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Chinese made classical guitar


musicalhair

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I might be a bit of a gear snob, if I don't appear that way I'll try harder :D

 

Anyway, I'm in this music store-- actually Rondo, the same place a lot of yous guys get these "Agile" guitars over the internet-- looking for Mozart's "Valse Favorite" for my oldest daughter to play. The kids go over the the keyboards and I look for the music, can't find it but see a

 

lefty classical guitar with on board electronics and a cut-away. I pick it up, but I'm more in shock of actually finding a lefty classical in a store besides "Southpaw" that I know I'm not judging it fairly.

 

I need a new classical and would really benefit from one with on board electronics already installed. I wanted to get one custom made and was considering seein if I could get Gila Eban to make one lefty, or a Pimentel lefty. This is the opposite end of the spectrum. It is made in China, projects like my flamenco with a blanket thrown over it :D but felt and played pretty nicely for what it was.

 

The advantage of a chinese made classical over an ass-kicking one made by a world-class luthier is that I can play it in bars and clubs and places where it could be knocked over by drunks or people just not loooking out for it when it is on a stand (when it is aclimating to the room for example) with out me worrying about it. If I showed up at Kenny's Castaways with a Gila Eban guitar I'd have the thing roped off as it aclimated and post guard dogs around it. So it is with a $5-7,000 guitar verses a $130 or less guitar. Plus unless it came with electronic, I'd be scared to death to have any cutting done into it. Even just an under the saddle pickup I'm afraid to put into my flamenco. I have to mic it or use a stick on contact mic (what tone!?!?!?! :freak: )

 

So, should I get the el cheapo chinese classical with the specific goal of playing it out with confidence that it is club worthy, or hold out and save for a world class classical that I probably would be all stressed over taking out to clubs. If I were playing classical recitals it would be one choice, but what I most often have done in the past and have been asked to do again is play "behind" singer-songwriters.

 

OK, now for a story.

 

We go into Sam Ash looking for this Mozart tune. My mother in law is teaching my oldest it, and my wife just ASSuMEd that we have it here but we don't. So "the artist formerly know as 'Seven o' Mine" knows the first 16 measures or so. We walk in and the sheet music guy offers to help, he don't know the tune so I send her to the piano to play it for him in case he recognizes it. He is knocked out by her playing. We are thumbing through the Mozart books looking for the piece and he gets something that might be it, he thinks. We look at it and we know it isn't it. My kid sings the melody in Solfegio for him so we can look for those notes. She goes into "So Fe So Ti So Re Ti Do La Mi Re Ti So ..." all the way through what she knows of it. The dude's jaw practically drops to the floor. And I'm like grinning because I've been knocked out by this too. My kid can sing the classical melodies she's working on for piano, and sing them in "fixed Do" sofegio. Very cool, very very cool.

 

That has nothing to do with my Chinese guitar question but I thought people might dig it.

check out some comedy I've done:

http://louhasspoken.tumblr.com/

My Unitarian Jihad Name: Brother Broadsword of Enlightened Compassion.

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You might try moving towards a less extreme range and consider a more mid-level box like the Hill Munich model or something by a luthier with less of a name than Gila. I've heard some really nice thing about David Schramm's Hauser knock-offs for instance.

 

With the 3 grand you save you can buy a decent-sounding Tak for the bar gigs and still have the good guitar for your soul.

 

Cools story about your daughter!

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I'm glad you liked it!

 

The thing is finding a lefty. I don't want to by something without picking it up and playing it (I'll skip that idea if someone is building it, especially Gila Eban :) ), but that sort of right off the bat sends me to Southpaw in Houston and I'm in NJ. Yeah, an Alverez Yari or a Tak or even a Taylor is in the reasonable price range.

 

I've never actually played a lefty-made classical. My flamenco is a restrung righty.

 

I don't want to make a trip to Houston unless I'm coming back with like two Gretschs, a classical or two and a G&L or two. I should take a look around the stores in NYC for one.

 

I guess the real question is sight-unseen Tak (or similar) shipped from Houston or the Chinese one in Rondo. The thing about playing "lead" behind a singer-songwriter is that the tone almost doesn't matter on a nylon string. The complexities of tone and even the balance from low to high are sort of meaningless in that context. Plugged in tone would matter far more than the actual acoustic tone.

check out some comedy I've done:

http://louhasspoken.tumblr.com/

My Unitarian Jihad Name: Brother Broadsword of Enlightened Compassion.

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Yeah, finding a lefty could be daunting. I did a quick search of Guitars International and Guitar Salon and didn't see any. Lot's of guitars I'd love to own and can't afford though....

 

For a gigging guitar a Tak is probably the best way to go. Although the Taylors have superior electronics (IMO) they don't feel or sound like a traditional classical. If you want an Earl Klugh type jazzy nylon-string sound and wouldn't miss the 2" nut, the Taylor would be the better bet. It might be easier to get a lefty from Taylor just due to the way their manufacturing process is set up.

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Congrats with your daughter. She obviously has an ear for music and a very good teacher. Keep out of her way...
Raise your children and spoil your grandchildren. Spoil your children and raise your grandchildren.
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Hey Caprae, thanks.

 

Actually she is being taught currently by me my wife and my mother in law. I don't play piano but I showed her the major scales (all be F major) and she does the natural, melodic and harmonic minor scales on A. I work with her on reading (clapping, singing) rhythms and I taught her the fixed do solfegio. We used to do movable do and I was not really sure which to do but she started doing fixed do pretty easy so we stuck with it.

 

My wife and Mother in law handle the teaching of specific songs. Especially the mechanics. I focus on the interpretation, which I think is easier because she can sing the parts. She isn't "sight reading" the music yet, she really ends up memorizing the music and can check her self on it by reading the score, but like most of us she hacks through it till she has it memorized then sails through it.

 

Any thoughts on the Chinese Classical vs say a Tak or a Taylor?

 

Hey Justus, I think you're right about the Tak over the Taylor. Southpaw has a lot, I want to make a trip out there but I can't really afford it.

check out some comedy I've done:

http://louhasspoken.tumblr.com/

My Unitarian Jihad Name: Brother Broadsword of Enlightened Compassion.

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Hey Justus, I guess it's like "just us".

 

That is going to be a big factor. I use a Fender Acoustisonic sfx II, they have the smaller version of that sitting right next it the acoustic guitars there. I'll go back and plug it in. I'd really like to find locally a tak or something to compare it to.

 

If anything it would either tide me over till I get to Southpaw, or after about a month it will get me busy on scrounging up the money to make the trip sooner than I thought I would.

check out some comedy I've done:

http://louhasspoken.tumblr.com/

My Unitarian Jihad Name: Brother Broadsword of Enlightened Compassion.

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Hey Boggs, if I see a lefty I'll take a look at it for sure. Oh, and check you're PM's, I ain't sent one yet but I'm about to.

 

I'm taking the day tomorrow after trying to meet with the "zoning official" (fun, fun, fun) to go up to Adirondack Guitars just outside Albany. He has a whole buncha lefties. For me a trip to Southpaw is a minimum three days (I would take a bus, and ship the new guitars), but I'll drive this and not ship. The Drive up is 3 and a half hours probably four.

check out some comedy I've done:

http://louhasspoken.tumblr.com/

My Unitarian Jihad Name: Brother Broadsword of Enlightened Compassion.

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