anyone know this guitar manuel Rodriguez

Korat

Lol, when was that? Mine is about 2 years old now. It certainly is not bad, given the price.
I know nothing about their flamenco- and other guitars, so i have no opinion on those.

mike340

Music 123 has three Manuel Rodriguez Mod D Maccaferri guitars for sale on e bay. They are all different in the pictures. One has no fret markers on the fingerboard, one has french markers, and the third has traditional markers.

I e mailed them with questions like what is the scale length, nut width, Width of lower bout, height of bridge, height of action and I asked them to characterize the neck profile for me.

They sent me back the same info that was in the listing. They obviously don't have the ability to do the measurements and answer the questions. Pretty sad, don't you think?

What does it sound like? Who knows. Are they a better value than a Gitane or a Altimira? At @ 1,500.00 USD, probably not. I thought about buying one at the Guitar center web site, and then returning it to a local store if it turned out to be a disappointment, but I'm just going to wait for now.

Mike

Bob

I have a Model C India Rodriguez Maccaferri guitar. This is a 12 fret oval hole model but I imagine the guitar is the same as the 14 fret Model D in all other respects. I would say that the guitar is very well made and feels more solid than the Gitane 255 which I also own. However it is let down by the tailpiece and bridge. I have replaced both on mine, the tailpiece actually cracked while the guitar was in its case! The machine heads are standard spanish classic type but they work well enough and hold tuning well. The neck is a bit of a handfull and at first feels harder to play than the Gitane neck but you do get used to it. The neck is 1 3/4" at the nut. Solid spruce top and laminated Indian rosewood back and sides very well made and finished. Body is 18 3/4" long, 16 1/4" into the cutaway, 15 5/8" wide and 4"- 4 3/8" deep. The guitar is louder than the Gitane and makes a good rhythm guitar. Made in Spain the labour costs are of course higher and the exchange rate with the Euro is not good so it makes the Rodriguez very expensive. I bought mine at a very good price because it was made for CSL as a demonstration model for a new line of guitars which never went into production. As always try before you buy if possible. Hope the above helps.
Bob.

noodlenot

Korat wrote:

I've checked the site of Manuel Rodriguez. The reference to Paco de Lucia is gone, so it is my guess he is currently using another brand.

As for the "Manuel Rodriguez" (MR) name:
MR is not a name that was made up to create a Spanish image.
It refers to 3 persons, grandfather, father and son.
The father had a workshop in the USA for some 15 years, then returned to Spain, to take over the family guitar building business, a factory (company) of the same name (MR) near Madrid. The factory/workshop produces a wide range of guitars, from basic to (very) expensive

just to add to this, the 1st Manuel Rodriguez worked in the Ramirez (José) workshop in Madrid for a long time and was considered a fine builder in his own right. His son turned a small workshop into a big selling factory. I have a classical manuel rodriguez, not bad for the price (500 euros 15 years ago): sonorous, dark timbre but with good polyphony, well balanced sound.
as already said, Miguel Rodriguez (sr.) - no relation with Manuel - was a very famous maker of classicals and flamencos from Cordoba. Tom Blackshear, i believe, his one of his successors.