Prudencio Saez PS-8

2005 spanish made calssical guitar, solid cedar top with walnut back and sides, walnut neck and rosewood fretboard. the walnut on the neck, back and, sides is beuatiful and bookmatched. the light color makes it stand out from other classical guitars. this guitar is one the lightest weight guitars i have ever held. the tuners seem somewhat cheap, but those are easy and inexpensive to replace. i am giving it a nine because it has all the features you need in a traditional classical guitar(not a ten because of the tuners).

the bass end of this guitar is incredible. the treble is decent but had to restring it with high tension strings to make it balanced. the bass sounds like a guitar that costs twice as much and the treble fits into this price range initially.

the action on this guitar was set up very well, lower than my old guitar but no fret buzz whatsoever. the backs are bookmatched and the guitar is beautiful on the outside. on the inside you can see some glue, but nothing that is irratating or makes you question the quality. this guitar is handmade and i will give the guy who put it together a break.

i have not had the guitar long enough to comment, but so far so good.

i have not had to deal much with them, however to activate the warranty you have to send a letter to spain. the website is hard to get around in and this guitar is no longer mentioned online. i did however send them some questions regarding this guitar before i purchased and they responded the next day.

at this price you will not find a guitar that will match the beauty and sound of this guitar. it is handmade in spain and and sounds terrific, i have not had it long but it seems to be a magnificent guitar. there is virtually nothing on the internet about these guitars and i do not know why because you would think these guitars would be favorites for beginning to intermediate classical guitar players.

Classical Guitar
New, Made in Valencia Spain, 2006
Solid cedar top with laminated walnut back and sides
Spanish cedar neck
Rosewood fretboard
Real wood inlay rosette
650 mm string length
Nut is some kind of synthetic material
Light laquer finish
Tuning keys are chromed, adequate, but not the best. One seems looser than the rest.
Neck is typically rounded in classical style, but not hard to play with my average-sized hands. My glove size Med to Large.

This has all the features of a real classical guitar that a student and intermediate player would need, but no "extra" frills like ebony fretboard or bone nut.

This guitar sounds great, and can compete and even beat guitars that are selling for double the price. The volume is plenty loud depending on how hard you attack the strings, and it has satisfying low end and bright trebles -- even with the random strings that came from the factory.

I give this a rank of 7 because I think it is an average to above average instrument, especially for the price. It would not rate it a "10" because guitars in the $2,000-range easily blow it away regarding volume, tone, etc. but hey how many of us are going to play in an orchestra or on stage? This is all the guitar many of us will ever need, and if you grow out of this guitar you will know exactly what you're looking for when you go shopping for a concert-style instrument, and you won't be afraid to drop the $$ to get it.

The action was ideal even from the factory -- I know, hard to believe. I took it to my local luthier and my instructor played it as well, all saying nothing needed to be done. It was solid and straight and it super condition, which I was glad to hear. I looked at the finish very closely and could find no glue smears or smudges in the finish. The interior bracing is also free of glue drips -- it's pretty immaculate from every angle I've looked. The mahogany on the back and sides isn't eye-popping as far as looks goes. It won't knock anybody's socks off, but I only cared about the sound board anyway. It has tight, very straight grain. The veneer could be "prettier" and it would be nice to have an ebony fretboard or whatever, but really that's the only thing keeping this guitar from a 10 in my book.

Well, I've managed to boink this thing on the edge of my case, or against my music stand a couple of times, and the finish has held up without scratching! It seems very durable especially on the back and sides, which are laminate. It feels very solid and I don't worry too much about knocking it around, though I do treat it as gently as I can.

I have a humidifying unit that caps the sound hole, and I've taken this off/on many times without the finish showing any damage.

The tuning keys are probably the weakest point of the hardware, although they have been adequate so far. One of my keys is looser than the rest (on the G string) but it seems to hold tune OK. If it gets to the point where it bothers me I might have to have better keys installed.

This thing seems built quite well, it's just the keys that drop it down. It seems like it will last a long time.

Haven't had to deal with the company.

I am picking up the guitar again after many years hiatus. Used to play electric, so going classical is a new thing for me.

I did a lot of research before buying this guitar, and it was recommended by independent dealers which was why I sought out this particular model. It's the top "budget" model Prudencio Saez makes, but they also make higher-priced concert instruments.

If it ware stolen I would want another one, period. I had a dream that it got smashed (how many of us had that dream?) and it qualified as a nightmare. I was relieved when I woke up!

I love the quality of the guitar especially for the price. I visited several stores and this guitar beats the pants off of many guitars in the $700-range that I played. Some of which had fake rosette decals, and obvious workmanship flaws. I was getting pretty discouraged until I came across this guitar.

If anything I hate how often I have to tune it. I may get new keys, but I'm also experimenting with different strings. It is also very dry where I live so humidity might be coming into play. I don't consider this a major problem.

It would be great if this guitar had an ebony fretboard, but who am I kidding, you don't get that at this price range! Rosewood is good enough anyway.

I'm giving this overall a rating of "8" because I think this is probably one of the best overall student instruments someone can buy for the under $500 range. It really will do everything you need it to. When my instructor plays my guitar, it sounds phenomenal! Of course his concert model blows mine away, but it cost 4x more at least. My instructor actually was stunned when I told him how much I paid for this guitar -- he kept saying "You paid HOW MUCH for this?..." He thought it was $1,000 for sure.