Classical guitars, prepurchase choices

[Azaril000]

Hey,

After almost a 3 weeks of researching and ebay scouring, and many "lists" of potential guitars to buy, I'm tired of waiting for a "good" deal and I want to start learning some classical and spanish pieces, and my Tanglewood TW28ST acoustic doesn't seem to be cutting it (and the steel strings are really hurting my fingers when picking).

Narrowed my search down to 2 guitars, one cheap and one a bit over my price range. Really want some final advice before I purchase one of the two following guitars (because as bad as it is to do this, I can't play them in person).

Admira Espana (From 1970's): £105
Quoting the seller:

The top is made of Solid Cedar and it has a Mahogany neck.
The back and sides are made from Mahogany.
The fretboard and bridge are Mongoy.

The rosette around the sound hole is inlaid,not transfer.
Fruit wood binding.
It has good quality machine heads(tuners).
It has substantial frets of good nickel quality.

Rosewood veneer to front of headstock.

The strings are well balanced from E to E,it has great projection and sustain and stays in tune well which,
trust me,is a big plus !
The intonation is excellent and it is as light as a feather yet built like a tank !

The voice and tonal quality of the instrument are absolutely Superb !
It is in excellent Tip Top condition,i think it was bought around 35 years ago.

Cuenca 40r (I think Cuenca = Cordoba?): £200

Classical Guitar

Made in Spain in 1982

The guitar is in excellent condition, having been brought stored in a hard case and by the looks of it never played - its really in very clean condition.

Solid Cedar top with Walnut back and sides and a beautiful soundhole rosette. The side of the body are also bound with a lovely maple insert making for a very suttle and classy look.

The guitar plays very well and sounds lovely and has quality tuners.

Although a lot of other sources state the back & sides: Indian Rosewood, and the neck: Mahogany.

I don't really know if I should pay a extra £95 as both guitars seem to have some similar specs. I don't also know if the money difference also reflects on the quality or if the quality difference is very minor. I'm trying to get a very good guitar as cheap as I can, and purely due to the price am leaning towards the admira, but 40r seems to get some good praise.

Any input would be great.

Thanks

[CyberFerret]

Well, I own an Admira (circa 1990) with very similar sounding specs to the one you are looking it, and it is a lovely guitar. Very loud and projects very well. Even the leader of our guitar orchestra who is a classical guitar builder, and owns a $9000 classical guitar was impressed with it.

Can't help you with the Cuenca though - I am not familiar with that maker...

[Azaril000]

Appreciate the feed back, keep it coming!

I'll post the ebay pages, but if mods arent happy I'll take it off. Just posting as the pics are there.

Cuenca: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cuenca-Cla...item1c1db28709 (bidding has ended but he still has it and agreed to do it for £200)

Admira: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Ad...item3f0cfdc744