School me on Classical vs Flamenco

[Paikon]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Thanks for your contribution to this thread Paikon. Are classical / flamenco guitars more popular in Greece than a steel string guitar?

We dont play Flamenco .
Classical and steel strings guitars are popular.We had some very good Classical guitarists over the years .
Both guitars and especially steel string guitars are used widely on greek folk music together with greek bouzouki.
And like the rest of the world we use steel string guitars to play American/ British folk rock music.

a little sample
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn4PMgHiON4

[Alter]

Actually there are some flamenco players in greece, but the style is nowhere as popular as classical guitar.

Another difference between classical and flamenco guitars, very evident for me, was the responsiveness. I feel the a flamenco guitar is built to be played harder, it can handle harder strumming than a classical would, generally doesnt have the sensitivity of a classical. Its like playing fingerstyle on a dreadnought, and than switching to a smaller, fingerstyle specific acoustic. You can play anything with everything really, but i cant help feeling that each guitar is meant to play specific styles best. So if i play classical stuff on my flamenco, i miss the bass response and the way a classical sounds when played with a light touch. If you try flamenco stuff on a classical, the sound breaks, so to me they are very different instruments.

[Red_Label]

Originally Posted by Alter

Actually there are some flamenco players in greece, but the style is nowhere as popular as classical guitar.

Another difference between classical and flamenco guitars, very evident for me, was the responsiveness. I feel the a flamenco guitar is built to be played harder, it can handle harder strumming than a classical would, generally doesnt have the sensitivity of a classical. Its like playing fingerstyle on a dreadnought, and than switching to a smaller, fingerstyle specific acoustic. You can play anything with everything really, but i cant help feeling that each guitar is meant to play specific styles best. So if i play classical stuff on my flamenco, i miss the bass response and the way a classical sounds when played with a light touch. If you try flamenco stuff on a classical, the sound breaks, so to me they are very different instruments.

One thing that I've noticed that was the BIG difference between classicals and flamencos (and lead me whole hog away from classicals, into flamencos) is the "explosiveness" of flamencos. The lighter bracing and build not only results in more volume and response (vibration), it makes the notes just seem to "jump" out of the guitar when strummed hard. After many years of owning and playing on classicals, I was frankly blown-away when I first strummed a properly setup flamenco. To top it off, it was an inexpensive, made-in-China Cordoba GK Studio.

I was in Vegas with the wife in May and stopped by the Guitar Center south of the strip and picked it up and couldn't put it down. I majored in classical guitar at a program run by Christopher Parkening back in the mid-80s. I've also dabbled with traditional flamenco on and off over the years. I've owned some very nice classicals and nylon-crossovers over the years. But I'd never been able to lay my hands on a purpose-built guitar for flamenco. Anyways... I HAD to have this guitar, so I jumped through the hoops to fly it home with me and gigged it the following weekend. I had this "cheap" $650 Chinese flamenco on one stand, and my $4K Breedlove Masterclass Bossa Nova (nylon crossover) on another stand next to it. I played the Cordoba for the first set, and then switched over to my "baby" for the second set. Within two songs I'd put the expensive guitar back on its stand and picked the far cheaper one back up -- to spend the rest of the evening playing only it. I found that for what I do, the immediate, more "in your face" response of the flamenco is much preferred. So I sold the Masterclass and I've now got four Cordoba flamencos. The other three are mid-level models and are far superior to the GK Studio even (GK Pro, FCWE Reissue, and 55FCE).

Anyways... having also played electric guitar for most of my life, I would liken the difference between a classical and a flamenco to the difference between playing your tube amp on "1" (where it's just amplifying the signal) and playing it on "7" or above (where its responsiveness and explosiveness is such that it almost feels like it's going to start playing on its own). Now I've never played a $10,000+ Ruck, Humphrey, Smallman, Hauser or whatever iconic classical builder's instrument. So those instruments might feel "explosive" in their own way.

[state-it]

For a bit of schooling on the word 'flamingo':

In Spanish:

'Flamingo' is the male of the species of the long-legged pink bird.

'Flamenco' is the female of the species of the long-legged pink bird.

So 'Flamingo' guitar isn't too far off the mark!

[BuleriaChk]

Yeah, in the same way the word "c--k" has several meanings.......
among them, expressing the meaning of words as going off half-cocked......

Originally Posted by state-it

For a bit of schooling on the word 'flamingo':

In Spanish:

'Flamingo' is the male of the species of the long-legged pink bird.

'Flamenco' is the female of the species of the long-legged pink bird.

So 'Flamingo' guitar isn't too far off the mark!