting point to refine your design.
But, yeah, we can have a lot of fun discussions here. Some can get pretty animated at times, but most of us don’t get too worried about that or take it very seriously. As has been pointed out by others when introducing the Foro to new members, the off-topic section is well worth a visit, as some great discussions can take place there, as well.
"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
Its just how we say goodbye in Wales, I could have just said hwyl which literally translated means fun but just means goodbye to us. Language is a funny thing lol
I feel like the quote at the bottom of your message is like some kind of masonic question where I must provide the correct answer to get in the club lol Here goes my reply Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
"And lo, in those days evil men will forsake blancas and worship orange guitars, and God will send forth a great flood to punish them. For 23 years, the skies will darken and rosette stickers will rain down on all of guitardom."
Or something.
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
I was thinking that maybe we'd be excluding people if we kept on in Welsh so just as well lol. If you ever fancy a practice though I'm here! Hwyl fawr butty! David
David, based on your introductory remarks I would recommend that you read R.E. Bruné's article "The Cultural Origins of the Modern Guitar". He has interesting things to say about the relationship between 'fflamenco' and 'classical' guitars.
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