This is prompted by Exitao's recent post on another flamenco foro; it may provide some insight into why Diego's guitar sometimes sounded like it did. The following is from Donn Pohren's Lives and Legends of Flamenco:

"Like now, Diego used to be our favorite accompanist, (This is cantaor Juan Talegas speaking) except for one thing: the guitar that he played was so inferior and beat up that it could not even be tuned properly. So we decided to organize a juerga and present Diego with a fine guitar. If I remember properly, it was a Santos Hernandez. Everyone chipped in, and what a juerga that was. Diego was like a child with a new toy, and played and played and accompanied us all like never before. Finally, late at night, he grew tired of playing and wanted to rest, but couldn't find a safe place to put his guitar, as none of us had thought of buying a guitar case. Diego solved the problem by locking it in our car outside. He rejoined the gathering jubilantly, and amidst the ensuing drinks and merry-making, completely forgot the existance of the guitar. At juerga's end, still unusually exuberant for some reason he could not quite recall, Diego danced out to the car, hurled himself drunkenly into the back seat, lit atop his beloved Santos and smashed it into pieces. The guitar never could be properly repaired, and was the last good guitar, to my knowledge, that Diego has owned." (pp. 296-297)

Others have remarked that Diego never paid much attention to the quality of his guitar--this may be a factor in explaining the purely technical issue of the quality of the sound that Diego produced. But Diego's gift was that, whatever the quality of sound his guitar produced, he brought forth from those singers he accompanied the very best cante that they had inside.

For more about Diego's appeal, I recommend Lives and Legends, and also the Brook Zern essay previously noted in this Moron de la Frontera sub-forum. I remind all that I know nothing about the technical aspects of flamenco guitar.

Carlos

Diego in fact did care about the quality of guitar he played.
Given the plethora of foreigners with guitars in Moron, more than a few times Diego would borrow one of the better ones to play.
This could pose a danger to guitar-owners who didn't know about Diego's special way of doing golpes.If they didn't have a "Diego golpeador" on their guitar, they might find a hole poked through the guitar face after Diego played it.
Jacinto