2012 José Ramírez "1aF 656" No. X1-042 CD/CY

This 2012 José Ramírez "1aF 656" No. X1-042 is a flamenco guitar with a cedar top and cypress back and sides – a cedar-top blanca with a 53mm nut.

From the José Ramírez Workshop, Directed by Amalia Ramírez

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. The workshop moved to Calle de la Paz 8 in 1995, and in 2000 Amalia Ramírez took over from her brother José IV; this guitar was made there more than ten years into 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. 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.

Playability and Condition

It has a 656mm string length and a 53mm nut. No. X1-042 is written on the label, which is dated 2012 and signed by Amalia Ramírez, and the model code "F656" is written by hand beside the class.

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.