2007 José Ramírez "1a C650-AP" No. Y7-005 SP/CSAR

This 2007 José Ramírez "1a C650-AP" No. Y7-005 is a classical guitar with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides, with a particularly striking set of rosewood; Fabricio Mattos plays Hart in the video above.

The Ramírez Workshop in 2007

It comes from the famous José Ramírez workshop – today directed by Amalia Ramírez – whose instruments have been played by countless professionals over more than half a century, from Segovia and Sabicas to Sting, Chet Atkins, Lee Ritenour and Christopher Parkening. It belongs to the first years of the Amalia Ramírez era – she has directed the workshop since her brother José Ramírez IV died in 2000, and she inspects every guitar during and after construction.

The "1a Tradicional"

First class – "primera", or "1a" – is the designation of the standard Ramírez concert guitar, and it means top quality in workmanship, detail and choice of wood. 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. For attention to detail, quality of construction and sound, this is a first-class instrument. This one features a particularly striking and beautiful set of CSA rosewood – the "P" (palosanto) of the code, with the "A" (abeto) for its spruce top.

Playability and Condition

Its voice is the immediately identifiable, classic sound that only comes from a great Ramírez concert guitar. With its lacquer finish and spruce top, it has a clear, ringing treble over the warm Ramírez bass, and the 52mm nut and 650mm scale make it a comfortable concert guitar for any hand. In the video above Fabricio Mattos plays Hart's "All Thus Stand Light". Its label is dated 2007, numbered Y7-005 and signed by Amalia Ramírez.

For more on Ramírez, be sure to 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.

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.