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Doog -> RE: Condé s overpriced? (Jan. 23 2008 11:35:14)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Ricardo
Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried a real Sobrinos de Esteso from say, the 50's through the 70's? I know it is different hands, but the design is very close to the modern conde compairing to say Ramirez, Gerundino, etc. And of course how about Conde's (Felipe V address) from the time 1989-2003, the time the label changed?
The Conde guitars I have tried from the 90's to about 2002 were all pretty good IMO, and stand up to even the old Sobrinos I have played. The problem I found with the guitar from 2003 that had a different sound and feel, was that it had almost no bass tone, and no charactistic "punch". I admit a strong point for a blanca is to have a good mid range, and this guitar had mids. But it seemed at the expensive of bass tones. My student who bought the guitar left it with me for a while to "break it in" or so he hoped. After spending serious time with it, I realized it was not the same instrument at all to what I was used to, sound OR feel, and would never have the right "punch" because of it's orginal design flaw. He felt the same and sold it, after trying to get used to it, and luckily found a good used one from the 90's.
Would you say there was a similar defect in sound from the instruments you tried from 2005,6???
Sorry if this is getting dragged out, I am just curious...
Ricardo
Hi Ricardo,
"Sorry if this is getting dragged out, I am just curious..."
No problem, I am happy to share opinions with you.
"Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried a real Sobrinos de Esteso from say, the 50's through the 70's? "
No I have not had the opportunity to do that. I have not played any Felipe Vs either.
"Would you say there was a similar defect in sound from the instruments you tried from 2005,6???"
The '05 A26 had a voice very much like what Doug [not Doog] described in one of his above posts ... "there was one A25 blanca that was mean and nasty and dry that i loved." I do not consider this to be a defect, but rather a typical sound that the Conde has. I would also add that, to me there is also a "metallic" quality to the Conde voice.
I wish that I could give you a precise evaluation of the Esteso "Re-edicion" in terms of its sound. It had excellent playability and at first blush I kind of liked the sound, but that wore thin quickly. As you can tell from my comments in previous posts, I like guitars that have a more melodic, mellow. melliferous voice. The Esteso did not have those qualities and its volume was not particularly outstanding.
To further clarify my tastes I have a classic guitar made by John Weissenrieder, an American form Colorado who lives and builds in Florence, Italy. His "Simplicio" model has a magnificent voice the appeals to me endlessly. Its voice has been described by myself and others as being: sweet, lyrical, musical, melodic, haunting, mellow, and romantic.
Also, I "grew up" in flamenco, in a manner of speaking, listening to Sabicas playing his legendary cedar top Ramirez blanca. I trust that this has influenced my tastes significantly. Mario Escudero was another strong influence. I feel that his playing had a significant classical guitar influence. Incidentally, I studied with Mario's father, Jesus, for over a year back in the early '60s. He was a true gypsy who spoke only Gypsy [Romany?], French, and Spanish. He was decidedly traditional and totally competent playing solo and accompaniment for toque and baile.
Once again, I believe that I understand our differences in tastes and feel totally comfortable with it.
Doog
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