DARREN HIPPNER CEDAR TOP FLAMENCO GUITAR, #1041 REYES TRIBUTE 2021

Description

Darren Hippner's best flamenco yet is the review of this model - list price ,000.
Please note - I just sold a B stock - which had a repaired crack.
This is not the same guitar. This is a brand new guitar (though I list as mint) and it will be set up and shipped straight from the luthier's workshop in Point Roberts, Washington.
2021 Reyes model flamenco blanca guitar with all solid primo (primo) woods.
Woods are, as with all Hippner's guitars, the very best. Top is stunning old old growth master grade Canadian Red Cedar; body is exceptionally figured Mediterranean Cypress; Ebony fretboard; all-wood binding.
Spruce and Cedar are both great just different sounding: Spruce is a crystal-like sound like a wine glass, Cedar is a more brittle and metallic sound - is what I am told by someone more knowledgeable. I am more familiar with the difference in cedar top vs spruce top in steel strings and classicals where more harmonics and a more immediately open sound out of the box also occurs, but also more headroom in spruce and a softer sound/ touch is expected for cedar. Seems a little different in flamencos - where again the cedar top gives an opened up sound straight out of the box, and more harmonics - but with flamencos a cedar top doesn't seem limited in it's headroom, quite happy to be played hard and loud or soft and gentle; also not really spoken of as having a softer sound - still edgy like any flamenco, just a different tone/timber .
Top finish is thin nitro (two layers; back and sides get four). Bone nut and saddle; ornate two-tone tuners.
Specs:   656MM Scale Length; 52 MM at the Nut; 14 1/2" LB; 11 1/2" UB; 3 3/4" Depth; action on low E is 3.5mm--low for a classical and high for a flamenco.
U BLOCK AT INSIDE OF NECK JOINT - adds stability , sustain and resonance as solid as they come. The U block creates a lady's heel design where it joins on the inside of both the top and back.
I make them to last - says the luthier!
*  5 FANS
*  BRIDGE STRAP
*  OPEN HARMONIC BAR
- 2 most lateral fans run under the lower harmonic bar (like a river under a bridge)
- open (harmonic) bar means notches (bridges) in the lower harmonic bar so the fans can pass through/ under.
- the harmonic bars are 2 strips/ braces running horizontally - 1 above the sound hole, 1 below the sound hole.
*  SOUND HOLE REINFORCEMENT STRIPS- 2 vertical strips either side of the sound hole in between the 2 harmonic bars.
No need for the closers on this master fine grade cedar - hence 5 fans run all the way to the edge of lower bout.
While based on the work of Manuel Reyes, this has one interesting modification, which you can see in one of the pictures of the interior: a massive lady's heel (inner neck block), which may be at least partly responsible for its exceptional sound profile: BIG, aggressive; much fuller basses than one associates with Flamenco guitars, but still with hard, woody definition. Notes clear throughout the spectrum; sustain and has great organic partials; plenty of volume - very loud and powerful.
In the other interior picture note the open bar construction. First developed by the great French builder Robert Bouchet, it caught on among Granada flamencos through the work of Marin Montero and has remained a feature of the better flamencos coming out of Spain for many years.
Very nice brand new soft foam case which can be converted with included straps to backpack mode.