2019 José Ramírez "Guitarra del Tiempo" No. 256 CD/IN

This 2019 José Ramírez "Guitarra del Tiempo" No. 256 is a classical guitar with a cedar top and Indian rosewood back and sides – the cedar-top anniversary model.

The Ramírez Workshop in 2019

Over more than half a century the José Ramírez workshop has built guitars for countless professionals – everyone from Segovia to Sting, Sabicas to Chet Atkins and Christopher Parkening to Lee Ritenour. The workshop moved to Calle de la Paz 8 in 1995; five years later Amalia Ramírez took over from her brother José IV, and she has led it ever since.

A Ramírez Anniversary Model

The "Guitarra del Tiempo" took over from the "130 Años" as the workshop's anniversary model – and, unlike the earlier ones, it stays in the range for good, with a rotating design of its distinctive rosette. Its new, enhanced top-brace system gives articulate notes and full-bodied tone.

Sound and Review

Warm and bold, it has ample volume and reactive dynamics, with harmonics that linger across all six strings. There is a review of the model in Classical Guitar Magazine. The "Studio Guitar – Guitarra del Tiempo" label is dated 2019, No. 256, with the line "We celebrate over 135 years since the foundation of our workshop in 1882".

Two Videos

In the videos above Amalia Ramírez presents the Guitarra del Tiempo and talks about the Ramírez legacy.

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.