Mikey, how does your Hancock go?

[edwardcav]

New forum member Mikey,
Hello, and welcome to an astounding community of classical/flamenco guitar lovers.

You mentioned your Sean Hancock guitar... tell me all about it please. What guitars have you played? What does the Hancock remind you of? Hancock makesa lot of Hauser copies - has it got that smooth Hauser quality? (I know from Andrés, not from experience!!!)

Let me know. And welcome once again to GSI forum.

[Mikey]

Edwardcav,

Thanks for the welcome! The Sean Hancock guitar is a great instrument and considering the low price (3500$) I consider it one of the best concert guitar deals out there. I've played a variety of other concert instruments including some Ramirez, some concert Yamahas, and a variety of guitars by pacific northwest luthiers that cost well over 10,000 dollars, and I have not felt that these guitars are superior in any significant way. The tone is beatiful with really great, thick trebles all the way up the neck. Initially, I had trouble getting a good bass tone out of the instrument but after experimenting with a variety of strings I got the tone I want. Furthermore, now that the instrument has broken in the spruce top has really opened up and the bass strings sound really, really good. The balance is fantastic.

I'm sorry to say that I can't really comment on the Hauser quality because I have no experience, but I can say that the tone is a little warmer than that of Segovia's. I think that smooth quality you mentioned may have been the Maestro himself! In general, the tone of the Hancock guitar is very sensitive in comparison to most spruce topped instruments I've played. Consequently, its not that loud of an instrument, fairly average in volume. In concerto performance this may be a drawback. I also really like the size of the body. It seems a little thinner to me and it sits very well in playing position. The guitar also seems to control the overtones that are sometimes present when playing good guitars. For me this is really important because excess overtones really bother me, however other players may like them and should be informed. In terms of playability, I a happy with the instrument but its hard to judge objectively because my hands are so used to it. When I play other guitars I always compare the playability to that of my own instrument. I think that is true of most of us.

In all, I am more than pleased with the guitar and give it a high recomendation. I don't think you could find a better guitar for 3500 dollars. It really is a concert quality instrument.

[stevec]

Hi Mikey

What string combo did you find brought out the base you where looking for.

thx Stevec

[edwardcav]

Thank you for the insight. I can only imagine how much better that spruce top is going to age - before too long you'll probably see furhter tonation qualities come out and the vlume increase a little 8)

Thanks bud.

[Mikey]

Stevec,

I use the Savarez Corum Alliance. These bass strings are much better than those in other Savarez string sets. The treble strings sound nice on the Hancock, but I put a pair on a practice guitar and they sounded quite bad. I guess these srings are really specific to certain instruments. Also, these strings reveal the slightest mistake much more noticeably than other strings. You get used to it. Over all there the best sounding string, very musical, that I've found for my specific guitar. Absolutley solved my bass problem.

Mikey