2008 José Ramírez "1aF 656" No. Y8-024 CD/CY

This 2008 José Ramírez "1aF 656" No. Y8-024 is a flamenco guitar with a cedar top and cypress back and sides – a cedar-top blanca built to the 656mm flamenco scale.

Built in the Calle de la Paz Workshop

Countless professionals have performed on instruments from the famous José Ramírez workshop over the past half century and more – think of Sting and Segovia, Sabicas and Chet Atkins, or Lee Ritenour and Christopher Parkening. This is a guitar of the early Amalia Ramírez years, made in the Calle de la Paz workshop that she has directed since 2000.

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. It is a very lively instrument with excellent playability and volume, and an authentic Spanish sound with a lot of bite – one of our favorite choices for the serious flamenco guitarist. Cedar is rare on a flamenco guitar, but it brings extra volume and a deeper mid-range – Ramírez has made cedar blancas since the mid-1960s, and Manolo Sanlúcar is perhaps the best-known flamenco guitarist to have played one.

Sound and Condition

It has a 656mm string length and a 53mm nut. Signed by Amalia Ramírez, the label gives the year 2008 and the number Y8-024 – with the model code "F656" written beside it.

More reading on our blog: The Ramírez Family: Masters of the Guitar, The José Ramírez Dynasty (from Amalia back to José I) and some interesting fact-checking in 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.