1920 Domingo Esteso SP/CY

A 1920 flamenco blanca with pegs by Domingo Esteso, with a spruce top and cypress back and sides, made in Madrid in his first years at Gravina 7 – later repaired in Madrid by Esteso's great-nephew, Felipe Conde.

In the video above, Juanito Pascual plays "Prelude 1", the Taranta from his CD "New Flamenco Trio", on this guitar.

An Early Esteso Flamenco

Even by modern standards the volume of this instrument is huge, and its warm, rich, played-in sound is something only an instrument of this age can give. It is plump, lyrical and very expressive, responsive to every subtlety of the player's touch – and when pushed just a bit, it barks like a true old-world flamenco.

Repairs by Felipe Conde and Yuris Zeltins

The guitar was repaired in Madrid by Felipe Conde, the great-nephew of Domingo Esteso, in the family tradition that began in Esteso's own workshop. Back in the US, Yuris Zeltins in San Diego fitted it with maple golpeadores, as was customary in the period.

GSI Foundation

This guitar was donated to our non-profit charitable organization, the GSI Foundation. Guitar sales through the GSI Foundation raise money to directly benefit music education in public schools.

Domingo Esteso: From the Manuel Ramírez Workshop to Gravina 7

Domingo Esteso (1882–1937) is one of the great names of the early Madrid school of guitar making. Born on May 12, 1882, in San Clemente, in the province of Cuenca, he learned his trade in the Madrid workshop of Manuel Ramírez, where he worked alongside Santos Hernández, Modesto Borreguero and Enrique García – the shop that carried the legacy of Antonio de Torres into the 20th century. After Ramírez died in 1916, Esteso went on building for his widow, already with his own name on the labels, and around 1919 he opened his own workshop at Calle Gravina 7, where his wife, Nicolasa Salamanca, varnished the guitars. His flamencos were played by the great names of the day, among them Ramón Montoya and Niño Ricardo, and his classical guitars are prized today for their elegance, clarity and natural, woody voice.

Guitars for Buenos Aires and the Birth of the Conde Dynasty

Many of Esteso's finest guitars were made for Argentina, then one of the richest countries in the world, under a special label for Romero y Fernández of Buenos Aires, his sole agents there – some of them branded "Guitarras Iberia". In 1926 his nephew Faustino Conde joined the workshop, followed by his brothers Mariano and Julio. After Esteso's death in Madrid in 1937, in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, they carried on at Gravina 7 as "Viuda y Sobrinos de Esteso" and later as Conde Hermanos – the start of a family tradition continued today by Felipe Conde and his son, Felipe Conde Crespo.