The Flamenco Guitar: History to the Present day

Compared to classical guitars, flamenco guitars generally have: shallower bodies no neck relief (and sometimes negative neck relief before string tension), a thinner top little or no doming of the top thinner and often less bracing a lower saddle lower frets lower string height at the bridge and 12th fret These features contribute to a less sustained, more percussive sound with some string "buzz", and an "easy" action. In the 19th century, luthiers in Spain did not distinguish between classical and flamenco guitars. In crudest terms, there were simply cheap guitars and fine guitars. There is even a suggestion that the flamenco guitar is not a specialized version of the classical guitar but vice versa, that the modern classical guitar is derived from an earlier flamenco-type instrument.