Flamenco Purchase Help

[polishcomedy]

I've been teaching myself flamenco on my Alvarez AC60S classical guitar. First off, I haven't been using a tap plate, so my body has a handful of fingernail dents in it. Could that pose a problem beyond cosmetics?

Anyways, I want to buy an actual flamenco guitar. Looking at the big chain stores my main options in my price range appear to be:

Yamaha CG171SF
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Yamaha-CG171SF-Flamenco-Guitar?sku=511105

Cordoba 32EF
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Cordoba-32EF-Flamenco-Acoustic-Guitar?sku=512771

The Yamaha gets great reviews everywhere, but some of the gripes are plastic hardware and not completely authentic tone.

Looking on eBay, here are my options as of right now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=270360260975

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=290303937759

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=280325186189

The first one uses Sycamore in its construction, which isn't true flamenco, so that is off-putting.

I'm going to head over to a couple of music stores to see if they carry any of these, but I wanted to get your opinions.

Thanks!!

 

[rpguitar]

As you learned already, the Yamaha CG171SF is widely rated as the best (only?) decent flamenco in the sub-$500 price range. That's a very low range for a solid wood classical or flamenco... So worrying too much about "completely authentic tone" is probably not worth torturing yourself over!

This forum is not great for flamenco advice. Try foroflamenco.com for a much more attuned (passionate? crazy?) audience!

Good luck -
Roger

 

[polishcomedy]

I ended up playing the Yamaha at Sam Ash, it was the only flamenco guitar they had. I was NOT impressed. The Almansa on eBay sold at the last minute I was going to buy it.