Re: Zavaleta's classical guitar website --was Re: classical guitar

Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 17:33:24 +0000 (UTC)
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic
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rtmca wrote:
Personally I would stay away from classical guitars from
> non-traditional countries (ie. eastern Europe, Mexico) if for no other
> reason to protect your investment.
This is very biased. The Veracruz luthiers who make top dollar baroque,
classical, indigenous and the Prague luthiers who serviced the
(extremely sophisticated) Russian classical guitar market in the past,
and now find an opening market at the very top end in the West don't
deserve to be sidelined.
Nor do pretty ordinary luthiers, like the Romanians. I am dithering
around wondering whether to sell my Lowden S25J right at the moment. I'm
playing a mahogany/spruce Romanian classical which cost me, wholesale,
about the same as two sets of top end classical strings - it is the sort
of guitar which could be retailed for $199. It's stunningly good, and I
can articulate stuff on it which is lost totally on the Lowden ($2750).
It blows away a friend's £650 ($1000+) Spanish handbuilt classical, not
just for response and tone, but for accuracy of intonation. And it's not
even the top end guitar from the makers; my next move is to order maybe
four rosewood/spruce classicals from their top range, with cutaways I
think, pick the best one and sell the remainder. Before Christmas I
bought a rosewood/spruce non-cutaway from the same source, and thinking
I could just buy some more, sold it for £150 ($240) to a classical
player and luthier in London - eBay auction. He had nothing but praise
for it, in terms of integrity of construction (made with no shortcuts at
all), woods, and sound; his criticisms were that the bridge was larger
and heavier than he would have made himself, and that the tuners were
not really up to the standard of the rest of the box.
I can't find any reason to buy in classical guitars - I do not have any
contacts in that marketplace - and do so mainly from curiosity, and
because I like to own a variety of instruments. So far I've bought one
$70 solid maple student classical (sold it on ebay for £37, so I think I
made a loss on that!); one $160 rosewood concert grade one, as I said,
sold on for £150 which is closer to break-even than you would think
after shipping and the forced inclusion of our 17.5% VAT tax for which I
am registered and liable; and one $120 mahogany/spruce which is not
really concert grade (it uses a standard neck block and thin notched
kerfing, rather than the fully carved Spanish heel and carved kerfing)
but sounds superb - at the moment, keeping that.
HORA who make these are a big workshop - 80,000 guitars etc a year -
along just the same lines as the big Spanish makers, where everything is
done by hand, but in large quantities. Even so, the prices are
ridiculously low for solid wood classicals which are far superior to,
say, Yamaha or Chinese offerings at two or three times the price. They
are about one-third of the factory-shop Spanish prices.
I am not 'dealing' in these instruments from HORA but on the basis of
three classicals and three steel string 'normal' guitars bought from
them so far to try out, I can recommend that the classicals are
generally very sound and the top dollar ones are superb for the money.
Their steel string dreadnought instruments are not worth trying; the
action and intonation is not correctable. But even with the normal price
applying to single instrument, plus the cost of shipping that to the
USA, I would say their solid wood classicals represented a fairly safe bet.
See www.hora.ro - but the latest instruments are not yet shown on their
website. The instrument to ask for is the 'Segada SM45', catalogue ref
N1016CTW - 650mm scale, spruce top (Carpathian, which is similar to
German or Swiss rather than American spruces), Indian rosewood back and
sides, cedar neck, rosewood fingerboard, rosewood bridge with angled
saddle compensation, rounded cutaway at 12th fret, 18 frets plus 19th
for E strings only, wood marquetry rosette, headstock center and back
center strip. Model without cutaway is Segada SM40, N1016.
I would be surprised if this cost more than $300 including shipping to
the USA. They would probably take 4-6 weeks to complete the order and
ship but their new catalogue photos show a decent stock of the
instruments being made up in April in the workshop.
Some connection, because I do buy and sell their zouks/mandos etc. I
know a couple of other NG or other listmembers have dealt with them from
the USA, and been very happy. I know there is a risk when buying their
cheap 'folk' instruments, quality control is poor and work is often
needed. This does not seem to be the case with their violins, or their
classical guitars, and I would simply say to NG members - you really
can't go wrong at the prices involved. You may get a $1500 equivalent
instrument for $300; the worst you can get is a $600 equivalent.
David