It doesn’t matter whether you call the Spanish guitar the Spanish guitar, the classical guitar, or you have your own name for this. All that is essential is certainly that you don’t confuse the Spanish guitar with the flamenco guitar, as you will be in trouble in the event that you do! Some people recognise the iconic sound of the Spanish guitar and might even understand some Spanish guitar songs, they probably haven’t heard about the most famous Spanish guitar players. Here are the very best five. Paco de Lucia is well known for his flamenco playing and being a pioneer of the new flamenco style, but he is also among the best Spanish guitar players to ever live. De Lucia established fact all over the world as he is one of the few Spanish guitarists to enjoy mainstream success, with praise coming from the loves of guitar legend Eric Clapton and Dennis Koster, who has known as him one of the biggest guitarists ever, in virtually any genre.

Now in his 60’s, de Lucia is still hugely popular in Spain and in Latin American countries, and proceeds to record and perform live. Paca Pena doesn’t perform as often as he used to, which is normally understandable for a guy into his eighth decade, but he still stands on a pedestal alongside de Lucia among the very best Spanish guitar players ever. He hasn’t enjoyed the mainstream achievement, exposure, or compliment that de Lucia has, but that takes nothing away from his ability. well known guitar players managed to get big in the 1960s when he made a decision he was no longer going to become an accompaniment for flamenco singing and dance, but a successful artist by himself. Vicente Amigo is famous for his fearless approach to experimentation with music. While he is predominantly an effective Spanish and flamenco guitarist, he often collaborates with other artists from a variety of genres within the music spectrum. He is also a Latin Grammy award winning guitarist.

This is where things began to get complicated. JAPAN domestic Squier reissues (still section of the JV series) didn't have American pickups like the exports, and were vastly cheaper compared to the most expensive of the Japanese domestic Fender top quality JVs. One ’57 reissue sold at a lot more than two and a half times the cost of the various other, and there have been other ’57 reissues among too! For this reason, it obviously can’t be said that all JVs were of a specific standard, and no blanket statements on quality can be made about them. Some were better than others, because they comprised a higher grade of materials, plus they were literally much more costly guitars - listed individually, with separate item codes. The export models (thus those getting into the united kingdom) had high, however, not range-topping spec, and from memory space, prices would normally become somewhere within £195 and £220 in England, with respect to the specific guitar and of course the retailer.

In conditions of what went into the guitars, there has probably never been an improved deal in the annals of Fender. However, the way the guitars actually played and sounded was another matter. The consensus in the ‘80s was that early Squiers were erratic. Some were superb. Others had been quite poor, and were made to look firmly inferior by copies from rivals Tokai. In the early ‘80s, Tokai’s TST-60 Strat copy was seen as the same in spec to the Squier export models. The TST-60 was, however, slightly cheaper in my neck of the woods, and in my experience much more predictable in terms of build and tone. In 1984 when buying my initial Strat I had a straight choice between Tokai and Squier. I bought a Tokai. So yes, today the first Squiers look like these were worldbeating value, but in their day they still lost a hell of a whole lot of battles to rivals.

The classic JV Series export branding on a '57 reissue Strat. A 'transition'-style, huge Squier logo is along with a 1970s-script 'Stratocaster' designation, and a very small 'by Fender' footnote. There's also a small 'Made in Japan' under the 'Squier'. Guitar gear Geek Videos were applied to Squier classic reissue Strats imported into Europe from 1982 to 1984. The headstock markings had been the only glaring inaccuracy on these otherwise faithful vintage replicas. As time progressed, indeed, some unique undesirables filtered into the early Squier range. For instance, the SST-30 Strat model (1983) presented cheap pickups with non-magnetic poles and a ceramic bar glued to the bottom. This type of quality is something normally associated with later on Squiers and it’s not at all something the average guitarist would expect from an ‘83. It’s true that the SST-30s were built for sale in Japan and not for export, but it’s a little world and items do get around.