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Ricardo -> RE: Felipe Conde (May 5 2013 17:03:05)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Dyingsea
quote:
ORIGINAL: Ricardo
I put forth now that despite the accusations, ALL A MODEL Condes are built by hand by one of the two brothers. All media lunas produced in valencia are destined for one of the other two shops either Atocha, or Gravina (and since before the split) the student B models for the Felipe V address. that is STILL a lot of condes of course, but now please prove me wrong somebody. Show me a Felipe V addressed A model media luna that was surely constructed in Valencia. Waiting.
ricardo
There are so many A25's and 26's out there it is incredible. The sheer numbers don't break down to one person IMO without help. Maybe one of the brothers directly oversees the building of each A model? Supervisor, final setup, QA type of thing but other artisans are directly involved. If you had 4 or 5 guys building each one by hand in a luthier group type of environment I could see getting near 100 or so A models out the door each year.
In an interview these questions were addressed. I will quote a couple things from the interview in a flamenco magazine from 1999.
Are two of you speciallised in making certain parts of the guitar?
"No, every guitars is a team work, we hand it on to one another. One does a part and then passes it on to the other, there are no fixed asignments between the two of us".
(after admiting machines are used for some parts of the build such as sawing...)
How much time does the making of a guitar take?
"It depends on the model. If it's an A-model, three months, if it's a special guitar it may take even longer."
Just the two of you build guitars or do you have assistants?
" Yes, we have peole who help us otherwise it is impossible. Fo the B-models for example".
"we don't do the varnishing ourselves. Well, sometimes we do the shellac ourselves, but we don't touch the synthetic varnish".
so you send it to a varnisher?
"NO, no, we have our own employee who is specialised in doing all the varnishing".
How many do you build in one year?
" Guitars built by ourselves 4-5 a month, that makes about 60 A models a year. THese are the ones that carry our signatures and our seal."
"we are building various guitars simultaneously, we don't work only on one guitar at th etime, we work on one or two at the same time, if one has to dry you work on another."
you speak of guitars that carryin your signature and seal. Does that mean there is another type of guitar?
"Yes, we're speaking of the B and C models which we do not build ourselves. They are made by people that work for us. Only the guitars that carry our signatures are made completely by ourselves."
...."these are also conde guitars but they are not made personally by ourselves. THe people who build them are trained personally by us and they build them according to our instructions.".
THen you have another workshop here in madrid?
"yes, we have nother here in Madrid and then there's a third outside Madrid. Bu the master guitars are built here in this shop".
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Ok, so, they are flat out LYING...or they are not.
[;)]
We can argue and speculate. Accusing someone of lying is serious and one would think the burden of proof lies on the accuser. I have seen video and photos of them building but some claim they are FAKING IT. I think the real money to made is in the factory B models. Confusing comes from the fact other media lunas (look LIKE A models) are built in same fashion for the other two conde houses, but are different quality AND PRICE. But if they (FElipe V guys now split up) don't build the A models either then everyone gets all bent out of shape about it. I like the guitars (A models) I have played and do find them a cut above the Valencia guitars they are perported to actually be. They seem to be better than the Atocha and Gravina equivalant looking versions. I always say it should be easy to prove this thing with a visit to Valencia and a cel phone camera but instead people just like to talk up the subject.
Ricardo
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