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Old 05-27-2023, 08:53 AM
Aspiring Aspiring is offline
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Default New Hanika New Century Doubletop Day

A week back I attended the LaConner guitar festival. A crossover by Bruce Sexauer caught my attention. I really enjoyed the guitar and thought hard about picking it up.

However, I have little experience with concert grade classical guitars. My learning so far has been on an Emerald X7 Nylon, a Yamaha SLG200N and my EO folding classical and some on a friends mid line Cordoba.

I decided to get some more experience with what's out there and work on my classical chops before I commit the kind of money that a luthier build like Bruces commands.

As I was researching I saw favorable comments on Hanikas and then came across what I thought was a great price on a pretty unique instrument. The Hanika New Century Doubletop, used. This is their professional HE line, so one step down from their top end 1a line. New in Europe they are $5300 US putting it in the price point of some luthier builds.

The limited info I could find online was a video demo by Siccas ( which I really liked the sound of compared to other video demos by the same artist) At any rate I figured at the price it was worth a flyer and the shop ( Music go round in Albuquerque) was surprisingly great to work with providing assurance that I could return for only the cost of return shipping if I wasn't satisfied. They also did a fantastic job packing the instrument.

I have to say I am blown away. The neck is great for me (which I had anticipated from the published profile). The sound is mesmerizing. Clear, resonant massive sustain, and tons of volume easily on tap. I spent hours playing yesterday.

It has many of the new innovations built in. Armrest, nomex cedar Doubletop with inner carbon layer, traditional fan bracing, laminated reinforced neck, carbon double back (an air space separates the two layers unlike a laminated back). I did a string change yesterday and more details started showing through. 12 hole bridge is an innovation I really liked. The bar coded serial number burned into neck block, brass inserts on the tuner pegs. Fret work was perfect to my eyes. Setup was very good out of the box with a typical moderate classical action at 3.5mm / 3mm at 12th and great nut heights. Intonation was spot on wherever I checked in the upper frets.

The double back depth on the inside is interesting too. Looks like a false bottom chest when you look inside and see the back closer to the top than you expect.

I don't have experience with luthier builds in that 5k price point to provide a comparison and given I played Bruce's at the show I can't really compare that to this one either. (Although Bruce's is set more towards flamenco setup and was a bit easier to play)

However to me it blows away anything I have tried in the 2.5k price point that I ended up getting it for.

One of these days I will take it to Rosewood guitars in Seattle as it appears they do have a number of luthier builds and Alihambra and several others that would make for good comparisons.

At any rate given I found nothing online for this instrument or any of the Hanika professional line and they are nearly impossible to find in stores in the US, I thought I would post up my experience.

I now have an instrument that I feel can play with my girlfriend and her flute without needing to plug in.
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Last edited by Aspiring; 05-27-2023 at 10:12 AM.
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  #2  
Old 05-27-2023, 09:58 AM
Doctor7 Doctor7 is offline
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Looks like a great guitar, congrats!
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Old 05-27-2023, 09:16 PM
Aspiring Aspiring is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doctor7 View Post
Looks like a great guitar, congrats!
Thanks very much enjoying it. I have been rediscovering songs I knew and just enjoying the tone.
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Old 06-04-2023, 10:37 AM
Aspiring Aspiring is offline
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Added a sound sample for anyone curious.

https://on.soundcloud.com/h9UwD
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