1996 Robert Ruck No. 620 SP/CSAR

This 1996 Robert Ruck is a spruce and CSA rosewood classical guitar, No. 620, with drop-dead gorgeous rosewood.

No. 620

The CSA rosewood back and sides have dramatic grain and coloring, and the perfectly quartersawn spruce top is full of cross-grain “aguas”. The tuners are Rodgers. From the mid-1990s Ruck used a new script label, “R.S. Ruck” beside his emblem; this one is signed and numbered #620.

Sound and Condition

Firm and solid, anchored to the fundamental with a textured hum of partials, the guitar fills a large hall with ease and has a very comfortable neck. It was like new, with virtually no signs of use.

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