Classical Guitar

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Hi! I'm new. (self.classicalguitar)

submitted 1 year ago by OCATMBBL to c/classicalguitar

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So, I'm brand new here. Hi! I attempted to learn classical years ago, and let it get away from me. I've recently returned to it, and I've been much more diligent about my practice than I was last time around.

Anyway, what brings me here today is that I saw a crack in my headstock today on a Walden Classical I got maybe 15 years ago. It's a lovely guitar, and I'd like to get it fixed, but I have no expectations. It's a hairline fracture leading to the tuning pegs

How much should I expect to pay?
How serious an issue is this? I'm a little concerned it might truly break. I can post pictures if that's helpful.

Anyway, thanks for the knowledge, and I'm happy to be here. I'll try to contribute some, even if it's just nice classical pieces I find. I'm liking Lemmy so far.

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[–] i_am_void_void 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (5 children)

The quote really depends on where you live as labour costs differ across the world. Next question is how labour intense is the fix and whether it makes sense to invest that much time and money into the instrument. Say, it will take a luthier 3 hours to work on the instrument and the rate is $100/hr. Based on a quick search, Walden does not seem to be an expensive brand. If you can buy a comparable used instrument for $300 or so, IMO it may make more sense to replace the instrument instead of fixing. Unless, you have some special reasons to keep this specific instrument.

The other question is how bad is the crack. I would recommend taking your instrument to a couple local luthiers to get independent opinions, then check the market form used instruments, and then make a decision.

One more important question is why this happened in the first place. Unless it has been improperly stored or handled, this kind of damage shouldn't normally occur on itself and to me this raises a serious question about the quality of the instrument. If the crack appeared "on itself" with no apparent reasons, this can happen again and you may end up pouring lots of money into fixing it instead of, say, upgrading to a better quality instrument.

Update: I just noticed that this question was posted 10 months ago. Probably, this is not so relevant for you anymore, but of you fixed your guitar, keen to know about it :)

[–] OCATMBBL 1 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Hey! Thanks for the reply - no worries about it taking some time. You responded, and that's what matters 😊

Anyway, I ended up getting it fixed for about $40 by a guy a friend of mine recommended. It was a small crack leading to a tuner peg.

What is very serendipitous about your timing is that yesterday I finally upgraded to a new guitar. After sampling 7 guitars I settled on an Esteve 7SR. It is by a huge margin the most outstanding guitar I've ever played.

[–] i_am_void_void 2 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Oh nice, happy to hear that! 40 bucks doesn't sound like a lot. And congrats on the new instrument! The best guitar is the one that make you wanna play the most :)

Regarding the timing, the truth is that I just joined Lemmy and discovered this channel a few days ago. Not too much is happening here. Early adoption can be tough, hey? :)

[–] OCATMBBL 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, he was a local guy and he said it was a quick fix and had no real material cost. Nice dude.

This sub has been quiet. I guess it's a pretty niche group of people who are into classical guitar, and also fed up with reddit shenanigans.

I just thought it was a funny coincidence that the reply was the same day. 😊

The biggest issues my old guitar has are the low tones feeling dull, and the general playability. I thought I couldn't do clean Barre chords, but it turns out the guitar had at least a little to do with it. My technique needs a little work, but Barres on the new guitar are so much cleaner.

[–] i_am_void_void 1 points 6 months ago

Re sub, yeah, I guess it's a combination of both. I do not read reddit still as it does contain a lot of uswful info, but I don't want to contribute there anymore.

[–] i_am_void_void 1 points 6 months ago

Re barres, it's not an easy thing at all, to be fair. I've been playing guitar (primarily, electric) for some 20 years if not more and only once I picked up classical guitar I realized that my technique if very dodgy and basically wrong in almost every possible way. And barres really made me realize that the hard and painful way. I've been pondering on this for a while and since have found a couple of really helpful videos on YT that helped me to analize and dissect the problem and redevelop my technique in such a way, that now I can play literally for hours with almost no pain, while previosly I had to stop after some 5-10 minutes of i tense "barring" as the pain was shifting from discomfort to basically cramps. I'll actually share it in a separate thread as I think many more people struggle with figuring our a "correct" technique for the left-hand, wo hopefully it will help someone as well.