Conde Hermanos
Conde Hermanos are not just any guitar builders, no, they have written flamenco history as no other. The two brothers Julio and Mariano Faustino started to build guitars for the widow of Domingo Esteso Guitars with the label of the widow at the beginning of the 50s. Slowly they started building their own instruments with the label Sobrinos de Domingo Esteso. At that time, beginning of the 60s, it was not easy to live from sales of flamenco guitars. By the time the young Paco de Lucia finally became aware of them at the end of the 60s/beginning of the 70s–he had previously played Ramirez–they had developed their own guitar type: a flamenco guitar with a strong bass but still brilliant high-tension sound. 67 cm string vibration length was normal at that time, but is unplayable in today's conditions. Paco was seen almost exclusively with Conde, and of course a lot of players copied him and did the same. There is almost no young guitarist who did not play Conde in old television recordings of the 70s. Faustino Conde, who is considered the person in charge for building the old Condes, wrote flamenco history. This legend of Condes, also called "Estesos" in Spain, has been maintained till today. No other guitar is so shrouded in legend, although most of today's Condes have nothing more in common with the old sound. The three brothers all died at the end of the 80s. Today, there are three official inheritors of the Conde name. Mariano and Felipe in Calle Felipe are Mariano's sons. Juia Conde is Julio's daughter. She lives in Calle Atocha. Faustino's widow lives in the old store in Calle Gravina. Nobody knows exactly where the many instruments come from, which are offered for horrendous prices today, and you have to be careful to get something adequate for your money.
In the long years during which I bought new Conde guitars, I also preferred guitars from Calle Felipe. They are the most expensive, but I think they were the best. It is difficult to get an adequate instrument for the high price even there today. Once in a while I succeed in finding something extraordinary from Calle Felipe.
The two brothers Felipe and Mariano each went his own way in 2010, and now each sells under his own label.

Felipe Conde and Johannes Inhoffen