{"id":3062,"date":"2015-11-13T19:29:01","date_gmt":"2015-11-14T03:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=3062"},"modified":"2019-08-26T11:20:41","modified_gmt":"2019-08-26T18:20:41","slug":"gear-review-ortegas-rce159mn-sounds-good-plugged-or-unplugged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/gear-review-ortegas-rce159mn-sounds-good-plugged-or-unplugged\/","title":{"rendered":"Gear Review: Ortega\u2019s RCE159MN Sounds Good Plugged or Unplugged"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Adam Perlmutter
\n<\/em>
\nAcoustic-electric guitars might offer modern conveniences such as built-in preamps and tuners, sleek necks, and smooth cutaways, but played unplugged they tend to sound less robust than their fully acoustic, non-cutaway counterparts. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so satisfying to play Ortega Guitar\u2019s RCE159MN<\/strong>, which, although incorporating all of these features, has a surprisingly full unamplified sound\u2014at a wallet-friendly price.<\/p>\n

Smartly Designed<\/h1>\n

Since 1994, Germany-based Ortega has offered a range of nylon-strings, among other fretted instruments, many of them reevaluating traditional aspects of the classical guitar. The RCE159MN is made from the time-honored tonewood combination of a solid cedar soundboard and rosewood back and sides, mated to a mahogany neck with a 650-millimeter scale-length rosewood fretboard.<\/p>\n

Departing from tradition, the guitar has a Venetian cutaway, with a nut width of 48 millimeters; the neck is slightly narrower than on a standard classical guitar; and it has a two-way adjustable truss rod instead of none at all. The instrument\u2019s electronics package, the MagusPro-NL pickup and preamp system, is another obvious departure from tradition. Subtler deviations include a 12-hole bridge, said to enhance the guitar\u2019s sound and tuning stability while making it easier to change the strings, and positional side dots on the neck, like on a standard steel-string or electric guitar.<\/p>\n

The RCE159MN is a handsome guitar. Its distinctive rosette, concentric rings of rosewood and mother-of-pearl studded with a wing-like maple motif, offers a nice counterpoint to the cedar soundboard, with its warm reddish hue. The rosewood<\/p>\n

Overall, the craftsmanship on our review model is good. The guitar\u2019s finish is cleanly executed, save for a hint of sloppiness at the neck-to-the body junction; the binding is tight and flush with the body. Inside the box, everything is tidy, without any unwanted artifacts from the manufacturing process. The frets could\u2019ve been more smoothly crowned and polished at the factory, but a good luthier or repair tech could address this. And the tuning machines don\u2019t have the smoothest action, but they could be swapped out easily enough.
\n\"ortega1\"<\/p>\n

Warmly Voiced and Highly Versatile<\/h1>\n

It\u2019s a breeze to play the RCE159MN. The MN in the name stands for medium neck, and, relative to a typical classical neck, it does indeed feel streamlined in its width and profile, but not overly so. The guitar is intonated perfectly, and the notes on all 19 frets ring clear and true, with impressive sustain and without unwanted buzzing.<\/p>\n

The guitar has a lovely voice. Overall it sounds warm, slightly dark, and full; it has a very good balance between registers as well. Though not necessarily a concert instrument, it lends itself to a range of repertoire. Whether I play Lily Afshar\u2019s arrangement of J.S. Bach\u2019s Cello Suite No. 1<\/em> or Frederic Hand\u2019s \u201cLate One Night,\u201d the guitar feels both responsive and forgiving of momentary lapses of technique.\u00a0 Likewise, the RCE159MN works well for an arrangement of jazz pianist Bill Evans\u2019 \u201cTurn Out the Stars,\u201d as cluster-voiced chords have good definition and note separation. It sounds terrific for comping on a bossa number like Ant\u00f4nio Carlos Jobim\u2019s \u201cEste Seu Olhar.\u201d In a different direction, the guitar has a vigorous sound when subjected to single-note improvisations played with a plectrum.
\n\"ortega2\"<\/p>\n

Optimized Electronics<\/h1>\n

Like many acoustic-electrics, the MagusPro-NL preamp, which Ortega designed in-house, is installed on the side of the guitar: not the most aesthetically pleasing solution. But the system is optimized for the nylon strings, and plugged into a Fender Acoustasonic amplifier it sounds clean and natural. As a bonus, the built-in tuner is illuminated only when it\u2019s switched on, and it\u2019s easy to read. On the screen, Ortega\u2019s O logo turns green when the string is in tune: a cool detail in a smart modern nylon-string that\u2019s filled with neat flourishes.<\/p>\n

BODY<\/strong>
\nClassical cutaway; solid Canadian cedar top; rosewood back and sides; gloss finish<\/p>\n

NECK<\/strong>
\nMahogany neck with rosewood fretboard; 650mm scale length; 50mm nut; Ortega gold-plated tuning machines; gloss finish
\n
\nEXTRAS<\/strong>
\nSavarez Cristal Corum 500CJ high-tension strings; Ortega MagusPro-NL electronics; deluxe gigbag<\/p>\n

PRICE<\/strong>
\n$900 list\/$600 street
\nMade in China. ortegaguitars.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Adam Perlmutter Acoustic-electric guitars might offer modern conveniences such as built-in preamps and tuners, sleek necks, and smooth cutaways, but played unplugged they tend to sound less robust than their fully acoustic, non-cutaway counterparts. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so satisfying to play Ortega Guitar\u2019s RCE159MN, which, although incorporating all of these features, has a surprisingly full unamplified sound\u2014at a wallet-friendly price. Smartly Designed Since 1994, Germany-based Ortega has offered a range of nylon-strings, among other fretted instruments, many of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","post_format-post-format-video"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/ortega1.jpg?fit=800%2C694&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}