Almansa 413 Flamenco Reviews 3

I found this guitar on E-Bay, and paid around $500 for the guitar, a Jose Ramirez case, and shipping.

This was my first guitar and, knowing nothing about them, assumed that since this model had nylon strings, it was a classical. While it is intended for rigorous, flamenco style playing, I used it for mostly Bach and slow classical pieces, and found that it worked surprisingly well. In fact, while shopping around for a true classical intrument, (settled on the Ramirez R4) I was taken aback by how much more wonderful it sounded than other guitars in its price range. The bass is robust, with an exceptionally clear "A" string.

There are, though, a few things about this instrument with which I was not pleased. The thing that irritated me the most about it was the "G" string. No matter which strings I put on, the "G" always sounded flat and tinny. The tuning pegs are sub-standard. They would sometimes slip as much as 1/8th of a turn if touched, and had a tendency to lock up from time to time, and the harmonics were also a bit weak. All in all, considering the price, these problems were easy to put up with.

There were some small flaws in my model. It had speckles under the varnish that looked a bit like dirt, the action was a bit tricky, and there were the problems with the keys that I already mentioned. When all was said and done, though, I played the hell out of it for three years, dropped it a few times, and even left it in the sun once, and it stayed in one piece and continued to sound better over time.

A great guitar for the money.

Guido the Impaler rated this unit 3 on 2003-12-11.

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