I visited a builder while on vacation in Costa Rica

[micahwc]

I found a local builder while on vacation to Costa Rica. I didn’t have a classical yet so I wanted to visit his shop.

I don’t speak very much Spanish and the lady at the desk didn’t speak much English but somehow my wife was able to translate good enough.

This guitar was built in the room next door to the show room, it had just been placed there earlier that day. It had dust on it they wiped off for me. She said the back and sides were some kind of pine, and the neck is Korina (black limba I think).

It has a bone nut and saddle cut from either a cow, Buffalo, or horse as evidenced from the long hunk of bone in the workshop they were using. The tuning key buttons I think are also bone. The nut slots appear to be well cut but the nut itself is not as rounded over as it could be (though it’s far better than the nut on the last Gibson electric I bought)

The tuners are smooth but have a very low ratio, they feel good though.

The rosette appears to be a sticker that was lacquered over, it feels slightly raised.

Frets have no sharp ends but I imagine that will change when I get it back to South Dakota and our current lack of any humidity in the air.

All of the glue joints appear to be well done.

There are some minor finish flaws, and a place in the sound board that got a small dent in it during construction (on the edge of the sound hole)

I’m not sure what strings are on it, they needed to be stretched but over the course of the day they now seem to hold tuning much better.

I’m not a classical guitar player so I’m not the best judge of how they are supposed to sound; that said it sounds good to me so far. It was less than $400 with a case and is all solid wood.

https://imgur.com/a/qfYNNSq

[Pura Vida]

Congrats. It looks like he makes a variety of guitars for under $300-400.

https://www.aristidesguzman.com

[Drak]

Well ...count me as quite ignorant.
I looked him up too, and besides the website, I found a single Reverb listing (sold).
For a classical 12-string!
What?

In my entire life I did not know such an animal even existed.
About $150.00.
I'm still slightly stunned.
What do you do with a 12 string classical?

https://reverb.com/item/11967727-ari...-with-hardcase

Someone had removed one course of the strings and made it a 6 string...