Thomann Classica Flamenco 1F

I've been playing guitar for almost 40 years and I've always been very picky about my instruments. I don't shrug at paying 4000¤ for a good guitar or any other instruments.
Recently there's been a paradigm shift in the instrument industry where old and trusted, and expensive, instruments have been overtaken by small, modern and seemingly cheap-ish brands and I don't know how anything about these new cheaper instruments so I decided to make a small test - to buy a couple really cheap instruments and see how they compare to the real deal?!

In my world you can't even build a classic guitar for 159¤ so how this is done I don't know but I had little to no expectations when I pressed order.

The guitar arrived a couple days later and I was initially perplexed how good the quality was upon unboxing it! Could this really work?
My first observation was that the Classica Flamenco 1F had a normal bridge and not a Flamenco bridge, not according to my standards anyway, so I expected the action to be higher than wanted so I got rid of the strings and lowered the bridge. I also dressed the frets and sanded the lacquer of the backside of the neck. I just prefer untreated necks.
The neck itself was surprisingly good so I didn't have to do much to be honest.
I put some new PJ116 John Pearse strings on it and started to play - and I was amazed!!!

Ok, the tuners are a bit rough in the action and the guitar feels like it's dipped in lacquer rather than my preferred French polish, but we're talking about a guitar for 159¤ and I just couldn't fault it?!
The wood is looking really good and the only thing sticking out is the rosette that's a sticker rather than something hand-made and neat, but for the price it's more than acceptable. The guitar sounds fantastic considering the price.

The Thomann Classica Flamenco 1F is a cheap guitar, that's true, but with a bit of setup and tweaks it both plays and sounds really good!
I can't give it full marks because it isn't there, but for the money it's an awful lot of guitar - and after playing it for a couple of days I'm really impressed! Perhaps not the guitar you use on the next recording but certainly a guitar for everyday use!

Here I was thinking you couldn't build a functional and playable guitar for 159¤... How wrong was I?

I now look forward to test the other items on my order and who knows? Perhaps you don't have to pay 4000¤ for guitars in the future...?

Final verdict:
If you're on a tight budget but need an ok classic guitar, this is not a bad choice! Just lower the action to your preference (if at all), add your favourite strings and that's it! I'm really impressed!!!
Well done Thomann!!! How you make any money on this I don't know...

I play mainly classical guitar style, though I do not limit myself totally to it and greatly enjoy an adventure into other styles of music, and of course, guitars. Because of HB's reasonably priced guitars ,these adventures have become more frequent and affordable and my latest is into the world of flamenco. I have tried playing flamenco on my hand made Richard Newman guitar but it has always lacked that bright, percussive tone as you can imagine so for £150 (approx) I decided to try Thoman's flamenco guitar. After a short wait the guitar arrived and I couldn't wait to get the box open and try it out. Getting a guitar from Thoman always makes me feel like a kid on Christmas morning, it's a joyous occasion.
First impression was not disappointing. The colour and quality of the wood is gorgeous and I was lucky in getting an amazingly symmetrical grain book matched feature on the back. Neck nice and smooth, not overly thin, and fretboard is flat with fairly low out of the box action. Tuners functional but not pretty, so will upgrade them. Nut plastic and in sure the bridge saddle is an uncompensated sliver of bone, so will probably change them too. Sound after a quick tune up was to my ears more like a classical guitar than a flamenco. The soundboard is thicker than I expected and the strings certainly were not doing the instrument any justice. After changing them to D'darrio flamenco, however, it took on the feel and sound of a flamenco. Certainly not a thoroughbred but adequate for my needs. A clear scratch plate or golpeador would have been a practical feature as it doesn't take long for your nails to rip up the surface of the soundboard without it.
All in all a nice guitar for the money. Well made, good wood, nice finish, easily playable with a surprisingly deep resonant bass and bright treble. Happy with the guitar and would recommend it as a student flamenco or as a go to now and then flamenco.
Now , I wonder what my next HB guitar is going to be?! I think I feel a bit of cool and slow and mellow electric bluesy jazzy stuff coming on; so maybe a semi hollow? Who knows? With Harley Benton the choice is remarkable and most satisfyingly varied. I'll go have a look now.