1945 José Ramírez II SP/CY

This 1945 José Ramírez II is a compact spruce and cypress classical guitar from Madrid – lightly built, with only 5 fans and no bridge plate, and an explosive sound.

In the video above, Elle Davisson plays "Ginga" from Sérgio Assad's "Seis Brevidades" on this guitar.

Compact and Lightly Built

This particular guitar comes from precisely the years of scarcity after the Civil War. It is of a smaller build with more compact dimensions, and is lightly built with only 5 fans under the top and no bridge plate.

Sound and Condition

Although smaller in size, the sound remains explosive – very loose and responsive with a quick and sharp attack. The guitar is in excellent, original condition with only two cracks in the top, both expertly spliced. The tuning "pegs" were replaced with high-quality machined pegs made by "Pegheads.com". Overall, a very charming example of a mid-century Spanish guitar, from the most famous workshop in Spain.

José Ramírez II: Twenty Years in South America

José Ramírez II (1885–1957), the eldest son of José Ramírez I, grew up in his father's shop, learning from his father and from journeymen such as his uncle Manuel Ramírez and Enrique García. A guitarist as well as a maker, at 20 he left on what was meant to be a two-year tour of South America – it turned into almost twenty years in Buenos Aires. After his father's death he returned to Madrid, and in 1925 he took over the Ramírez workshop.

The Ramírez Workshop under José II

At this time, the workshop employed four workers: two journeymen, Alfonso Benito and Antonio Gómez, an advanced apprentice, Marcelo Barbero, who years later would become a famous guitar maker, and the varnisher Manuel Rodríguez (nicknamed "Marequi"), whose son Manuel later became a well-known guitar maker himself. In 1929 José II won the Gold Medal at the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville. Under his direction, the workshop produced mostly plain, inexpensive but adequate guitars, particularly after 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, when high quality materials were difficult to obtain. Despite these challenges, Ramírez II was able to fill the economic niche for well-made guitars bearing the name of a famous workshop – instruments very usable for serious musicians in both flamenco and classical genres.

Read More about the Ramírez Family

For more information on Ramírez, be sure to read The Ramírez Family: Masters of the Guitar, or for information on the Ramírez family members, from Amalia Ramírez back to José I, and for some interesting fact-checking on myths and facts about this legendary workshop.