2011 José Ramírez "1aF 656" No. X1-022 CD/CY

This 2011 José Ramírez "1aF 656" No. X1-022 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

This guitar was built in the famous José Ramírez workshop in Madrid, which for well over half a century has made instruments for countless professionals – Sting and Segovia, Chet Atkins and Sabicas, 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 second decade of her direction.

The Ramírez "1aF" Flamenco

This is the top-of-the-line Ramírez flamenco, suitable for both performance on a concert stage and traditional flamenco playing with dancers and percussionists. 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. Its cedar top, rare for a flamenco, gives the guitar extra volume and a deeper mid-range. Ramírez has made cedar blancas since the mid-1960s, when the workshop first introduced cedar soundboards, and Manolo Sanlúcar is perhaps the best-known flamenco guitarist to play a Ramírez cedar top.

Playability and Condition

It has the 656mm flamenco scale, a 52mm nut and a lacquer finish. The 2011 label carries No. X1-022 and the signature of Amalia Ramírez – 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.