Hand built guitars  

A hand-built guitar is made by one luthier with the best 1st class dried woods. Each guitar therefore has its uniqueness and is possibly adapted to the personal preferences of the guitarist. Top quality! We call this a concert guitar. These concert guitars (flamenco guitar, classical guitar or crossover guitar) have a soul and will develop an increasingly beautiful timbre and playability after they have been played. Also the value remains or increases over time. Pieces of art!

Factory guitars  

A factory guitar is always made by several people. Multiple hands and machines working on one guitar also means that almost all guitars are exactly the same according to a process. They are also often called study guitars and are cheaper as they buildingproces is not as long and often with made with less expensive materials. The quality of these guitars can now be described as excellent! 

Spanish guitar 

 By Spanish guitars we mean guitars with nylon strings and build according to the principles of the Antonio de Torres model from around 1800. That does not mean that nylon string guitars are necessarily only built in Spain. Perfect and very good Spanish concert guitars are also built outside Spain in, among others Germany, Italy, England, America, Japan, France, Canada etc. 

Flamenco Guitar 

From the heart of Andalusia, in southern Spain, Flamenco has spread the world over to be a distinctive style of music and dance associated with deep rooted Spanish and Gypsy traditions. The performance is characterised by iconic dancing and the high-tempo Toque. Toque being the guitar element of the Flamenco. Other elements that fit together to produce the finished art form also includes the Baile, or the actual dance, the Cante, the singing, and the Palmas, the memorable hand claps.

The traditional Flamenco guitar is made out of cypress back and sides with a spruce top. Flamenco guitars are built lighter with thinner tops than classical guitars, this produces a "brighter" and more percussive sound. Also often the sides are slightly thinner to create a shorter "attack", which is ideal to play rapid pieces and cut through the footwork of the dancers and hand clapping that is so characteristic in Flamenco music. Also a low action for rapid playability is desirable for a 'buena guitarra flamenca'. The cypress wood was also a cheaper tone wood back in the day.

Nowadays there are also Flamenco guitars with rosewood back and sides with a spruce or cedar top. So called Negra's, these guitars became more popular under Flamenco concert guitarist, the most famous one Paco de Lucia. The negra Flamenco guitar has generally speaking more volume and sustain.

Classical guitar 
The classical guitar is a type of acoustic guitar that originated in Spain in the early 16th century. The classical guitar has a rich history and has undergone many changes and developments over the years.

The classical guitar’s origins can be traced back to the Spanish vihuela, a stringed instrument popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. The vihuela was similar in shape to the modern classical guitar but had a deeper body and fewer strings.

The Baroque guitar eventually replaced the vihuela, which had a smaller body and a longer neck. This allowed for greater precision and control when playing. The Baroque guitar also had a more delicate, intricate sound, making it popular among classical composers.

In the 18th century, the classical guitar began to evolve and take on its modern form. The most significant change was the addition of a sixth string. This development also paved the way for creating the modern six-string guitar.

In the 19th century, the classical guitar continued to develop and gain popularity. Many classical guitarists began to focus on technique and virtuosity, developing new playing styles and techniques. This included using the right-hand fingers to pluck the strings, rather than a plectrum, which allowed for a more delicate and expressive sound.

In the 20th century, the classical guitar continued to evolve and adapt to new musical styles and trends. In the 1950s and 1960s, classical guitarists like Julian Bream and John Williams helped to introduce the instrument to a broader audience.

Cross-over guitar 

The crossover guitar is new type of guitar has made it's way onto the market in recent years. It all started when the electro-classical guitar was born. This was done through the introduction of cutaway and electronics in classical and flamenco guitars. Once this was established, the next step was to introduce a guitar with a narrower neck with some radius. This hybrid guitar was originally aimed at electrical guitar players and acoustic guitar players that found the neck of the classical or flamenco guitars too wide or flat to suit their playing techniques. Guitarists with smaller hands or people who feel the necks to be more comfortable than the classical guitar neck are also finding that these guitars are suitable for them.

It has the shape of classical guitar body with cutaway and a narrower neck with a radiused fingerboard. They usually come electrified with a piezo electric pickup and Preamp, but you can also buy them without the electrification system. This nylon stringed guitar offers the feel and playability of an acoustic steel string guitar whilst sounding like a classical guitar offering the best of both worlds. The crossover type guitar can be used with all sorts of music such as jazz, bossa-nova, latin, pop and rock.

Glossary of Crossover Guitar Terms

Cutaway:

An indentation on the upper part of the guitar body making it easier to access the upper frets.

Piezo Pickup:

Commonly found in acoustic guitars like nylon string guitars, a piezo pickup is a type of microphone that picks up the physical vibration of the string and instrument and converts it to a voltage.

Preamp:

Short for pre amplifier, it is designed to amplify weak signals producing a clean and powerful sound.

Radiused Fingerboard:

A radiused fingerboard is where the fingerboard has a radius or curve that goes across the fingerboard in line with the frets rather than being flat.

Study guitars  

A novice guitarist usually starts with a study guitar (beginners guitar). These guitars are great to start with, but there are also many differences between study guitars. We strongly advise against very cheap study guitars. They often play very heavily, are usually not properly adjusted and often sound very bad, which is demotivating to learn to play the guitar. We do not sell these guitars. From around 450.00 euros you have an excellent study guitar to start your guitar lessons with. They play lightly and sound great! If you are more of an advanced guitarist or are going to the conservatory, we have very nice study guitars made of all solid wood from around 750.00 euros! 

If you are ready for a truly completely handmade guitar that fully meets your needs, Spanish Guitarhouse is the only one in the world where you can simply exchange your newly purchased study guitar with us within 2 years for the amount you paid for it! (provided of course that it is in good condition and when purchasing a hand-built guitar from 3000.00 euros and upwards) Nice isn’t? 

Criteria  

The criteria for every guitar we purchase are: what is the playability, timbre, quality and condition of the wood, volume and projection, collectability and... Beautiful in sound and looks!