2004 José Ramírez "1a" No. Y4-074 SP/CSAR

This 2004 José Ramírez "1a" No. Y4-074 is a classical guitar with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides, French polished, with a particularly striking set of rosewood.

Made Under Amalia Ramírez

For more than fifty years, guitars from the José Ramírez workshop have been in the hands of countless professionals, from Segovia to Sting, from Sabicas to Chet Atkins and from Christopher Parkening to Lee Ritenour. Since 2000 the workshop has been in the hands of Amalia Ramírez, the fifth generation of the family, and this guitar was made in the first decade of her direction.

The "1a Tradicional"

This model is the famously designated "1a", which stands for "primera" in Spanish and means "1st" or "highest" quality. With the Tradicional the workshop went back to basics – the classic design of José Ramírez III with a standard 650mm string length, a first-class concert guitar that anyone can play easily. The rosette and purflings are classic Ramírez designs, and absolutely stunning. It features a particularly striking and beautiful set of rosewood for the back and sides.

Tone, Playability and Label

It is finished in French polish, which gives the spruce top a lively, open response. Its voice is the immediately identifiable, classic sound that only comes from a great Ramírez concert guitar. The set-up is easy and the neck comfortable, so it is a guitar anyone can play with ease. You can hear it in the video above. Signed by Amalia Ramírez, the label gives the year 2004 and the number Y4-074.

Curious about the family? Our blog has The Ramírez Family: Masters of the Guitar, the whole line from Amalia Ramírez back to José I, and a little fact-checking on the 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.

The Workshop Under Amalia Ramírez

Under Amalia Ramírez the workshop has kept the classic concert guitar at the heart of its range – the "1a" (first class) in the "Tradicional" design, its model code written by hand on the label: C650 for a cedar top with Indian rosewood, "-A" for a spruce (abeto) top, "-P" for CSA rosewood (palosanto) and "-AP" for both, with F656 and F656-A for the cedar and spruce flamencos. Around it she has built a wider family of models: the "Centenario" and "Elite", made with the workshop's most precious woods; the reissued "SP" and "2a"; the "Auditorio", "Antigua" and "Guitarra del Tiempo"; anniversary series such as the "125 Años" and "130 Años"; replicas of historic guitars, from the 1912 Manuel Ramírez played by Segovia to the 1913 "Guitarra de Tablao" of José Ramírez I; and the studio lines NE, R and FL. The concert guitars carry the Calle de la Paz 8 label, signed by Amalia Ramírez with her star signature and numbered with a letter-and-number code (Centenario and Elite have numbers of their own), while the studio guitars have an orange "Guitarras de Estudio" label, "Diseñada, Revisada y Certificada por Ramírez", with the red "Calidad Ramírez" stamp.