When looking to purchase your first guitar, you would be wise to consult an experienced guitarist whose advice you can trust. An expert player will be able to assess the various strengths and weaknesses of the instrument. Furthermore, should you want to purchase a new instrument, you should find a dealer who is knowledgeable in Flamenco music. There are, however, time saving tips that you can follow before making your final decision.
As you sift through all of the possibilities in the market, two properties are of paramount importance: the guitar’s sound, and the ease that you can play the instrument, especially with respect to the action of both your right and left hands. You may be able to eliminate a few instruments from consideration just by these criteria.
After the instrument has passed the initial requirements of a good sound and ease of use, you can then rate the instruments with more stringent criteria. These are:
– First appearances. As with car manufacturers, guitar makers know how susceptible buyers are to beautiful decoration and a glossy finish. Just as with a car, however, it is what is under the hood that counts. A glossy finish is no indicator of quality. The instrument should rather show attention to detail, accuracy in its dimensions, and quality in its materials. Insist on an instrument that has been crafted from well-seasoned wood that is suited to its purpose. Insist on proper timbers and internal strutting, even in the lowest-price guitars. Never purchase a guitar hastily thrown together with veneered laminates. Tapas should be crafted from close-grained German spruce or Canadian cedar. Both halves of the instrument should match, having an even grain throughout. Eliminate those with major defects: a sunken tapa, a loose bridge-saddle, or a neck that is warped. Make sure that the neck is perfectly straight, smoothly finished, with a breadth and curvature that feels comfortable to you all the way along the fingerboard. Never buy a warped guitar, since it might have been constructed from poorly-seasoned wood, or have been exposed to poor environmental conditions.
The fingerboard is a separate piece of hardwood applied to the neck. It must be absolutely flat. Ebony is the best material for this part. Make sure that the frets are fitted correctly into their slots, having beveled edges, with no jagged projections which snag your left-hand fingers. Test the fingerboard by sliding your left hand along both edges of the fingerboard. Play the note at each fret on every string in order to detect any buzzes resulting from the frets’ uneven height. If you have smaller hands, choose a guitar with a scale length shorter than the normal sixty-six centimeters, which you should measure from the nut to the bridge. Test the intonation at all fret locations. To test, play octave harmonics at the twelfth fret on each string, making sure that the note concurs with the pitch of the note sounded when you stop the string against the twelfth fret. Check notes at all frets, and play octaves (e.g., E’s at the second fret on the fourth string and on the open first string; D’s on the tenth fret of first string and the twelfth fret of the fourth string, etc.). The open strings must be tuned accurately for these tests.
A guitar needs to be responsive. Responsiveness refers to the immediacy of the sound produced by the tapa. In good guitars, you can hear a definite resonance when you gently tap the sides and back with the back of your finger. A good Flamenco guitar sounds as if it were alive – full of nervous energy, responding instantly to your slightest touch on its strings. Look for timbers that are thin, hard, and immediately alive with sound, having no sense of slackness or heaviness in the wood.
Weight is not a guide to quality. Many Flamenco guitars feel light in weight, especially those with peg heads. Lighter, however, is not necessarily better. Another factor in a guitar’s performance is its temperature. Do not judge a guitar, therefore, until it has had time to warm up. Wood cannot resonate at its best when cold. Many of the world’s finest guitars need to have enough time to warm up before they produce their characteristic brilliance and intensity of sound. Age, too, has an impact on a guitar’s sound. Generally, guitars improve with age. The process, however, has limits. A Flamenco guitar may be ‘over the hill’ by the time it is ten to twenty years old.
A guitar which has been played rarely or never will not play at its best when you try it out for purchase. Furthermore, a brand-new guitar requires a period of several months to two years of faithful playing in order to eliminate the initial coarseness and ‘woodiness’ that mark it as new.
