The Authentic Voice of the Traditional Spanish Flamenca Blanca
A magnificent example of traditional Spanish flamenco guitar making, this exceptional 2001 Hermanos Conde — Sobrinos de Esteso Flamenca Blanca comes from the celebrated Felipe V Nº 2 workshop in Madrid and has been preserved in remarkable condition.
This is the sound and character players search for in a great traditional blanca.
Fast. Immediate. Percussive. Alive.
The spruce soundboard responds instantly beneath the right hand, while the Spanish cypress back and sides contribute the dry, woody character, brilliant attack and unmistakable flamenco growl that give a great blanca its personality.
There is excellent projection and separation, but without sacrificing the raw rhythmic energy fundamental to flamenco. Rasgueados explode from the instrument, individual notes speak immediately, and the basses possess that wonderfully earthy edge that makes the guitar feel alive beneath the player.
At only 1.5 kg, the instrument has the light, responsive physical character expected from a serious traditional flamenco guitar.
And visually, there is no mistaking its lineage.
The celebrated Media Luna headstock, traditional rosette, natural finish and beautiful Fustero tuning machines give this instrument the unmistakable presence of a top-level Conde from one of the family’s most important periods.
A remarkable piece of Spanish guitar heritage — and an increasingly difficult type of instrument to encounter in this condition.
A must try for the serious flamenco guitarist, player or collector.
Description
Specifications
Hermanos Conde
Sobrinos de Esteso
Flamenco Guitar
Year: 2001
Workshop: Felipe V Nº 2 — Madrid, Spain
- Scale Length: 650 mm
- Nut Width: 52 mm
- Soundboard: Spruce
- Back & Sides: Spanish Cypress
- Neck: Cedar
- Fingerboard: Ebony
- Bridge: Rosewood
- Headstock Veneer: Rosewood
- Headstock: Traditional Media Luna
- Tuners: Fustero
- Finish: Natural Tint Lacquer
- Case: Hard Shell Case Included
- Weight: 1.5 kg / 3.306 lbs
- Total Length: 100 cm / 39.37 inches
- Body Length: 49 cm / 19.29 inches
- Upper Bout: 28.5 cm / 11.22 inches
- Lower Bout: 37.5 cm / 14.76 inches
- Body Depth: 9.3 cm / 3.66 inches
Spruce & Spanish Cypress — The Traditional Flamenca Blanca
There are few combinations more deeply associated with traditional flamenco guitar making than spruce and Spanish cypress.
Where the rosewood-bodied flamenca negra developed into a powerful alternative particularly suited to the concert stage, the blanca preserves another side of the flamenco tradition: lightness, immediacy, dryness and explosive rhythmic response.
That character is at the heart of this 2001 Conde.
The spruce soundboard delivers a crisp, articulate attack, while the Spanish cypress body contributes the characteristic dryness and woody resonance that allow rhythmic passages to remain remarkably clear.
The result is not simply brightness.
There is a visceral quality to a fine blanca — an almost vocal roughness around the edges of the sound, particularly through the bass register, producing the characteristic growl so strongly associated with traditional flamenco.
This is a guitar built to react.
Immediate Response — Made for Flamenco
A great flamenco guitar should feel as though very little stands between the player’s hands and the sound.
This Conde possesses precisely that quality.
At approximately 1.5 kg, the guitar feels wonderfully light and responsive. Notes emerge quickly, chords have tremendous rhythmic definition, and rasgueados carry the aggressive clarity and separation required for authentic flamenco playing.
Its 650 mm scale also distinguishes this particular instrument from some of the longer-scale Condes associated with earlier periods, while retaining the tension, articulation and authority expected from a professional flamenco guitar.
The voice is direct and powerful without becoming heavy.
Bright without becoming thin.
Dry and percussive, yet with enough depth and colour to give the instrument an unmistakable personality.
The Media Luna — The Signature of Conde
Few visual elements in Spanish guitar making are as immediately recognizable as the Media Luna headstock.
According to the Conde family’s historical records, the design appeared before 1953 and was used alongside the traditional Esteso headstock before becoming generalized on the family’s first-class guitars around 1960. It subsequently became one of the defining visual signatures of the house.
On this guitar, the Media Luna is complemented by the traditional decorative vocabulary associated with the workshop and an elegant natural finish that allows the pale Spanish cypress to remain visually prominent.
