1979 Robert Ruck SP/CSAR

This 1979 Robert Ruck is a spruce and CSA rosewood classical guitar from the end of Ruck’s great 1970s period.

A Durable Late-1970s Ruck

The top is French polished and the back and sides lacquered, which makes it a durable guitar for a busy player. Its label – “R. S. Ruck” with his round emblem, dated 1979 – matches his other guitars of these years. A single hairline crack in the back was recently repaired and touched up by the Germán Vázquez Rubio workshop; otherwise there is only very minor wear.

Sound

Firm and solid, with each note anchored to its fundamental and a beautiful texture from the higher partials, it has plenty of volume for a large hall, and the 660 mm scale is easy to play thanks to a comfortable neck.

Robert Ruck: An American Original

Robert Ruck (1945–2018) was one of the most respected classical guitar makers in the United States, with a career of some five decades and well over a thousand instruments. He began as a flamenco guitarist in Miami – studying classical guitar with Juan Mercadal and flamenco singing with Elena Marbella – built his first guitars in the 1960s and later worked in Wisconsin and in the Pacific Northwest. In 2016 he was inducted into the Guitar Foundation of America’s Hall of Fame.

Barrueco and the Ruck Sound

The most famous Ruck of all is No. 58, the 1970s guitar on which Manuel Barrueco recorded many of his albums. Ruck guitars are known for a very firm, solid tone, deeply anchored to the fundamental of each note, with the hum of the higher partials adding texture, for surprising volume and for comfortable, easy necks. Many of his later guitars have soundports in the upper sides. His players included Sharon Isbin, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Berta Rojas, Leo Brouwer, Gerardo Núñez and Paulo Bellinati.

Books on Robert Ruck

A 1978 Ruck from the Russell Cleveland collection, No. 162, appears in “The Classical Guitar – A Complete History”:

The Classical Guitar – A Complete History