Examine the action of the guitar. Look for all of the possible ways that you can modify the action by altering the height of the huesos (‘bones’), the technical name for the nut and bridge-saddle. The guitar’s action determines how easy it is to play the instrument, therefore, it is an important factor to consider. Action depends upon several factors: the responsiveness of the soundboard, the tension of the strings, and the strings’ height from the fingerboard and soundboard. If the action is too low or too soft, it will cause too much buzz at all but the softest volume. If the action is too high or too hard, it will make the guitar have a more ‘classical’ sound. It will also make it harder to play. Interestingly enough, some guitars have less buzz after lowering the action. A little buzz, however, is needed to get the right sort of ringing attack in the sound of the rasgueo. Nevertheless, the individual notes, particularly on the higher strings, must give a clear sound, not a fuzzy one. Note carefully that as a beginner, you might be attracted by low or soft action on a guitar, since it makes the instrument easier to play. Beware of making that decision. Harder action may be a better choice, because it favors greater projection and clarity in your tone, at the same time developing greater strength in your fingers. Fit your new guitar with the highest-quality strings that you can afford. See to it that your new strings are of the correct tension, and then have them tuned precisely to concert pitch.
Make sure that the guitar has an equal balance of sound quality and volume. These qualities need to be as equal as possible throughout the range of tones: bass, midrange and treble. This should occur both with the open strings as well as all over the fingerboard. Every note should project well, as well as having adequate volume and sustain. You will find that a good bass is more common than a clear, singing treble. Be careful not to allow yourself to be impressed by the bass strings’ potency, ignoring the importance of the treble. In fact, in Flamenco music, the treble is even more important than the bass, particularly if the strings are newly purchased. You must, therefore, pay attention to the balance of sound quality, for that is one way to find a truly exceptional guitar. Play chromatic scales the entire length of each string to hear the sound of each note. Even if you are choosing a guitar from several of the same manufacturer and the same model, try every one of them. Well-made guitars vary in quality and action, because they are crafted individually.
Try your guitar in a non-resonant environment if at all possible. If the showroom floor is uncarpeted, the walls and furnishings bare, the room itself can provide resonance, giving you the impression that the guitar is producing a full, resonant tone. Instead, try your guitar in a carpeted room, full of soft furnishings, so that the sound you hear will be truly coming from the guitar, not bouncing off the walls and floors.
Volume, however, is not at all the same thing as quality or projection. A guitar with true quality, even if it seems quieter, can project further and more clearly. A new guitar fitted with new with new strings may sound loud and powerful, but will often reveal a poor tone quality once you have listened to it more critically, especially once the strings are a little older. Note that a good Flamenco guitar will retain most of its brilliant tone, even with old strings.
Make sure that your guitar’s pegs or machine-heads fit well, and adjust easily. They must be well-fitting and easily adjusted. The best pegs are crafted from ebony. Older pegs tend to stick, so apply a small amount of dry soap or French chalk to keep them from sticking. If you have machine heads, excessive wear indicates that they are made from poor quality materials. Rule out guitars which have such faults. Winding action must be positive and immediate in a good quality guitar. Pegs or machine heads of good quality are fine for most players; other qualities will prove more valuable to determine your choice of an instrument. The nut and bridge-saddle should both be crafted from bone, not of plastic. The slots at the nut need to be cut accurately in order to allow the strings to be in a single plane. You should see no visible wear at the bridge-saddle. If necessary, you can raise the height of the huesos, using thin strips of plastic or card stock.
– The inside of your guitar. The most important parts of a guitar are out of sight. Use a dentist’s mirror to examine the system of fan-strutting. Make sure that there is no excess of glue visible through the soundhole.
– The label. Beware of falsely-labeled guitars which have been cannibalized from broken instruments. Fortunately, this is not a common practice. Perfectly legal, however, is for a guitar which bears the name of a famous maker to be actually manufactured by apprentices or at a factory. The only way to ensure that you have a guitar which is handmade by the maker himself is to familiarize yourself with his system of labeling different guitars of varying grades. Naturally, these handmade guitars are the most expensive, followed by those made under his direct supervision. Cheaper models are generally made by apprentices, while the cheapest are manufactured in factories.
