Ricardo -> RE: Al´s new Conde (Mar. 27 2022 16:28:23)
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Lot of criticism of an old guitar design here, I will just assume you guys don’t have experience with them. First of all, the pick ups. Those are RMC pick ups, (Richard Mclish invention) first used for the nylon Godin guitars. The standard concept transfers from the horrific to play godin to a fabulous Conde guitar is that these pick ups are ideal to trigger the synth (the guitar might use two cables one for microphone and the other is a midi cable). So think of this instrument as fundamentally a MIDI instrument. You would not want to criticize the bridge pick up design because it is ideal. Al uses the midi sound effects that are afforded to Godin and his Ovation (which had an interface that had to be strapped to the body of the guitar in a very awkward way) but on a guitar that is more comfortable to play and sounds great. My friend who plays rumba already had this idea way back in 1999. He gutted a Godin and then cut up a cheap Valencia to install the Godin guts (not unlike Al’s conde except he also used the faders and buttons of the Godin so had to cut slots into the flamenco guitar). Words cant describe how fun that instrument was to play. The guitar fell and broke and he has since developed other designs. But at the time we discovered the problem with the RMC pick ups that the photo above points out. It only occurs if you play VERY aggressively close to the bridge. I have popped out the string with my dug in Alternate picking, but Picados rarely did this. But considering it ever happens at all on gigs (it makes a loud pop when this happens and you have to grab the string w RH and pop it back in, very annoying on a gig), so my friend took the RMC pick ups and FILED the V type groove to form more of a U shape that hugged the strings in place. The G string, having a wide diameter, was always the main culprit, so that is the one that had to be snug. His first attempt caused the problem of the action coming down TOO low, but he purchased another set and now he knows how to do it exactly right. (With a small file and careful not to to go too deep). He informed RMC about this and also Godin when we were at NAMM. It is possible they might have improved on the design. The picture implies perhaps the situation I described (a player popped them out and didn’t reset them) but I find that strange because any competent player would know this happened and fixed it, it is not a big deal really. More likely the person who strung up the guitar did this and did not realize. Finally, I have told the story several times, I had a rare opportunity to compare a bunch of guitars in Sanlucar…both in the hands of Gerardo and then to confirm in my own hands minutes later (and then Mariano Conde the next day in Madrid). Included were my Sanchis, several Condes including Felipe Sr., Reyes I think, Marvi (Gerardo’s), Ethan’s Blanca, etc. The guitar that stood out above all was a cedar top negra by Felipe jr. The guitar was no joke even though it had flaws, but for its sound it was the best guitar in the room. Last..we talked about this guitar much before: http://www.foroflamenco.com/tm.asp?m=215246&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=ultimate%2Cconde&tmode=&smode=&s=#215246 http://www.foroflamenco.com/tm.asp?m=215393&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=guitar%2Cprices&tmode=&smode=&s=#215393
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