classical guitar choice

  • Thread starter Thread starter deibid
  • Start date Start date
for acoustics and especially classicals you've gotta be able to play the thing before buying. i would buy an electric online...you can change the neck height, pickup height, etc... acoustics you can adjust the action somewhat...but the tone will really vary from instrument to instrument. there's a lot of same model guitars that sound a lot different (especially acoustics)

i would go to a guitar shop and play what's in your price range and go from there. if you're going to put a few hundred in on an acoustic...you had better play it first.

check out cordobas. find a good one with good tone, and you're set. sometimes acoustics can have low action and will really kill tone, so just try to put in all factors while you're choosing.
 
Will this be your first classical guitar?

I have never tried either of those guitars before, so I would suggest before making a final decision you try them out first.

If this is your first classical guitar I'm sure either one of them would get you by, but after awhile you would be less than satisfied.

Also, I wouldn't buy a guitar online, but that's just me. It's not just the make/model of a guitar, but who put it together. Also, if you buy from a shop, you can usually have them adjust the action, and whatever else for you as soon as you buy it.
 
and don't think about anything with a cut away. i think it kills tone. and don't get one of those thin body a/e's. you'll never use it. always mic that thing. i use an sdc when live for a wedding or something, and it works well. usually you don't have feedback problems because you don't need to jack the volume for a classical concert. unless you're going to be playing a lot of live latin pop or something.

i don't have a cut away, and reaching past the 12th fret is very rare, yet easily done when it happens
 
I've played hundreds (yes really, hundreds) of low end solid top classicals like the two you're considering. They vary tremendously in quality of the soundboards... some have amazingly great soundboard quality and tone. Others are mediocre and some are awful. If you check a guitar's soundboard at the soundhole edge, it's best to have the grain perpendicular in relation to the soundboard's plane, that is, the way it runs through the thickness of the soundboard - if that makes sense. That correlates strongly to good tone (not always though, wish it were that simple). IME, about one in five of the inexpensive Spanish solid top guitars is a great sounding instrument. If it were me I'd only buy one I had inspected and played. Worth it to shop around and find a good one.

Tim
 
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