The Fustero tuning machines add another particularly beautiful period detail, giving the headstock an elegant traditional appearance befitting an instrument of this level.
The result is unmistakably Spanish and unmistakably Conde.
Felipe V Nº 2 — A Distinct Chapter in the Conde Story
The provenance of this instrument is particularly important.
In 1980, Mariano Conde established the workshop at Felipe V Nº 2 in Madrid together with his sons, opening a new chapter in the family’s guitar-making history.
Until Faustino Conde’s death in 1988, Felipe V and the historic Gravina Nº 7 workshop remained connected. From that point forward, Felipe V operated independently.
When Mariano Conde Sr. died the following year, his sons assumed responsibility for continuing the family tradition from Felipe V.
This guitar was made there in 2001.
That places it squarely within what the family’s own historical chronology identifies as the 1980–2010 fourth era, when the Felipe V workshop continued traditional artisanal construction while incorporating carefully considered improvements in materials, tools and production methods without abandoning the characteristic Conde sound.
That makes Felipe V Nº 2 much more than an address on the label.
It identifies the specific branch and period of the Conde tradition from which this instrument emerged.
From Domingo Esteso to Hermanos Conde
The story behind this guitar reaches much further back.
Domingo Esteso, one of the important figures of the Madrid school, learned his craft in the workshop of Manuel Ramírez, where he crossed paths with other major Spanish guitar makers including Santos Hernández and Enrique García.
In 1915, Esteso established his own workshop at Gravina Nº 7, working alongside his wife Nicolasa Salamanca. After his era, the workshop continued under the Viuda y Sobrinos de Esteso name, with the Conde brothers carrying his tradition forward.
Over subsequent decades, the family continued refining the guitar’s plantilla, bracing, decorative vocabulary and sound.
By the second half of the twentieth century, Conde guitars had become closely associated with generations of important flamenco musicians, including Niño Ricardo, Sabicas, Melchor de Marchena, Paco de Lucía, Paco Cepero, Enrique de Melchor, Gerardo Núñez, Rafael Riqueni and Tomatito, among many others.
It is this extraordinary relationship between the guitarrero and the flamenco guitarist that forms such an important part of the Conde legacy.
Blanca & Negra — Two Sides of the Conde Tradition
This guitar also gives us a wonderful opportunity at Grand Guitar Salon.
Alongside our 1999 Gravina Nº 7 Flamenca Negra, this 2001 Felipe V Nº 2 Flamenca Blanca allows two distinctly different expressions of the Conde tradition to be experienced side by side.
The 1999 guitar combines spruce and rosewood, representing the flamenca negra tradition that the Conde family helped establish as an important concert-flamenco voice. The family’s own history describes its introduction of rosewood into the flamenco guitar and the subsequent association of that concept with Paco de Lucía and concert flamenco.
This 2001 guitar returns to the traditional spruce-and-cypress blanca formula.
Two different workshops.
Two different years.
Two different approaches to the flamenco voice.
Yet both descend from the same remarkable Madrid guitar-making tradition.
For the serious guitarist, having the opportunity to experience those differences firsthand offers something specifications alone can never communicate.
An Exceptional 2001 Conde
More than two decades after its construction, this Hermanos Conde Flamenca Blanca remains an exceptional example of the traditional flamenco guitar.
Its lightweight construction, immediate response, brilliant attack, dry Spanish-cypress character and wonderfully deep flamenco growl combine with the unmistakable aesthetics of the Media Luna to create an instrument with enormous personality.
But perhaps most importantly, it feels connected to the tradition from which it came.
This is not simply a vintage Spanish guitar.
It is a Felipe V Nº 2 Conde from 2001 — an instrument carrying the sound, craftsmanship and history of one of Madrid’s most recognizable guitar-making families.
A magnificent flamenca blanca.
A must try.
This exceptional 2001 Hermanos Conde — Sobrinos de Esteso Flamenca Blanca is currently available at Grand Guitar Salon in Montréal, Canada.
For additional information, photographs, condition details or international purchasing inquiries, please contact us.
Worldwide shipping is available.
Photography
Please Note: These are the actual photographs of this guitar.
Additional information
| Weight | 12 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 115 × 51 × 21 cm |
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