Cuenca 110

Made in Spain in 1982. This was and is Cuenca's top of the range concert guitar. All solid woods - red cedar top, indian rosewood back and sides, spanish cedar neck with ebony fretboard, 19 frets, 7 ply neck reinforcing strip, gold plated tuners, spanish heel, delicate and detailed rosette - everything a good concert classic guitar should have. List price ??1,682.

I have several top quality concert guitars in my collection, including a spruce and rio George Love and a cedar and walnut Fleeson (both brilliant). I wanted a guitar with that typical dark spanish sound to contrast with my english guitars, and the Cuenca has it, rich loud and spicy like a good Ramirez 1A. It is easily up to concert duties. There are the usual slight variances in some notes, e.g. the top B falls away, but it still rates as a brilliant sound for the asking price.

All the woods are top quality, straight grained, radially cut, beautifully bookmatched and very cleanly finished inside - no visible glue, lightly polished interior. The multi-ply binding is mitred to the centre strip. All joints are perfectly fitted with no gaps or glue fills. The tuners work smoothly and hold the tuning. I usually adjust the action to suit me, but this one is spot on, 4mm at fret 12 on bass, 3.5 mm an treble. The fretting is excellent, the neck is straight except for the neccesary relief, which is just right. The neck is 53mm at the nut and the scale length is 655mm. Though a little longer than average, the guitar playsvery easily.

It is 26 years old! What more needs to be said. And apart from a few minor dings and some light playing wear on the soundboard, it still looks fabulous, Back, sides and neck still like new. By reputation and proof of longevity it is totally reliable.

I have had no need for this, and anyhow, it was a quarter of a century out of its warrenty when I bought it!

I have been playing for over 40 years. I have a large collection including the guitars mentioned above, plus a Bernabe estudio, steel string guitars by Gibson (J50), Lowden and Fylde, and a couple of arch-tops (Gibson L7 and Hofner New President. This is one of my favourites and most played. I love its 'spanish' sound for hispanic and latin music. That is exactly what I was looking for. I use my George Love for polyphonic music. Guitars of this quality usually cost much more. If I lost it I would probably buy another of the same model, even at the list price.