Text: Chema Vílchez
This morning, when I opened the packaging holding the Raimundo guitar David Martín sent me a couple of days ago, I got a triple surprise. The first is that, as on previous occasions, I was expecting a flamenco or Spanish guitar and hadn't noticed that David was sending me an acoustic. So, with no small curiosity and a growing teenage enthusiasm, I start playing it. I haven't paid much attention to steel-string acoustics in a long time, since an Ibanez and a Taylor have been with me for years and have kept me extremely satisfied, so I haven't felt the need to try others. But the second surprise comes within moments of playing it. I feel like I have a delicacy in my hands, caressing my ears. A very good first impression.
After playing for a good while, I'll go over some details.
First, I should say the instrument is very comfortable, even though it has high-gauge strings and they sit a little high above the fretboard. To my taste, with a small adjustment or a simple filing of the saddle it could be perfect. Even so, I stress that the guitar is very comfortable even for 
those used to playing low-action models. In the neck's curvature, radius and thickness, whether for chords, melodic lines or holding barre chords song after song, ergonomically we'll find the same feel an electric guitar can give us. The body width is similar to that of a Spanish guitar or any standard acoustic. This is welcome, since acoustic guitars with a narrow body, built exclusively to be plugged in, although they can be an advantage against the usual feedback, deprive us of the incomparable sensation of feeling an acoustic instrument's vibration in the chest and stomach. Sometimes with acoustic guitars and, why not say it, with Spanish ones, both classical and flamenco, the result of the build is an instrument that looks more or less showy but whose vibration, harmonic output and volume are poor at first and stay that way forever. In other cases the evolution is notable and the instrument improves over the months, obviously as long as it's played. When, as in this case, a freshly built guitar sounds at a high level, all that's left is to hope it gets even better.
To give you some technical details: the body width at the 15th fret is 100 mm and at the tail block it is 111 mm. The fretboard is African ebony. The neck is cedar and has an adjustable truss rod, which is essential, especially if we change string sets with different gauges. The width at the 15th fret is 55 mm and at the saddle it is 45 mm. The scale length is 650 mm. All in all, a real ally for the left hand. It's not unusual to find very stiff acoustic guitars whose tension becomes a “hand breaker”; in this case it's quite the opposite, and the feel is quite comfortable. The back and sides are cocobolo, and on the model that was sent to me, the cut of the wood and the shapes and contrasts of the grain are beautiful. The varnish is clear and lets us enjoy its natural shapes. I'm starting to fear it will be hard to send this guitar back to David.
As for the sound, I hear a very warm timbre. The highs aren't shrill; quite the contrary, they have body, and together with clean, present lows they make for a balanced instrument. It also has good volume, abundant harmonics and not-insignificant sustain. The other particularity of the sound is that the instrument can be plugged into an amplifier. This guitar comes equipped with a Fishman Classic 4T system. As is usual with these preamps, it has a mid, bass and treble equalizer, a fader to add brightness, of course a volume control, and a tuner.
Here comes the third surprise: the amplified sound is very good, even better than good, excellent. I'm impressed that at a considerable volume (for this test bench I'm using a Bose L1 system)
the feedback resistance is extraordinary, with the added bonus of losing not an ounce of naturalness in the timbre. There are certainly few times when I don't miss having to use a microphone to amplify the signal, but this is without a doubt one of them.
Also worth noting, the tuning is very stable and accurate, and the gold-colored tuning machines are comfortable. As for construction, I get the feeling it's an instrument that can withstand knocks and temperature-humidity changes, well built, with the necessary details and without any excesses that would take us to the border of the pompous and overdone.
In this way, my final assessment is very positive. I liked the guitar a lot in every respect: its sound, both acoustic and plugged into the amp, its comfort, its looks... I feel it has something of the character of a Spanish guitar, and that pleases me enormously. For those looking for a good acoustic guitar, I think it's an option to take very seriously. I'll stress again something I wouldn't want to forget every time I have to give my opinion on an instrument: if you have the chance to try it, you should. I don't think any two instruments are alike, and even when the level of quality is excellent, we may identify with one more than with another, or other variables may come into play, the ones only the heart understands and that, at least for me, are impossible to write about here.
05/12/2009
