I have owned both classic and flamenco guitars, have taken lessons in both classic and flamenco (several years from a couple of different classic guitar teachers, and lucked into being able to take about four months lessons from a real flamenco guitarist who was in Seattle in 1962, playing at the Spanish Village exhibit during the Seattle World's Fair), and I make an attempt at playing both, although my primary interest is folk song and ballad accompaniment.

The essential difference between a classic guitar and a flamenco guitar is that a classic guitar is generally made with a spruce or cedar soundboard and rosewood (the best) or mahogany back and sides. In a classic guitar, the luthier strives for a rich, mellow tone. A flamenco guitar also has a spruce or cedar soundboard, but it is generally sanded a smidgen thinner and it's a bit more lightly braced (although both use a fan-bracing system). The back and sides are made from cypress. A good flamenco guitar should have a bit of a "bite" to the tone. You could think of it as a good flamenco guitar sings with a distinctly "Spanish accent."

A flamenco guitar also has one or two pieces of plastic (golpeador), sometimes white, sometimes clear (practically invisible), glued to the soundboard to protect the soundboard from damage caused by rhythmic tapping (golpe).

Some hard-nosed purists claim that an authentic flamenco guitar has to have push-pegs in holes drilled through the headstock rather than a slotted headstock with geared tuning machines. Part of the claim is that the metal in the gears dampens the tone of a good flamenco guitar. That's simply nonsense. I've had both kinds of flamenco guitars and there is no perceivable difference in tone between the two. And a guitar with push-pegs is an absolute bitch to tune.

In 1961, I order a flamenco guitar from Arcangel Fernandez in Madrid and he offered me the choice, saying that as far as push-pegs vs geared pegs was concerned, apart from ease of tuning, the only real difference was in appearance rather than tone. Having owned one with push-pegs, I opted for the geared tuning machines. Since he made guitars to order, a year and a half later I got it, air freight from Madrid. It cost me the ridiculous price, including air freight and duty, of less than $200. It's recently been appraised at $18,000. Early 1960s "Arcangels" are highly prized and greatly sought after. But mine isn't for sale.

One other minor difference is that the action of a flamenco guitar is set a bit closer to the fingerboard than that of a classic. Flamenco guitarists tend to like a bit of "fret-buzz." Also, they almost always capo up several frets (using a traditional wooden çejilla (pronounce "say-HEE-yah"), not so much to change keys, but to play where the frets are closer together for fast scale-work (falsettas or improvised variations).

Within recent years, some flamenco guitarists have taken to playing classics, or "flamenco negro" guitars (dark wood backs and sides) because of the somewhat warmer tone, but the "flamenco bionde" (cypress) remains the standard. When I got my Arcangel, other than the small details mentioned, there was no actual difference in the details of construction between the two types of guitar, although I've had people (with no experience with either type of guitar) try to tell there is. Not so's you'd notice, however, when you examine the two types side by side.

Don Firth