2004 José Ramírez "1aF 656" No. Y3-010 CD/CY

This 2004 José Ramírez "1aF 656" No. Y3-010 is a flamenco guitar with a cedar top and cypress back and sides, French polished; Luis Gallo and Chrystian Dozza play their own compositions on it in the videos above.

From the Ramírez Workshop in Madrid

Over more than half a century the José Ramírez workshop has built guitars for countless professionals – everyone from Segovia to Sting, Sabicas to Chet Atkins and Christopher Parkening to Lee Ritenour. Amalia Ramírez, who succeeded her brother José IV in 2000, inspects every guitar from the workshop during and after construction, and this one comes from the early years of her direction.

A Concert Flamenco

The 1aF is the workshop's top flamenco model, at home on the concert stage as much as in traditional flamenco accompaniment with dancers and percussion. Very lively, with excellent playability and volume, it has an authentic Spanish sound with plenty of bite, which makes it one of our favorite choices for the serious flamenco player. The cedar top is unusual on a flamenco, and it gives this one extra volume and a deeper mid-range; the workshop has built cedar blancas ever since it introduced cedar soundboards in the mid-1960s, and Manolo Sanlúcar is the most famous flamenco player of a cedar-top Ramírez.

Sound and Condition

It is built to the 656mm flamenco scale and finished in French polish. Although a used instrument, it is in perfect structural condition – no cracks or repairs – with only some normal playing wear in the finish and some dings behind the bridge. The label (Calle de la Paz 8) is signed by Amalia Ramírez, dated 2004 and numbered Y3-010 – with the model code "F-656" written beside it.

Two Videos

In the videos above, Luis Gallo plays his "Vals por Bulerías" and Chrystian Dozza his "Australya" on this guitar.

For the story of the workshop, read The Ramírez Family: Masters of the Guitar and The José Ramírez Dynasty; for some interesting fact-checking, see José Ramírez: myths and facts.

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.