1947 José Ramírez II SP/CY

This 1947 José Ramírez II is a spruce and cypress flamenco guitar from Madrid, with a four-piece top and a smaller plantilla – in excellent, original condition.

In the video above, Uros Baric plays this guitar.

Four-Piece Top, Smaller Plantilla

This particular guitar comes from the post-war period. It has a top built from four pieces, inlaid with a simple but elegant rosette. The guitar is lightly built – only 5 fans under the top and no bridge plate – and has a smaller plantilla, a shorter string length and a smaller nut width.

Sound and Condition

Although the guitar is slightly smaller in size, the sound remains explosive – very loose and responsive with a quick and sharp attack. The guitar is in excellent, original condition – the only change to the instrument is the tuning machines, which are high-quality replacements made by Nicolo Alessi. 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.