[zavaletas]

Previously, the model 5, 10, and 20 were being made by the Esteve factory in Valencia for Paulino on his designs. For personal reasons, which had nothing to do with business, Paulino had a falling out with them, and after trying another factory in Valencia, decided to build this guitar in his Madrid workshop where he employees for fully qualified luthiers and a couple of assistants. (He continues to make his PB line in his home workshop, where he works alone). The decision to move production to Madrid, and to building with traditional, hand-made methods caused Paulino to rethink his model line. Gone are the factory models 5, 10, and 20. His new, hand built, line 15, 30, and 50 are all concert quality guitars. As he explained his decision to me, it simply does not pay to make "estudio" guitars as they involve almost the same amount of work as do concert guitars. The primary differences between his new line of guitars lies in the quality of materials, with the high models made from higher quality woods, and having better fittings (such as machines). When he went to these models in 2016, he used Indian rosewood in the model 15, and Madagascar in the others. As of January 2, 2017 all species not already on the CITES appendices of endangered species were listed in Appendix II, with the specific annotation that products made from these woods would require CITES permit to import and export. Within the UE as CITES is not required-- he has continued to sell guitars made with rosewood, the amount of time and cost that obtaining CITES permits and dealing the inevitable problems of CITES imports and inspections, have led me to ask that he find alternative non-CITES woods for the USA... I suspect that the differences in price between the US and Europe are in part a reflection of this difference. As well, while shipping in Europe is somewhat less, buyers in Europe must pay VAT taxes that run 20%-- but they also generally have higher operating costs-- rents, etc. and each dealer has his own operating margins, so there is some differences among Bernabe dealers in countries across Europe. My experience is Bernabe respects his dealers in different countries-- He regularly refers direct inquires that he receives from the US to me to handle.