Manuel Rodriguez e Hijos Caballero 11 Bubinga

I just finished gluing the bridge on my first "real" classical guitar build and couldn't find where I had stashed my nylon strings....  so I stole the strings off the second guitar I had bought when I was first learning to play....  a Rodriguez e Hijos Caballero 11 Bubinga, serial # 3709 to be exact.    

More to come on the new classical guitar, in the meantime I thought I would document the Caballero while I had the strings off it.

If I remember correctly, I paid around $250 for it new, probably around 2008, I vaguely remember it may have been on sale.  It was between this one and a spruce top one from a Canadian luthier, I don't remember much more than I went with the Caballero because if I was going to buy a Spanish guitar, I might as well get the one made in Spain.

The Rodriquez e Hijos guitars have a reputation for being pretty good guitars for the price.  The price on this specific model is rock bottom, so that is a pretty low bar to clear.  It is a great guitar for $250, but you probably won't be mistaking it for a $2500 guitar.

The natural tap tone resonance is A#.  The top is 2.83mm thick, at least the parts I can easily measure -- it might be thinner in the lower bout but at $250 I assume it is uniform thickness with no attempt at voicing what so ever.

Bracing pattern is five straight, uniform cedar braces with two smaller angled braces on the outside. Doesn't appear to have been voiced, which again one would expect at the price point.

Here is a short video of the whole soundboard. The dust bunnies are an aftermarket addition.

One interesting bit is that braces have a big dab of hot glue (the "glue gun" variety, not hot hide glue) at each end.  I peeled one off just to be sure it was indeed what it looks like:

Generally speaking the build quality is good. I spotted only one quality control item, which is not visible w/o sticking a camera down through the sound hole:

An interesting note is that the string holes in the bridge have just enough variation that they may have been drilled by hand. The lowest one is #5 and the highest is #6, which makes them stand out.

I can't quite squeeze my arm far enough through the sound hole to reach the back of the braces. If I could, I might be tempted to thin them down a bit.  I can easily reach the tone bar.....