Jose Ramirez Anyone?

[Play2PraiseHim]

I find it hard to believe that this new section is now 3 pages long and there have been no Jose Ramirez threads. Does anyone here own or have any experience with them. I have noticed a lot of the 125 Anos guitars onthe used market.

[GuitarVlog]

I consider them to be very overpriced for the tone and quality that you get. The only good ones are the absolute top-of-the-line models that are still actually made by the Ramirez workshop in Madrid, but those are overpriced too IMHO.

FWIW, just about every Ramirez that's under $4K is made in a Valencia factory that has been subcontracted by the Ramirez family. I think Alhambra is just one of their subcontractors. I think Esteve builds the 125 Anos but someone said it was another factory.

I played a $2000 Ramirez against an equiavalently-priced Loriente guitar (Marrieta, I think). Compared to the Loriente, the Ramirez sounded like an ukulele. $2k guitars from Kremona and Alejandro Cervantes also bested the Ramirez by a wide margin.

John Williams doesn't like the tone of Ramirez guitars. In a recent interview, he called them "orange boxes". I don't entirely agree with him but, of course, there are folks who don't like the tone of Williams's Smallman guitar either.

[marioed]

I have a 1976 Ramirez 1A with the 664mm scale and 54 mm at the nut. I was able to find out that mine was built by Mariano Tezanos while he worked for Jose Ramirez. It is the definition of a spanish sounding classical, warm and articulate with a great deal of volume & projection and excellent intonation. Currently only the Profesional Series guitars are actually built in the Ramirez workshop. All the others are built elsewhere according to specifications provided by Ramirez. At one time I believe many were built at the Alhambra factory, I'm not sure if that is still true. The long scale 1A's have a high action and some people find them hard to play. I was fortunate in finding mine, the action is just under 5 mm on the bass and 3 mm on the treble which is higher than most other classicals with a 650 mm scale but the design of the neck & fretboard make it very playable. I've played a couple of other 1A's from the 70's and 80's that were very difficult to play so there seems to be a fair amount of variability in the older Ramirez. I've also played some recent Ramirez from the Professional series and thought they were very nice, with the classic spanish sound. The Professional series Ramirez are a different kettle of fish from their studio series in terms of sound IMHO. If you really want to hear what the Ramirez reputation is based on you should try one of their top of the line guitars.
Regards,
Ed

[guto]

The only Ramirez (a fairly new one) I played was a "not top of the line", so I do not know how the very best of them sounds, but the one I tried was not worth what the cost, IMHO. I've played better traditional cedar guitars for trully half the price.
Not a bad guitar, absolutly, just very overpriced for me.

[rick-slo]

For 40 years I had and played a Ramirez 1a MT (Brazilian/cedar) from the golden years, a 1968. Sold it a couple of years ago.
Powerful sound including the trebles. Not the easiest guitar to play though due to somewhat high action (not really adjustable) and long scale.