A couple of centuries ago, I was a nice boy and started my guitar journey on classical. Then Hendrix, Maiden, and soon, Swedish death metal happened, but that's another story.
For a few months now, I had been meaning to buy myself a classical guitar again. I wanted an electric nylon, but also wanted a guitar that would sound nice to practice acoustically, which ruled out all the Godin-style thinline models. I spent many weeks searching for a guitar that would not necessarily be a super high end instrument, but still beautiful, quality, and certainly good enough for me to feel enjoyment as a player.
I looked at many models, some more obvious than others, from Ortega, Cordoba, Alhambra, Prudencio Saez, and of course Yamaha. After many sleepless nights and hours of reviews, my choice came down to either this Ortega, or the Yamaha NCX3, pretty much I think in a similar range. Although I was really tempted by the Yamaha piezo system (and the brand), I ultimately opted for the Ortega, for a number of reasons.
I really liked the more edgy features of the Flametal, reverse headstock, XLR output, arm contour, and the slightly sharper look of the Florentine cutaway. I also liked that the top was cedar instead of spruce, and found the rosette beautiful in its simplicity. The very few demos on YT convinced me that it sounded good, especially a video by Ben himself playing unplugged.
Last but not least, I picked the Ortega because of jack placement. On the Yamaha, the jack is at the base of the guitar, pointing straight out, making it impossible to play in the “classical” position, whereas on the Ortega it is placed roughly like on an electric, so no problem at all. Of course the Flametal might not maintain as much resale value as the Yamaha, not even sure, but that wasn’t a factor for me.
Spending two days with this guitar has confirmed I made the right choice, and here are my impressions.
First, the guitar is beautiful. Sides, back, neck, binding, top… the wood is gorgeous, no in-your-face grain like some more exotic woods, but also more exciting than the typical sort of boring (sorry) naked classical look, the walnut back is very nice, the pau ferro fretboard is just so much nicer than many of the current ugly woods used in the industry like laurel and ovangkol.
Not a single flaw in the build or finish, construction is superb, the arm contour looks fantastic, and I really like this low profile neck heel, vs the pointy Spanish classical one. The strap button is placed a bit strangely on the side of the heel, not centered like on the photos, I suppose this is to avoid neck dive, and in fact the button stays out of the way, which is pleasant, especially as I don’t intend to play it standing up.
The rosette is indeed very nice and classy, with what looks like walnut and pearl inlays. The headstock logo is also a sort of pearl inlay, nice touch. Altogether this guitar looks very nice, certainly not like an entry level guitar, so esthetically very enjoyable.
One very nice point on this guitar is the fret work. The fret ends are nicely rounded with no edges whatsoever, the frets themselves are nicely polished and super smooth (it should be noted at this stage that this guitar is made in China, but so is the Yamaha NCX3…). As always, the critical part is quality control, and on this guitar everything is top notch in that regard.
And now the sound.
This guitar is a 4/4 size, but thinner than a regular full thickness body, it’s very light, and of course it is not as loud (and harmonically rich) as a full size classical, but it’s certainly loud enough to practice and play even in public. More importantly, it sounds very nice unplugged, which would have been impossible (and very frustrating for me) with a thinline like a Godin, Cordoba Stage, or even a Yamaha silent guitar. Haven’t tested the XLR output into interface setup yet, but I have played the guitar plugged into an amp, and the sound is gorgeous in my opinion. The controls for the piezo really allow to shape the tone as best suits the room and amp, to an extent I was not expecting, the mix control between piezo and onboard microphone is a very nice touch, and I find that no matter what settings are used the sound of the guitar remains very natural and, indeed, like a classical guitar except way louder :D
The gig bag that comes with it is very decent and will do the job nicely (of course don’t throw your guitar in the back of the drummer’s van…).
I can’t see any cons with this guitar.
I will note that the fretboard seems a bit dry, which is such a common thing on new guitars, but a bit of conditioning will make it shine.
I think they were supposed to include transparent electrostatic pickguards for protection for flamenco players, but they didn’t, which is fine because I don’t need those.
Only thing is the action is ridiculously high, even though obviously it is always relatively high on a classical to allow for proper vibration, here we are talking some 6mm at 15th fret… the (plastic?) saddle looks really tall, so I'm thinking that it’s probably on purpose for each player to file it down to their preferred height, no big deal.
On a last note, even though I was not necessarily familiar with Ben Woods, I just found out he sadly passed away from cancer last month. I wonder if the model will be continued, something to keep in mind if you’re considering this guitar.
