E
Good for classical as well as flamenco
I play mainly classical guitar style, though I do not limit myself totally to it and greatly enjoy an adventure into other styles of music, and of course, guitars. Because of HB's reasonably priced guitars ,these adventures have become more frequent and affordable and my latest is into the world of flamenco. I have tried playing flamenco on my hand made Richard Newman guitar but it has always lacked that bright, percussive tone as you can imagine so for £150 (approx) I decided to try Thoman's flamenco guitar. After a short wait the guitar arrived and I couldn't wait to get the box open and try it out. Getting a guitar from Thoman always makes me feel like a kid on Christmas morning, it's a joyous occasion.
First impression was not disappointing. The colour and quality of the wood is gorgeous and I was lucky in getting an amazingly symmetrical grain book matched feature on the back. Neck nice and smooth, not overly thin, and fretboard is flat with fairly low out of the box action. Tuners functional but not pretty, so will upgrade them. Nut plastic and in sure the bridge saddle is an uncompensated sliver of bone, so will probably change them too. Sound after a quick tune up was to my ears more like a classical guitar than a flamenco. The soundboard is thicker than I expected and the strings certainly were not doing the instrument any justice. After changing them to D'darrio flamenco, however, it took on the feel and sound of a flamenco. Certainly not a thoroughbred but adequate for my needs. A clear scratch plate or golpeador would have been a practical feature as it doesn't take long for your nails to rip up the surface of the soundboard without it.
All in all a nice guitar for the money. Well made, good wood, nice finish, easily playable with a surprisingly deep resonant bass and bright treble. Happy with the guitar and would recommend it as a student flamenco or as a go to now and then flamenco.
Now , I wonder what my next HB guitar is going to be?! I think I feel a bit of cool and slow and mellow electric bluesy jazzy stuff coming on; so maybe a semi hollow? Who knows? With Harley Benton the choice is remarkable and most satisfyingly varied. I'll go have a look now.
First impression was not disappointing. The colour and quality of the wood is gorgeous and I was lucky in getting an amazingly symmetrical grain book matched feature on the back. Neck nice and smooth, not overly thin, and fretboard is flat with fairly low out of the box action. Tuners functional but not pretty, so will upgrade them. Nut plastic and in sure the bridge saddle is an uncompensated sliver of bone, so will probably change them too. Sound after a quick tune up was to my ears more like a classical guitar than a flamenco. The soundboard is thicker than I expected and the strings certainly were not doing the instrument any justice. After changing them to D'darrio flamenco, however, it took on the feel and sound of a flamenco. Certainly not a thoroughbred but adequate for my needs. A clear scratch plate or golpeador would have been a practical feature as it doesn't take long for your nails to rip up the surface of the soundboard without it.
All in all a nice guitar for the money. Well made, good wood, nice finish, easily playable with a surprisingly deep resonant bass and bright treble. Happy with the guitar and would recommend it as a student flamenco or as a go to now and then flamenco.
Now , I wonder what my next HB guitar is going to be?! I think I feel a bit of cool and slow and mellow electric bluesy jazzy stuff coming on; so maybe a semi hollow? Who knows? With Harley Benton the choice is remarkable and most satisfyingly varied. I'll go have a look now.
7
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S(
Can't fault it for the money
There is really nothing to complain about at the price point: you won't do better for the money. The guitar I received took a couple of months to settle in; most notably the intonation significantly improved during that time. So I'd recommend not trying to setup the action and intonation for the first two months at least; instead just tune and play the instrument regularly.
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Aa
bad stringing
the guitar is great but the three low strings kept buzzing a lot when I played, plus one of the strings snapped after a few days other than that the guitar came in perfect condition and sounded great if I forget about the string buzz.
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2
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O
Excellent for the price
Solid, well made guitar. I play classical and not flamenco and this is very nice guitar for this purpose. I use it as my second guitar mainly for travelling, but I also really like its low action and it has its own character. Does not project as nicely as my Hanika, but that is 10 times the price!
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A
Thomann Classica Flamenco 1F
I ordered this guitar for use at a weekend Flamenco workshop at the end of the month.
The woods used in making this guitar look very attractive and produce a full sound. The quality of the varnish is excellent. There are no blemishes anywhere.
The strings are good enough but I don't know what make they are. They don't keep their tuning very long. I have decided to upgrade to designated Flamenco strings which will keep the tuning more reliable as well as improving an already-good sound.
I think careful bridge adjustment would improve the action by a millimetre or two without compromising sound quality.
One must be very accurate with finger placement on the fretboard otherwise an irritating buzz will ensue at the bridge.
Again, careful work on the bridge would cure this.
Overall, I am very pleased with this guitar. I would certainly recommend it.
The woods used in making this guitar look very attractive and produce a full sound. The quality of the varnish is excellent. There are no blemishes anywhere.
The strings are good enough but I don't know what make they are. They don't keep their tuning very long. I have decided to upgrade to designated Flamenco strings which will keep the tuning more reliable as well as improving an already-good sound.
I think careful bridge adjustment would improve the action by a millimetre or two without compromising sound quality.
One must be very accurate with finger placement on the fretboard otherwise an irritating buzz will ensue at the bridge.
Again, careful work on the bridge would cure this.
Overall, I am very pleased with this guitar. I would certainly recommend it.
4
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6
Good value flamenco styled guitar
Good general construction. After swapping out the stock plastic (I think) compensated bridge and nut for decent bone versions and changing the strings to La Bella 820 reds it plays nicely.
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