1908 Manuel Ramírez SP/CY

This 1908 Manuel Ramírez, spruce and cypress, is a slightly smaller-bodied guitar from the Madrid workshop that carried the Torres design into the 20th century – in remarkably excellent condition for its age.

A 1908 Manuel Ramírez

It is a slightly smaller-bodied instrument with deep basses, plump and warm trebles, and rich textures of sound interwoven with clear, bell-like fundamentals. The feather-like build gives it incredible volume and instant response, and the sound is unmistakably Spanish – deep, dark and mysterious – with that mystical, old-world charm that has drawn so many modern luthiers to rediscover this style of building.

Condition

Despite the visible signs of use, it is in remarkably excellent condition: only one small crack on the top has been conservatively repaired, as have two small (now invisible) cracks at the edge of one of the lower bouts on the back, and the guitar has had a re-polish/over-finish. Built in a period when "classical" and "flamenco" were not yet distinguished, it is simply a great "guitar" for concert or recording, in either style.

Manuel Ramírez (1864–1916): The Madrid Workshop After Torres

The Manuel Ramírez shop was undoubtedly the most important guitar workshop of the early post-Torres era. Brother and former pupil of José Ramírez I, Manuel committed himself to carrying the Torres design into the 20th century, and he gathered the finest builders of his day to do it: Santos Hernández, Domingo Esteso, Modesto Borreguero, Pascual Viudes and, very likely, Enrique García. Together they produced guitars that secured the legacy of Torres for every generation of makers that followed.

Segovia's 1912 Manuel Ramírez

The shop's most famous instrument is the 1912 guitar played by the young Andrés Segovia, built by Santos Hernández and today housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, alongside Segovia's 1937 Hermann Hauser I.

The "Viuda de Manuel Ramírez" Label

After Manuel's death in 1916, the workshop went on completing instruments under the label of his widow ("Viuda de Manuel Ramírez"). His craftsmen later founded workshops of their own – Santos Hernández on Calle de la Aduana and Domingo Esteso at Gravina 7 – carrying the shop's sound and standards deep into the 20th century.