Hello all,
I have recently started getting into some spanish guitar and all have to play it on is a regular old acoustic which doesn't work well to say the least. Today I went down to a local music store and played around with some classical guitars and they felt AMAZING compared to what I've been playing on. Any way my questions are 1) are the strings supposed to feel like they are rolling under fingers when you fret a note? because that happened alot when I messed around with them and 2) what do you guys think about this guitar: http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod ... sku=518978 I realize its cheap and I'll get what I paid for but since I'm just getting into it I don't want to spend any more money than this...
Thanks in advance!

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Playing your guitar is an addiction after your first riff you just can't stop. Kind of like raisins you taste one then eat them by the handful.
-Oldpat

I have a Yamaha classical guitar myself. I'm no expert by any means on guitar, but I've played on it. The sound is amazing!

I'm not sure about the 'rolling' sensation you have. The strings are different than an electric guitar (never played acoustic). So, I'm used to them. Just a few notes about classical guitars though...

1. If you want a strap, you have to drill a hole into the body. Classical guitars don't have straps. (At least mine does not)

2. You have to tune them up alot. Again, at least I had to, even every day. I might be wrong though. don't quote me.

Never heard of that guitar you mentioned so I can't tell you what kind of deal you're getting.

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"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

My dad said, "I'm going to miss you."
I said, "Well, now that I broke that sight off your rifle..." (Emo Philips)

I've played flamenco guitar one way or another for the past twenty years... congratulations on picking up the instrument on which guitar music as we know it originated! Nylon string guitars are often overlooked, I find... possibly because many electric guitarists regard them as campfire beaters and mistreat them (as is natural with a cheap instrument).

In my experience, you'd need to spend roughly $400-$800 to get a guitar that would get you by in any situation up to the point where you're playing solo pieces for a discerning audience. Past that, the sky's the limit on prices -- my guitar was a journeyman instrument in the 60s; not quite concert-level, better than a student model... cost me $1500 in 1988, and would be well over four times that now.

With classical guitars, there's a dramatic difference in quality between $500 and $1000, and after that you're paying increasingly large amounts for incrementally improving tone.

The guitar you've shown there is probably OK... you'd have to go in and play one, then play every other classical in your price range in the shop. One or two will stand out as being of higher quality. It's a real lottery at the lower end of the price scale. I would avoid anything with an opaque finish, as it's obviously masking poor wood. Find one with a transparent finish, and look at the body. It should have a two-piece back, bookmatched with a central seam. If it's a one-piece back, the guitar isn't worth wasting your time on. Look for the straightest, tightest grain you can find on the front and back of the guitar, but really it's the soundboard (i.e. the front) of the guitar you should be most concerned about. That's the most influential factor in a classical guitar.

Often a cheap guitar will have been made with a decent bit of wood for the soundboard; it's just the luck of the draw. Examine a few, then give the one with the best-looking top a test run. If you're used to an electric guitar, the usual checks apply. Is it playable? Action's harder to adjust on a classical, and contrary to popular belief you can get a lovely low action on a nylon string guitar. Get one that feels good right away, not one that you'll "fix up later" and then not. Play the open string, then the 12th fret harmonic on each string. They need to be close in tone, because you'll have a hell of a time adjusting the intonation if they're not.

Lastly, I'd tune it so that an open C chord sounded right to you, and then play an open A minor chord and an open D minor chord. If you need to tweak the G and B strings more than a fraction to get the A & D minors to sound as good as the C, you'll get problems down the track.

If you find that all these chords (and a few other open chords) sound pretty good together, the intonation's OK at the twelfth fret, the top has a fine grain to it and you have a two-piece back, then you have a decent guitar -- whatever the price tag. I've helped friends pick out guitars that were better than others that were twice the price following those criteria. Once you're at a higher price point all the guitars will be of a certain standard, and it's more about choosing the one that best fits your musical personality. You need to find the cheap one punching above its weight, so to speak.

And the "rolling"... sounds normal, although I'm not sure exactly what you mean really. The tension on nylon strings doesn't feel as great as it does on steel strings, so at the outset your left hand probably does feel slightly as if it were on a trampoline, particularly as there is a fretboard radius of infinity! Good luck!

That's all great info from mondo (I envy you, dude... flamenco is a style I love). I was a performance major in classical guitar for a year at Jordan College, though, I have a guess about the "rolling" sensation you're experiencing.

A nylon string is a BIG string, at low tension as mondo pointed out, and an electric player usually has a real "death grip" approach to the neck. The combination makes it easy to literally roll around on the string. Ny teacher at Butler was a maniac about precise, firm (but not TOO firm) placement of the fretting fingers. Try lightening up your touch a bit.