1964 flamenca negra guitar from Faustino Conde : documentation and reverse engineered construction plans

Abstract

This data set documents a specific guitar made by Faustino Conde in Madrid in 1964. (Comment: Felipe Conde identified the handwriting of Mariano Conde in the "Conde" signature on the label inside, the signature of his father. This does not necessarily mean that the guitar was built by Mariano, since experts believe, that it was the brother Faustino who built these kind of special guitars, as it has also been the case for the flamenca negra guitars).

The guitar is a so-called flamenca negra, a flamenco guitar with rosewood used for rib and back plate. (Errata: the guitar was sold as a flamenca negra, and experts in Granada also believed it is a flamenca negra. However, Felipe Conde now inspected the guitar and states that the instrument has been built as a classical guitar with only some changes in the setup that might lead to other conclusions. It is not clear whether this setup is original from Conde or whether the guitar has been changed in an aftermath.)

The guitar has the exceptional character of showing four main resonances between the Helmholtz resonance (A0) and the first air mode (A1), while other guitars usually have one or two resonances in the same range. This is observable across a wider range of old and contemporary guitars, documented in an archive. Mores, R. 2021a. ‘Archive for the acoustical documentation of classical Spanish guitars, flamenco guitars and romantic guitars from private and public collections – bridge mobility’. Zenodo, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.4604577. This observation triggered a research project to understand this.

The resulting analytical model reveals the delicate tuning of related parameters in the construction, published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, JASA. Mores, R. 2021. ‘Sound tuning in asymmetrically braced guitars’. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 149(2), 1041–1057. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0003378. This model explains how to design multiple resonances into a guitar so that the fundamental tone is suported for every semitone played. The model matches with findings not only of this Conde guitar but explains tuning issues in general. There should be a translation into Spanish in due time.

A brief talk (English) explains the main issues and demonstrates the congruence between the analysis and an mechanical model, build for demonstration purposes. Mores, R. 2020a. ‘Tuning signature modes in guitars - a lesson by Faustino Conde’. Zenodo, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.4624826.

Supporting material (coded in MATLAB) allows researchers and guitar makers to explore the issue. Mores, R. 2020. ‘Tuning asymmetrically braced guitars - analytical models and MATLAB code’, Zenodo, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.4010596.

This publication documents the construction plans of the Faustino Conde guitar. Guitar makers asked for these plans to understand the principles of parameter tuning based on the construction. The documentation comprises: 1. construction plans (high resolution) 2. photos of the total instrument 3. photos of details inside

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Comments on the guitar for those who consider to build this guitar model. 1. The guitar is original. Also the top and the mechanics. Experts in Granada, while inspecting the varnish, believed that the top plate might have been modified. However, Felipe Conde (*1959) states that the guitar is original. This also includes the fretboard. The fretboard height is declining towards the body and this caused questions by Granadian guitar makers. However, in the workshop of the Conde family several inspected guitars from the 50s through the 70s revealed a likewise decline of the height. 2. Felipe Conde inspected the guitar. He believes that the guitar is an experimental guitar and that it has been built as a customized guitar for a highly professional musician. But there are no records on this. 3. The setup of the guitar has been modified. The height of the bridge is lowered where the bone sits. This can be inspected in the construction plan. It is not known whether this was done by Conde himself or by someone else in an aftermath. Experts in Granada but also members of the Conde family state that the present setup is perfect.