Ricardo Sanchez Carpio 1A classical guitar Brazilian Rosewood! 1A Rio 1995 - Nitro Lacquer

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It’s time to send my much loved Sanchez Carpio 1a Rio to a new owner to enjoy as much as I have. I mainly play a cedar top and have fun buying, playing and selling Spruce tops as I find them much more varied for some reason, no two are ever alike.  I think of them as friends that come to stay for awhile then leave for another to visit. I can provide a sound clips on request but Reverb won't allow non-image files in messages, so I'll need your email address to send them.

You are looking at a great value, luthier built instrument with the finest woods especially now all but unobtainable Brazilian Rosewood back and sides!  Standard modern dimensions 650 scale length, 52mm nut if not it's 53 I find that hard to measure accurately. You can look up the long history of Riccardo Sanchez Carpio I won’t waste space pasting that into this listing.  Double signed by Ricardo himself on both the label and neck heel inside indicating an exceptional instrument constructed either by him personally or closely supervised. I believe the finish is some sort of nitrocelluse lacquer definitely not a synthetic urethane and not French Polished.  It’s in fairly rough shape cosmetically, with numerous dings and crackling in the top finish. The center seam behind the bridge has a light separation but clearly it’s been like that for a long time and stable and not able to progress because the center brace is exactly glued to the seam underneath.  There is what looks like a hairline crack in the upper bout on the side but it's in the finish only and no trace of it inside the body upon close inspection with an illuminated inspection mirror. For these shortcomings you get an outstanding sounding and playing instrument for the price of an indifferently slapped together factory made student guitar.  If you’re like me, you might actually prefer a rougher looking guitar so you don’t have to have a heart attack after your first string lash.

I bought this guitar on the spot, taken by its bold, woody punchy tone despite very high action that could not be lowered further. I believe this was a combination of steep neck set angle as many old Spanish Luthiers used to drive the top hard and also pulled up from years of string tension.  This I had repaired at no small expense by the master luthier GV Rubio of Los Angeles who repairs a lot of guitars for GSI in addition to building his own prized instruments.  He planned down the finger board and re-fretted it and perhaps at the request of Armond his assistant being a flamenco player set it up with very low action. It’s now ready for decades of worry free playing.   Between the friendly neck profile and low action measuring only about 3.5mm the bass 12 fret you will not find an easier playing traditional classical guitar.  For a serious professional player or those who use aggressive thumb rest strokes it’s a bit too low in my opinion, I just loved how easy it was to play so I kept it this way but I get NO fret buzzing when I play it.  I’m including a formed and fitted extra saddle that brings it to a touch over 4mm as I recall, you can have fun sanding it down and tinkering your way through the shades of tone to land where you like it best. There is a tradeoff between playability and power for sure.  Mr Rubio also converted the bridge to a 12 hole tie block which maximizes break angle for low cut saddles.  Not so necessary with tall saddles…

inside is typical Spanish 7 fan bracing.  The outer ones are scalloped delicately. The lining was done with tiny individual carved and shaped blocks interestingly, not a notched continual strip of wood. I don’t know how unusual that is however. I attached a picture from my Urlik book of classical guitars the bracing this most closely matches but not claiming it’s Romanillos copy.

Every note is firm with weight behind it and no odd undertones or uneven responses.  It’s on the louder side but not a cannon.  The third string e and second string a produce a powerful ringing resonance! If you’re like me and tend to want to think Spruce top and Brazilian rosewood means that crystal clear Hauser-ish tone, this isn’t really that.  It’s straight up bold and Spanish with a woody warmth and earthy, burnished sounding trebles but not lacking in chimey clarity.  More old-world tone than modern.  Modern spruce tops especially when new often have a strident, steely tone, you'll hear none of that in this well aged and well constructed instrument. Like all superior classicals it requires proper classical technique including well-dressed nails to get everything it has to offer but it also doesn’t punish poor technique with harsh or weird tonalities.  Pretty forgiving in that regard.

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