I’ve just gotten home after a trip of more than 8,000 km. Behind me are some unforgettable days in the cities of Bangalore, Delhi and Agra, playing as a duo with pianist Javier Coble. As soon as I walk through the door, just as I set my guitar down in the studio, the doorbell rings and I’m told a package has arrived. I don’t remember expecting anything, but with jet lag weighing on my neurons, and even more on my eyelids, I open the bulky cardboard packaging and find a beautiful guitar.
I’ve just remembered: David Martín suggested a month ago that I put this instrument through its paces. Though my energy isn’t up to it, my curiosity wins out, so, still mentally landing, I run through a few passages of Frédéric Chopin’s “Valse de l’adieu” on the new arrival. A deep sound fills my room. After 20 minutes fatigue wins, but I know that in a couple of days I have a serious date with this guitar. I’m left with a pleasant impression.
When the day comes that I can give my guest from Valencia (home of the Guitarras Raimundo workshop) my full attention, I start playing the instrument and picking up on its characteristics in detail.
Construction
The first thing that stands out is the color of the wood and the shine of the varnish, which is a true mirror. It is very well applied, and in an amount that doesn’t interfere with the vibration of the wood. This is critical: in the finishing of an acoustic instrument, the best nuances can be lost if the mix isn’t right and isn’t applied properly.
The rosette is simple, but with a lovely combination of greens, browns and reds. The headstock is made in one piece with the rest of the neck and doesn’t have the classic backward tilt; it is built much straighter, with an angle that must not exceed 15 degrees. It’s really peculiar, and I imagine that somehow it must affect string tension, but even if not, it’s worth noting that the tension the strings produce is very comfortable, even for guitarists used to light gauges. Aesthetically the design is sober but elegant. On the front we have a veneer of Palo Santo wood. The tuning machines are gold with wooden buttons. They have a pleasant feel and tuning is stable. They seem to be good quality, so I think we can count on staying in tune for a long time.
The neck is very comfortable, and for those of us who play electric guitar it is a big plus not to have to adapt our fingering too much. It’s not uncommon to meet guitarists who have injured themselves switching from electric guitar to classical and vice versa. There are small movements and gestures of the hand, especially the wrist, that can suffer from abrupt changes like these. The neck is made of Spanish cedar. The fretboard is Palo Santo and, on the upper side edge, there are small pearl dot markers indicating frets 3, 5 and 7.
Both the width and the length of the fretboard make this guitar an instrument that’s very easy for an electric guitarist to adapt to. The scale length is 640 mm, and the width is also narrower than usual for a classical guitar, 50 mm at the nut. As I mentioned earlier, this setup also favors playing for many hours. The nut is bone, a good decision; some people prefer other materials, but the effect on tone doesn’t strike me as ideal. As for the frets, they are very well placed. Even though the strings are set very low, quite close to the fretboard, there is no fret buzz at all. The action is more like a flamenco guitar than a classical one.
The soundboard of this guitar is solid cedar (although the same model is also available with a spruce top), built, as usual, from two sheets of wood that in this case are joined so precisely that they look like a single piece. It also has a black and brown purfling running all the way around the edge. The bridge is quite classic, with a notably wide saddle and excellent contact with the bridge. As you know, this is key so that the string transmits all of its vibration to the soundboard and the body can do its job as a loudspeaker as efficiently as possible. The sides and back are Frisé, an African wood that has been uncommon until now and that certainly has very beautiful figuring.
Sound
One of the aspects that caught my attention most about this Bossa Nova 1 model is the depth of its bass; in that respect I found the instrument very expressive. It’s ideal, for example, for tunes that use alternate tunings, where we drop the 6th string to a C or a B. The fact that it has this predominance of bass doesn’t mean the instrument isn’t balanced; it just means that the EQ curve it generates has a higher peak in those darker frequencies. Personally I love that: having dark bass that’s also clean. Overall, the tone is quite beautiful, and sustain is a variable worth highlighting. Another thing to bear in mind is volume. Here it sits above average for a guitar of this size and these dimensions, in both the soundboard and the depth of the sides. At the same time, the volume is balanced across all the strings. It’s not unusual to find acoustic instruments where some strings, in certain frequency ranges, don’t seem to project with the same clarity as their companions. In short, the sound comes out at a considerable volume and projects very well. In fact, when amplified through a mic, we’ll pick up a bit more signal than usual from an instrument like this.
Conclusions
In conclusion, after spending several hours playing this guitar, I come away with positive impressions in several respects. In terms of comfort, it is definitely an instrument that lets you play it and responds very well to the dynamics of our playing. In a way, it embodies an ideal concept for jazz guitarists, whether electric or acoustic. Tonally it is also very commendable. It gives me a sense of bass depth that I like a lot, and more than adequate volume. I should point out, as I do in the other articles I’m invited to write for the magazine, that with acoustic instruments like this, each player’s own feel is fundamental. How we feel the vibration of the guitars through our bodies and our ears is key material for making a decision.
If I had to sum up my impressions in a few words, they would be: comfort in playing, depth in the sound, balance and proportion in everything else.
