Some of you will be interested to know what guitars I use in my videos.
In total I own 4 Spanish nylon string guitars but my main one is made by Alhambra, model number 7 P A CW E2.
I bought it on a trip to Houston, Texas in early 2014 for around $1800.
It’s a decent guitar made in Spain and for now it’s the main one I use in my video lessons.
Top: Solid German Spruce
Sides & Back: Solid Indian Rosewood
Neck: Mahogany Reinforced inside with Ebony Wood
Fingerboard: Ebony
Machine Heads: Gold Plated
Electronics: Fishman Prefix PRO Blend
The official product page is here http://www.alhambrausa.com/guitars/cutaway/19/7-p-a-cw.html
And the homepage of Alhambra guitars in the U.S is here.
Strings
The strings I typically use are D’Addario Pro Arte EJ45C at normal tension.
Inside the pack you’ll find two different types of G strings, I use the regular clear one and not the brown one.
You’ll find that it’s the bass strings (Low E, A and D) that wear out the quickest so these are the ones you’ll replace most often.
The treble strings (G, B and High E) will easily last 2 – 3 months and many think they sound better with some age anyway. One of the first signs you’ll notice when your treble strings need replacing is that they’ll start to not tune up as well as before.
My Tuner
The tuner I use is a rather old fashioned SEIKO ST757.
They are not easy to find but I finally got one in a guitar store in Orlando, Florida a few years back.
The main reason I wanted this style of tuner is because it gives you and exact reading right down to 01 cents.
This is not so important when tuning up a nylon string guitar but it is very useful for tuning a steel string acoustic where each string is tuned slightly “off” 0 in order to get all chords sounding as perfect as possible.
Having said all that, electronic tuners are only ever used as a guide, your ear is always the final judge!
My Capo
The capo I use is not very traditional when it comes to Spanish guitar. It’s a Jim Dunlop JD-83CN Trigger Capo. I like them because they are fast to put and and off and feel very solid.
Whenever you put a capo on your guitar make sure that it’s practically “on” the fret itself. This will help to keep your tuning accurate.
Also, don’t simply tune up all open strings then slap on a capo… put the capo on first and then tune up. This will absolutely give you the best sound/results when playing.
In Spanish guitar we use a capo principally to change the “sound” of the guitar so we can work with different timbres of treble and bass. The same is true in Flamenco guitar.
My Next Guitar…
There is a company in Spain doing some amazing work with Spanish and Flamenco style guitars here Andalusian Guitars.
They are really modernizing the instrument with clever innovation and producing guitars which far superior to anything else out there.
They are the real deal!
This is not just speculation or personal opinion, everything they do is backed up with facts and figures to support the changes they are introducing to the instrument.
You can see all the innovation here.
They work very much to continue a line of innovation that all started with Paco de Lucia and the changes he brought about to every aspect of Flamenco guitar.