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Is this thread still going after 5 years??? Good to see topics haven't changed much while I have been away :D Anyway we got to meet Felipe Conde in Sanlucar last year who seemd a nice enough guy but frankly left us with more questions than answers about the business practises of Conde over the years.
A fellow member asked me to post an excerpt of another thread that I´ve just postet in the Bernal thread.
in november 2005 I visited the shop of Vicente Sanchís Badía in Valencia. He was still present but as a consultor. He sold his workshop to two job holders of his workshop. They told me they would build the Conde A26. I didn´t believe it. So they invited me to go upstairs in the production area. There were about 30 guitars ready to ship. They opened the boxes showed me some different A26 as blanca an negra. We took them downstairs were I could play them. They had some good and some very bad ones. At that time the A26 price was at 6.500 €. So that´s also a big name labeled with Conde! They made other Condes as well.
If there´s a higher demand on something and the own productivity comes to the limit, then the exceeded demand above the internal productivity can realized by buying capacities from companies outside of the own workshop. So this might explain why el carbonero saw the A26 being made at the Conde workshop while Morante and I saw them at the Sanchís Badía factory (which is called Guitarras Guimar). It might also explain the inconsistance of the Conde guitars.
in november 2005 I visited the shop of Vicente Sanchís Badía in Valencia. He was still present but as a consultor. He sold his workshop to two job holders of his workshop. They told me they would build the Conde A26. I didn´t believe it. So they invited me to go upstairs in the production area. There were about 30 guitars ready to ship. They opened the boxes showed me some different A26 as blanca an negra. We took them downstairs were I could play them. They had some good and some very bad ones. At that time the A26 price was at 6.500 €. So that´s also a big name labeled with Conde! They made other Condes as well.
Do you know which Conde shop/business they were making them for? Atocha? Gravina? Felipe V?
You see now ,pedro sierra paly with a mariano conde A27 (segunda...) He know perfectly the good guitar ,and the good sound ,he have a record studio pro.
Pretty sure Ricardo Sanchis/hermanos sanchis lopez makes most of Atocha, same sound and feel and even price...Gravina not so sure. Felipe V....the only "bad" ones I played was from 2003 so I could maybe believe Bernd about that batch but I have to say the feel and sound didn't match to V. Sanchis that I am very familiar with. The problem with the 2003 was it was sort of "anemic"... it was bright clear and set up well, but lacked any sort of cuerpo. Most Conde's I have played are perfectly balanced. But V. sanchis, even the top line ones, I never felt as a similar build or sound at all. Nor R. Sanchis. But I am not going to say bernd is mistaken or confused of which "casa" the 30 some guitars were heading to. I just doubt that I have ever played a V. Sanchis built conde.
i have ear all sort of history about Felipe V . One time a friend of cousin of friend .... tell he visited raimundo shop ,in a hidden room there full of conde media luna .
Personnaly i think ,in felipe V ,only mariano ,felipe? ,and the officials made the guitare.
Hey all the criticaster , always you forget the official in the taller . Like the ramirez house . IN mariano shop there are 2 officials and it's not a secret ,it's public ,we can see them work on the guitar .
A kind of unique thread where you get 20% facts and 80% speculation.
I can add this fact
Early on the morning of 23 April 2014 I passed by Mariano's shop after taking early breakfast at a bar near the Opera House. The shop has big picture windows . I could see an elevated working area with sawdust on the floor. It was also possible to see down into the basement. On the wall there was notice in Spanish which as I remember said something like as "if you don't believe we build guitars, come and watch." If I had had more tome I would have done just that.
True, but the difference is that Ramirez has always been up front about these guitars and clearly state that they are student models that are made for them by another manufacturer and not in their own shop. Unlike the Condes, they aren't trying to hide anything.
Raimundo may still make the R-series student models for Ramirez. I really don't know and I'm not interested enough to care.
A close friend of my cousins wife is a private detective, he waited in an orange car parked near the Conde shops for a whole week and did 24 hours observation to see who comes with the trucks full of Condes. But no luck. The trucks never came.
I have the suspicion that all factories in Spain are connected to the Conde shops with a secret underground tunnel system, so we need a brave voluntary who can break in the shops at night and go in to the tunnels to find out the truth ....
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A close friend of my cousins wife is a private detective, he waited in an orange car parked near the Conde shops for a whole week and did 24 hours observation to see who comes with the trucks full of Condes. But no luck. The trucks never came.
I have the suspicion that all factories in Spain are connected to the Conde shops with a secret underground tunnel system, so we need a brave voluntary who can break in the shops at night and go in to the tunnels to find out the truth ....
In the Peña de Juan Villar last night, I was thinking that the guitarrist had a really good sounding Conde blanca, but on closer inspection, it was a Jerónimo Pérez.
While you guys being about mysteries, let´s eye a serious one.
See how there will always remain some former pairs of socks as single ones after washing? Have you realized the connection of your laundry machine to the Bermuda Triangle, yet?
I would appreciate that detective spending a week in the laundry room.
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I have been there: Bernd is right.
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