First Flamenco Guitar.

[johnparchem]

This is my first Flamenco Guitar built following the Paco Chorobo video class offered by Robbie O'Brien. It was a fun course to follow as it include a lot of slide visits and interviews in the Spanish flamenco community. Paco Chorobo is an outstanding flamenco guitar builder and a wonderful flamenco guitarist. I signed up for the on site class offered and part of the package included the video course. Having a bit of time I built one in my shop before going to Robbie's place. Never having held a flamenco guitar before I was unsure if I ended up with a flamenco guitar. Turned out I did OK Paco was surprised at how good it sounded (less so for my workmanship). Paco decided to play my guitar for an informal concert for Robbie's students and neighbors. I got a few videos two are in this post.

Following Paco's descriptions of the flamenco sound, I thought a flamenco should have a relatively high frequency top. I targeted 96 Hz air and a 200 Hz top. It was a mind teaser for me as stiffness was always a part of sustain in my mind. Besides doing all the many little things Paco taught to kill sustain, I made the choice when using Gores thickness equations to make the top a bit thinner than my classicals. I then made up that loss of stiffness by keeping the braces high enough. I did the braces from his description and then by feel. I think I can hear the close to 200 Hz top in how the trebles jump out when Paco is playing. Luckily the bass was still there enough.



youtu.be/BtGm28PE6M0


youtu.be/ad1fUzbN3V8

Flamenco Blanca
Top: sitka spruce
back and sides: spanish cypress
bindings: Rocklite Sundari
back backstrip is East Indian Rosewood.
Neck: spanish cedar and laid up it ebony
Bridge and and peghead veneer Brazilian Rosewood.
Tuners: Wittner Finetune Flamenco

[kiwigeo]

Nice work John..very impressive. What's the finish? French Polish?

[lamanoditrento]

Fantastic John! Great sounding flamenco, and so great to hear played, and by Paco no less.

I've been following Paco's ig, the course looked like a great time.

[Steve.Toscano]

Well done on the build John.
Looks and sounds great!

[johnparchem]

Thanks guy! The guitar was French Polished. I have been spending a bunch of time learning how to sort of play Flamenco guitar. I might find a real teacher.

[johnparchem]

I did a bit more analysis of the guitar after having it for 4 months. All of the flamenco players that have tried it have been shock at its sound. I watched them go from skeptical to slightly interested when they felt how light the guitar was, to very engaged when they started playing and spending a lot of time with the instrument.
The resonances are 95 Hz 198.5 Hz and 157 Hz. The bridge rotates 1° and monopole mobility is 30.47

New tap testing results. I dropped the action down almost 1 mm from the first plot. It made a couple Hz difference.

strung up resonance.jpg (86.44 KiB) Viewed 7670 times

[Fisherman]

Great sounding guitar! Loved the videos.