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  #1  
Old 12-28-2016, 02:27 PM
bluesmandan bluesmandan is offline
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Default Best All-Laminate Classical? (for travel)

I'm looking for recommendations for an all-laminate classical guitar. My mother is taking up guitar, and I myself always go all-solid, but she'll be travelling with it a lot and playing it a lot outside with extreme temperature/humidity changes (out to the boat for a few days, then out in the cold in front of the firepit, etc.) so I'm thinking all-laminate for her -- I'd hate to buy her a nice solid instrument and something split or warp. I don't know much about laminate guitar options, though... I know there are well made and good sounding steel string laminate options, but what about classical?

Vintage or new models, just something all laminate that's well built and has good tuners and good sound. Any recommendations?

Thanks!
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Old 12-29-2016, 08:30 AM
redir redir is offline
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RainSong guitars IMHO are the best thing going for the conditions that you describe but they are gonna cost you about $2 Grand too.

I have a cheap all plywood Yamaha that I got for about $150 bucks 20 years ago that goes on camping trips with me. It's really not all that bad sounding guitar.
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Old 12-29-2016, 09:19 AM
bluesmandan bluesmandan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by redir View Post
RainSong guitars IMHO are the best thing going for the conditions that you describe but they are gonna cost you about $2 Grand too.

I have a cheap all plywood Yamaha that I got for about $150 bucks 20 years ago that goes on camping trips with me. It's really not all that bad sounding guitar.
Yeah, 2 grand is definitely out of my price range. The old Yammies always get high marks. I know the old FG series is great in steel string, but I don't know which of their series is good for classical. I've read that the G231 is pretty good.... know of other yamaha models/series that are good?
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Old 12-30-2016, 10:26 PM
ewalling ewalling is offline
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I recently bought a solid-topped (cedar) La Patrie Motif parlor classical for a little over $300 in one of MF's 15% off sales. And I love it! It's the kind of guitar I just feel like playing a lot. At that price, you don't need to go all laminate.
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Old 12-30-2016, 10:41 PM
YamaYairi YamaYairi is offline
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Yamaha's Classical guitar line all starts with CG and G. Even the cheapies sound pretty good. If you go used you can pick them up pretty cheap. The G235 is available all the time. They must have made a lot of them.
There is a GC series that is special. I have a GC-3D that is all solid woods, hand built.
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Old 12-30-2016, 10:59 PM
redir redir is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bluesmandan View Post
Yeah, 2 grand is definitely out of my price range. The old Yammies always get high marks. I know the old FG series is great in steel string, but I don't know which of their series is good for classical. I've read that the G231 is pretty good.... know of other yamaha models/series that are good?
Well you are not going to get anything good that is made from plywood

But for what you are after you can find something good enough. I think a lot of the old Yamaha's get high marks because they are still around today and still in good shape. They are the best made cheap guitars around if you ask me. And some of them even sound good too.

I let a friend borrow mine otherwise I'd let you know what model it was but it was the cheapest one they made, a C40 maybe? And it didn't sound to terrible and 20 years later the action is pretty much the same and it really has been to hell and back too.
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Old 01-01-2017, 02:42 PM
dkoloff dkoloff is offline
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I would look doe one of the Alvarez Masterworks classical guitars.....find many used ones in the 300 to 400 range and would be a great all around value without sinking a ton of money.
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Old 01-01-2017, 02:56 PM
bluesmandan bluesmandan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dkoloff View Post
I would look doe one of the Alvarez Masterworks classical guitars.....find many used ones in the 300 to 400 range and would be a great all around value without sinking a ton of money.
Hmmm.... I see you've got a Rainsong and 2 Composite Acoustics. You could just give me one of those, cuz, like, you don't need 3 of them do you?

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Old 01-01-2017, 04:45 PM
SolidSpruceTop SolidSpruceTop is offline
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I had a Conn classical. All lam but sounded really nice, especially for $20. Generally look for vintage Japanese guitar since they'll probably fit your ticket
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Old 01-01-2017, 07:49 PM
MrTom MrTom is offline
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Hello. :-) It maybe not be a true "classical", but another idea.. would be to buy an Ovation, like the Ovation AB24-RR Applause Balladeer.. it's an acoustic electric with a composite thin round back, and then put on Nylon "ball end" strings on it. That guitar is $200.00 USD.. and I bet it would be a close alternative.. and certainly pretty great in rough climates. I have a non electric Ovation guitar.. and they hold up really well, even the inexpensive ones. And look up the string too... these are pretty good: Ernie Ball Earthwood Folk Nylon Ball End Set
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  #11  
Old 01-01-2017, 08:56 PM
bluesmandan bluesmandan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SolidSpruceTop View Post
I had a Conn classical. All lam but sounded really nice, especially for $20. Generally look for vintage Japanese guitar since they'll probably fit your ticket
I had a couple of Conn steel strings... a dread and an OM. They had great sound, but the action was getting pretty bad on them, so I got rid of them. I checked the other day for a Conn classical on Ebay, but none were listed. One might pop up eventually, though.
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