2000s Cesar Guacan Flamenco-Style Classical Guitar

Maestro Guacan builds guitars out of Quito, Ecuador -- a place I have some experience with! I even got covered in ash there when a volcano erupted some years ago. This one came to me via trade and, per the story I heard, seems to have been acquired in the late '90s or early 2000s -- which is exactly what the label looks like. He can be found on FaceBook and Twitter.

It's a high-quality guitar but Ecuadorian makers sure are obscure up in these parts. It's feather-light and sounds big and full in-person. I was having trouble not woofing the mic like crazy while I was trying to do the video -- so please excuse it woofing-out a bit here and there on the clip. It's also survived well since it was built. A lot of South American guitars moving to Vermont tend to get cracks up the wazoo, but the only ones on this guitar are some negligible, tiny hairline-checking cracks to the treble side of the bridge (on its wing).

I'm guessing that it was designed to be a bit of a flamenco or folk-style guitar as it has what looks like cypress back and sides. The top looks like spruce with its light-yellow coloration but smells like cedar and has more of a cedar-like grain to it, so I'm pretty sure it's cedar. It has a pretty rosette and nice wood binding and purfling around the body. The fretboard is an ebonized form of some sort of lighter-colored rosewood-family wood.

What I like best about this are its modern-feeling (slim D-shape) neck and full 26" scale length -- giving it more than enough power even with the "standard tension" D'Addario strings it's wearing.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, minor cleaning, saddle adjustments, restring, and setup.

Setup notes: it plays bang-on with 3/32" action at the 12th fret. The neck is almost straight, with just a hair of relief overall. It was worse before the level/dress job of the frets, but that helped get everything aligned nicely. You would have to be playing at a fairly high level to notice.

Scale length: 26"

Nut width: 2 1/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 3/4"

String spacing at bridge: 2 5/16"

Body length: 19 3/8"

Lower bout width: 14 3/4"

Waist width: 9 3/4"

Upper bout width: 11 1/2"

Side depth at endpin: 4"

Top wood: solid cedar

Back/sides wood: solid cypress?

Neck wood: mahogany-family

Bracing type: fan

Fretboard: rosewood-like, ebonized finish, bone nut

Bridge: rosewood, bone saddle

Neck feel: slim D-shape, flat board

Condition notes: it's really clean overall but does have hairline cracks in the treble side of the bridge wing. They're not deep and appear to be just a little bit of dryness cracking/checking and as such I've left them alone. They're no issue. There's a very minor amount of usewear on the body but nothing you wouldn't expect for a guitar that's maybe been hanging in a shop for half a year. I added side dots and there's minor rubbing-down on the fretboard edges from where I trimmed poking-out fret tangs.

It comes with: an original hard case.