At the end of July, I was able to go down to Tacoma to attend the public exhibit at the Guild of American Luthiers convention (http://luth.org/). It was a great afternoon to stroll among the tables and see all the great guitars on display. Every type of guitar was there: electric guitars, steel string guitars, classical, flamenco - even harp guitars and ukeleles. I focused my efforts, of course, on luthiers displaying nylon string guitars, both classical and flamenco, figuring that the classical guitar luthiers might also build flamencos but weren't displaying them. All in all, I found 9 luthiers that had flamenco models for me to examine. I found it fascinating to meet and talk to them all, and to try out their instruments (though of course the setting wasn't ideal for me to really give them a great workout).
I generally started off my conversations by asking them what their base price was, and how long of a waiting time they currently had. All but two of them were within the price range I had set for myself, with a couple (whom I assume were just starting out) as low as $1500. I played some nice instruments, but none of them were initially blowing me away. They weren't bad guitars, but they weren't anything special compared to what I had seen and played at Rosewood Guitar in Seattle.
I found the table set aside for John Park - the Luthier I had corresponded with earlier, and who had told me about this exhibit - but his table was empty. So I kept wandering around, looking at the guitars and hoping he would not be a no-show. Having played his earlier Negra at Rosewood, I was getting even more hopeful after seeing what else was available at this convention. I had wandered around about as much as I could, when I finally saw him near his table, and with two guitars set on stands on his table. After waiting for him to finish a conversation with another Luthier I introduced myself and reminded him about our email correspondence, which he remembered. He explained that he had just finished stringing up the Negra he had brought (the other guitar was a Blanca) and jumped in his car to drive to the convention. In fact, he hadn't even had a chance to try out the Negra.
I settled down to look at the Negra, which was a beautiful instrument. It had a Spruce top, Indian Rosewood back and sides, and tuning pegs rather than machines. It had a nice looking rosette, and wood bindings, but nothing austentatious as far as decoration. That's fine with me - while I love seeing a lot of mother of pearl on steel string guitars, I'm far more impressed with beautiful woods and a great sound from a classical or flamenco guitar. I nervously tried out a Solea on it, and was immediately impressed with the sound. It had a warm tone, but gave off a satisfying growl when I finally got up the nerve to push it during some rasgueados. This, finally, was promising to be exactly what I was looking for. I played some more for a while, including a little bit of Steve Howe and a couple of classical movements. Yes indeed - an instrument that promised to happily accommodate whatever kind of music I cared to coax out of it. In short, just a beautiful instrument.
I (reluctantly) handed the guitar back to John, and watched his face light up as he finally had a chance to play this guitar. John is quite an accomplished guitarist in his own right (definitely above my intermediate level right now), and it was a treat to listen to him confidently play some flamenco as well as classical. He explained that he had tried something new with this guitar: using Rosewood on a flamenco can be problematic, as it's a heavier wood than the Cypress and other lighter woods that are used for Blancas. To compensate for this, he shaved the back quite a bit thinner than normal, and used fan bracing on the back to better support it. That resulted in a great response and the flexibility both John and I were being blown away by. To illustrate it, he played some jazz pieces on it and sure enough, it proved to be up to that task as well.
That was it - I was sold. I parted ways with John, reminding him that it was going to take a while for me to save up but I had no question that I wanted a Negra like this one. He promised to set aside some of the same Rosewood he had used on this guitar, and for me to let him know when I was ready to set him loose on making an instrument for me.
It was a great feeling driving home afterwards. All of the Luthiers I had met were enthusiastic about their craft and enjoyable to talk to. I spent the most time with John, and thoroughly enjoyed talking to him. Now I just needed to figure out how to save up some money so I could proceed with this project.
