2009 José Ramírez "Centenario" No. 204 SP/CSAR

This 2009 José Ramírez "Centenario" No. 204 is a classical guitar with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides; Nemanja Bogunović and Jiji play it in the videos above.

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. 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 "Centenario": A Hundred Years of Ramírez

"Centenario" means 100 years, and here it marks the hundredth anniversary of guitar making in the Ramírez family. The guitar is made from the workshop's finest materials, collected over many, many years – the tops are the 1st pick of the 1st-class soundboards, and the same goes for the rosewood back and sides. Look closely and you will see the additional decoration: intricate wood inlays in the rosette and purflings, boxwood in the headstock, a sculpted heel cap and a tapered line of ebony on the back of the neck, finishing in a "rosewood bouquet" on the headstock. The tuners are by Rodgers. On paper it is the same guitar as the other 1a models; in our experience, though, the Centenarios are the best guitars made by the workshop, bar none.

Sound, Label and Condition

Wonderfully easy to play, it has great power and a beautiful sound. Although a used guitar, it is in excellent condition, with only modest signs of prior use. Its label is dated 2009, numbered 204 and signed by Amalia Ramírez.

Two Videos

Nemanja Bogunović plays José Padilla's "La Violetera" on this guitar in the first video above, and Jiji plays Scarlatti's Sonata K. 10 in the second.

There is much more about the workshop on our blog – The Ramírez Family: Masters of the Guitar, the family members from Amalia Ramírez back to José I, and some fact-checking 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.