Conde Hermanos AF25 negra 2004 flamenco guitar.

If you want to know and feel how this Conde looks and sounds like, we invite you to watch and enjoy the included Free Flamenco guitar video lesson by our maestro Rezar Dominguez. This Free Flamenco guitar lesson consists of an intro enabling you to feel the sound and playability of this Conde Hermanos AF25, as well as a beautiful piece by Vicente Amigo, “Gitano de Lucia”. To download the tabs' Click here!

Conde guitars are played by a vast majority of professional flamenco players. The Conde guitars are regarded by many to have retained an authentic gipsy flavor. The Conde dynasty was founded by Domingo Esteso (1882-1937), who established his own shop in 1915. Esteso in turn trained his nephews Faustino and Mariano Conde Sr. and later, Julio Conde was trained in his brothers´ workshop. The three brothers Conde continued to work for Esteso´s widow until her death in 1960 and then took over their uncle´s shop, calling themselves " Hermanos Conde Sobrinos de Domingo Esteso". Mariano and Faustino Conde in the process of building a guitar. Soon they have got a great reputation of their own building guitars for the great quality of the materials, the excellent handwork and manufacturing technique which gives the best concert sound to these instruments and the guitars began to be used by famous guitarists such as: Niño Ricardo, melchor de Marchena, Manolo de Huelva, Mario Escudero, Sabicas, Regino Sáinz de la Maza, paco de Lucía... Mariano Sr. later established his own shop close to the Royal Theatre, calling it "Conde Hermanos Sucesores Sobrinos de Esteso" at Calle Felipe V, 2 in Madrid. His two sons, (Felipe, born in 1957 and Mariano Jr., born 1959) began their apprenticeship with their father and uncle Faustino when they were about 15 y.o. Faustino died in 1988 and Mariano Sr. in 1989.

Despite the date on the label, this Conde is a new one. Since her birth in 2004 at Calle Felipe V in Madrid, she has only been
used as a try out to convince local customers to buy one from the Conde inventory. Any of our flamenco guitars is inspected and tried intensively at the location of the luthier. We had to beg really strongly to take this negra with us during our last visit to Conde, merely because we, as a well as Conde, realized she was simply the best of their total inventory. Probably that’s why she was used for many years as a try out. She has the very nice, typical Conde orange color and rosette. The sides and back are made from first grade, gorgeous Indian rosewood. Normally a negra has some lesser dry tone tonality compared to a blanca, but this negra AF-25 is both brighter and more dry than the A26’s we currently have. The first string (the 'high' E) is really dynamic. She projects so easily, providing an excellent colorful tonal character, especially the mid-highs sound very direct, open and dynamic, basses are firm and very crispy. A great new Conde, as played by a vast majority of professional flamenco players, is very hard to find these days, but this one is like a Conde from the old days...a very unique and superb, professional one.