Product: Almansa 457
Price Paid: $Canadian 1050
Submitted
04/06/2008
at
08:03pm
by
Doug
Features
:
7
glossy finish, very even
standard classical body, Indian rosewood back and sides, solid spruce top, ebony reinforced neck, ebony fretboard.
generic tuners, work fine
made 2003 in spain
included good hard case
Sound
:
10
I play baroque and modern, rock oriented stuff. The guitar will do whatever I ask of it, and if it can pull off baroque stuff it can do anything, since a cheesy sound will screw up a baroque piece more rapidly than with any other kind of music, in my experience. It has deep, rich tone, and the high end rings out sweetly with plenty of volume and clarity. This guitar is well known for its sound, which is outstanding for the price.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
setup was a bit high; the neck a bit thick, U-shaped with big "shoulders"
I made a new saddle of bone, and slimmed down the neck, taking a fair bit of wood off the "shoulders" and refinishing with lemon oil.
The action is now quite low, with fine tone and no buzzing at all.
The guitar is now much more comfortable and faster to play all around. The removal of wood from the neck increased the relief just a little bit; obviously a touchy job, be very careful if you try it.
Fit and finish are excellent. I have found no flaws.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
This is where I believe the previous reviewer's experience is highly unusual. Almansa builds according to traditional principles, and the quality of their stuff is high. They are discussed often in chatrooms and the like and are held in very high regard, indeed in all the research I did before I bought mine I never heard a word about durability problems. This site used to have several more reviews of this guitar, all were extremely positive and none mentioned any structural problems whatsoever
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
No troubles to get repaired. I think the warranty is a year
Overall Rating
:
9
been playing 40 years
I would buy another in a heartbeat
best thing is the full, sweet sound which is quite complex. It has character, you could say. There is nothing close for the price.
Product: Almansa 457
Price Paid: CDN 1000
Submitted
03/26/2008
at
09:36pm
by
thebigniel
Email: tylernielsen_ at hotmail<dot>com
Features
:
5
Nice, good quality tuners, nice finish, nice looking guitar. About as good as you can expect from a factory guitar. Features aren't really something you look for in a classical guitar. The nut might not be bone, it should be.
Sound
:
8
Nice full sound, balanced basses and trebles, loud. Great sounding guitar. Possibly a bit too dark.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
5
Action was high, although I just lived with it, not the best idea, developed poor technique in my left hand because of it. A couple dead notes, the C on the first string sounds for a very short time.
Reliability/Durability
:
1
This is where this guitar blew it. I played it for 4 years, and the action got progressively worse, the frets started to poke out the sides of the neck (i.e. the fretboard shrunk, even though I humidified it). Eventually it developed two cracks alongside the neck at the front of the body. Also on the back it is quite clear where the neck is joined the back, as well as the tail bout attaches. Construction-wise, this guitar is a lemon.
Customer Support
:
1
1 year warrenty only covers real bone head mix ups, I'm not covered.
Overall Rating
:
7
A good guitar for a while, sounds great. It has a lot of potential, and I really liked it for a long time. Then it started to dissuade me from playing due to the high action. I had a lot of good hours with it in a practice room, I'll miss it if I have to get a new guitar.
