2001 Robert Ruck No. 783 SP/IN

This 2001 Robert Ruck is a spruce and Indian rosewood classical guitar, No. 783, with soundports on both sides of the neck.

No. 783

Signed and numbered #783 on its label, the guitar has Ruck’s two soundports in the upper sides and is fitted with Rodgers tuners.

Sound and Condition

Firm and solid, with a silky texture of partials over each fundamental, surprising volume and an easy neck – among the best Rucks we have heard. It showed only very modest 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