The other day I was in the local goodwill-esque store, and found a 3/4 size classical guitar sitting on the shelf for $39. It was pretty beat up, and badly needed a new set of strings, but it sounded pretty decent, and so I took it home a put a new set of strings on it. My daughter wants to learn guitar, but she's 11 and has small hands, so I thought this would be a nice cheap practice instrument for her.

I must say, I got a great deal on this thing. After Cliff at Mesa Music fixed my lame re-stringing job (this was the first classical I've ever restrung), it tuned up nicely. It has a nice action, good resonance, and flat out just sounds great for a $39 instrument. I've been playing it exclusively since I bought it, in fact, in preference to my steel-string acoustic and my two electrics, one of which is a Schecter C1.

The maker's label inside the case reads: "La Primera Model # L12N". If you happen to spot one of these for cheap, it's probably worth the price.

The Mesa Music Myspace page is here: http://www.myspace.com/mesamusictx. Cliff, the proprietor, has never failed to make me happy with any guitar I brought to him for setup, even my totally crappy Korean solid-body (which is now pretty much my fave guitar).