Felipe Conde is a third-generation luthier, heir to a century old family tradition established by the celebrated Spanish guitar builder Domingo Esteso in 1915 and passed on by his father and uncle, known worldwide as the Conde Hermanos. Felipe’s small workshop located at 4 Arrieta Street, in central Madrid opposite the Royal Theatre is exclusively dedicated to hand crafting only the finest classical and flamenco guitars. The artisanal techniques employed by Felipe Conde today, have been refined and preserved by the family over the last century singling out the Conde guitars as some of the finest and most sought after by the most celebrated music professionals all over the globe. Felipe lavishes great care upon every detail of the guitar building process, beginning from the selection of the finest wood all the way to the finishing touches.
Wood employed to build his guitars are naturally aged and dried during at least thirty years and especially selected for their sonorant qualities and beauty. The finest German spruce or red Canadian cedar is used for the harmonic tops, Spanish cypress or a variety of fine rosewoods for the back and sides, Honduran cedar for the neck and ebony for the fret board. Apart from building the guitars, Felipe dedicates most of his time today to teaching the trade to his son and daughter Felipe Jr. and María which have been apprenticing at their father’s workshop for several years now, assuring the continuation of the family tradition into the future. Over the past century the Conde guitars have become an important part of the history of the instrument and their characteristic sound familiar the world over through the hands of some of the most iconic musicians of our time such as Paco de Lucía or Leonard Cohen.