Advice request: which sub-£500 classical guitar?

[BassTractor]

It's about a guitar for my nephew, who has played before but should be regarded as a beginner.

He says budget is roughly three to five hundred quid  -  -  or really below that as seen with a UK perspective, as guitars are more expensive here in Norway.

Readily available to test here are the Yamahas CG122 and CG192  nothing inbetween. The 192 is a given, but slightly above budget. I'm a bit sceptical of the 122, but maybe without ground.
We can't get Alvarez here, but some C-Series Cordoba are available online. My nephew is probably unable to test and send back, so I'd need to know that they're good compared to Yamaha.
Any dark horse I should know about?

Oh, preamp or cutaway not demanded, but not a negative either.

Thanks!
Bert

Edited December 2, 2019 by BassTractor

[Frank Blank]

I have one of these, superb guitars imho.

Edited December 3, 2019 by Frank Blank

[Pseudonym]

In the price range you mention, I'd also take a look at a few models from Alhambra. The 1C (with or without Fishman pickup), and the Z-Nature (with or without Fishman pickup and/or cutaway) are all listed under £425 on the Thomann site. Certainly worth finding out more about them. I just looked at the Alhambra site and they list 4Sound as the dealers for Norway. Good luck on your quest.

[songofthewind]

Sadly, I just sold a very nice Ricardo Sanchis, rosewood and cedar, for £200. Absolute bargain.

These are fine guitars, made in Valencia, and come upon eBay from time to time. 

[mikel]

Should this not be in "Other instruments" ?

[BassTractor]

12 hours ago, mikel said:

Should this not be in "Other instruments" ?

Of course it should, strictly speaking. 
In fact, I even tried sister site GuitarChat.co.uk initially.

However, I then noticed there's little posting going on there as yet, and I thought that for a quick answer, Other Instruments may be too far outside many people's everyday awareness, and that General Discussion was the place to go, also seeing that a guitar is owned by many a bass player, and seeing that in the past, we've been tolerant of posts like these being in the wrong section, strictly speaking.
The description for General Discussion also seems indicative of a tolerant attitude.
YMMV.

 

Thanko mucho, peeps, for the proposed brands and models!
@Frank Blank's CGX122 seems like a perfect example of what I'd like to direct my nephew towards. My faith in the 122 series is better today than yesterday after some reading and after this recommendation.
@Pseudonym's Alhambra is the brand I knew I had in the back of my head but couldn't remember, and they didn't come up in my search either, but I think this might be perfect, as I had decided to send my nephew to 4Sound's physical shops in Oslo anyway.
@songofthewind's Ricardo Sanchis seems like the type of dark horse I was thinking of. Sounds very interesting. Since they're not readily available in physical shops here, I think we'd better give it a miss under the circumstances. Thanks anyway! It's stored on my HHDD. 😀

BTW, I didn't mention it in the OP, but I'm a fan of Spanish-built guitars of the Camps brand. In fact, I bought a then 300 quid thin Camps that I honestly think is better than my Yamaha CG172 which cost £500 at the time. I'm trying to direct my nephew also towards Camps. They have a line of 4 thin guitars (NAC-1 to NAC-4) that are only 70mm, and that have a lovely sound nevertheless.

So, with Alhambra, Camps, Cordoba and Yamaha on the list, I'm very confident my nephew will get a great guitar without shelling out for the CG192.
Thanks again!

Edited December 3, 2019 by BassTractor