Levante and Clamor

In June, July 2010 I went to Spain for a 6 week holiday and to buy a flamenco guitar A26 is what I had in mind. I had been to Spain in 2007 and bought a Conde Hermanos EF5 but now I wanted something more professional. In June I went to visit Mariano Conde in Madrid, a very nice and helpful man, he showed me around his workshop and all the stages of making guitars, thanks Mariano it was very exiting and interesting, there is nothing like this in Australia.

I had a look and tried a few guitars, found a really nice A26; Mariano showed me his special edition guitars. I fell in love with number 4 “Clamor” a Blanco extremely fast and brilliant. I purchased this guitar, I was very proud I had found and now owned a dream guitar.

I travelled around Spain with this guitar. While travelling around Spain I went to flamenco shows everywhere, and while in Granada I met a guitarist Antonio who taught guitar at “Manolet’s flamenco academy in Sacromonte”. I had five guitar lessons and spent a few hours over five days watching Manolet teach dancing. This had turned out to be a fantastic Flamenco holiday for me.

I had to go back to Madrid to fly back to Australia. I was very pleases with my guitar and started thinking I would love a Negra, maybe a 25R, so went to see Mariano, looked at some 25R’s but decided this was a once in a lifetime opertunity and should go for a special. Mariano wanted to keep number 2 “Levante” for his personal collection, but told me that as I had number 4, I should have number 2. Lavente is deeper and very fast, a very different sound to Clamor. So now I have a Blanco and Negra "Mariano Conde specials", I consider myself very lucky.