1988 José Ramírez "1a C86" No. A 1234 SP/CSAR

This 1988 José Ramírez "1a C86" No. A 1234 is a classical guitar with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides – the shorter-scale C86 model José Ramírez III designed in 1986; Jack Davisson plays Rodrigo's "Zapateado" on it in the video above.

The C86: A Shorter-Scale Ramírez

Segovia, Sabicas, Christopher Parkening, Chet Atkins, Lee Ritenour, Sting – the list of professionals who have played instruments from the José Ramírez III workshop over the past half century is practically endless. José Ramírez III worked out the proportions of his long-scale 1a to the millimeter, and for some twenty years his Japanese distributor, Shiro Arai, pressed him for a 650 mm version for players with smaller hands. In 1986 José III finally gave in and designed a guitar with proportions suited to the shorter scale and a smaller body – the "C86", named for its year. The result has a beautiful, delicate and intimate voice, with a little less projection than the long-scale 1a (as Amalia Ramírez herself puts it). When José Ramírez IV later redesigned the short-scale guitar, the C86 was discontinued.

This Guitar

This guitar has all the color and warmth normally associated with a great Ramírez, and its playability is more like the Madrid-made guitars of the 1950s. For attention to detail, quality of construction and sound, we rate this instrument very highly. It is in excellent condition, with virtually no signs of prior use – easy to play, with that immediately identifiable, classic sound that only comes from a great Ramírez.

The Label

The label is numbered A 1234 and dated 1988, marked "1a" for the class, with a round red "86" sticker and a strip reading "Made in Spain C86-AR" below it.

To learn more, read The Ramírez Family: Masters of the Guitar; meet the family members from Amalia Ramírez back to José I; and for some interesting fact-checking, see our article on myths and facts about this legendary workshop.

The José Ramírez Workshop of Madrid

Founded in Madrid in 1882 by José Ramírez I, the Ramírez workshop has produced guitars for more than a century and through five generations of the family. José Ramírez III (1922–1995) took over as maestro in 1957 and developed the Ramírez concert guitar we know today – large in body, with a long string length and a cedar or spruce top, with great power, sustain, sweetness and balance across the entire register. He popularized western red cedar as a soundboard wood, and from the 1960s Andrés Segovia played José Ramírez guitars to the end of his days.

Ramírez Craftsmen and the Next Generations

From the 1960s to the 1990s the workshop trained many of the most talented guitarreros of the day, among them Paulino Bernabé and Manuel Contreras. In 1995 the shop moved from Calle Concepción Jerónima 2 to Calle de la Paz 8, and since the death of José Ramírez IV in June 2000 the business has been directed by his sister, Amalia Ramírez, who inspects every guitar during and after construction.

Ramírez Models, Labels and Builders' Stamps

For decades the workshop sold its guitars by class rather than by model name. The "1a" (first class) was the standard concert guitar; the "2a" (second class) was built the same way, and the shop explained its lower price tag by materials that might have minor aesthetic blemishes, or by its having been built by an apprentice rather than a foreman. Flamenco guitars add an "F" – "1aF" and "2aF". Until 1967 the labels carried only the year; from 1967 they were signed by José Ramírez III and gave the guitar's number and class, and from 1973 the 2a had a grey label of its own, with a red border and "R" numbers. Until 1971, many Ramírez guitars were stamped inside with the initials of the craftsman who built them – AM for Antonio Martínez, MT for Mariano Tezanos, PB for Paulino Bernabé and many more (see our list of Ramírez workshop luthiers). Later decades brought new models: the "Centenario", which roughly marked the workshop's hundredth anniversary; the "Da Cámara"; the shorter-scale C86 of 1986; and, under José Ramírez IV, the "Tradicional" and the "Especial".