José Ramírez III
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José Ramírez III (1922–1995) was a Spanish
luthier A luthier ( ; ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments. Etymology The word ' is originally French and comes from ''luth'', the French word for "lute". The term was originally used for makers of lutes, but it came to be ...
and founder of
Ramírez Guitars Ramírez Guitars (Guitarras Ramírez in Spanish) is a Spanish manufacturer of professional, concert-quality classical and flamenco guitars. Five generations of the Ramírez family have produced Ramirez guitars. History Establishment José Ram ...
. He was responsible for major changes both to the company and to the
classical guitar The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string (music), string instrument with strings made of catgut, gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the ...
s it produces. Ramírez was raised in a guitar making family, and served his luthier's apprenticeship in the family business founded by his grandfather, José Ramírez, and by then run by his father José II. During and in the aftermath of the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
material shortages forced them to experiment, and the young José developed a love of innovation. But this was also a frustrating time for him; Frequently, his father sold his work with little if any documentation as to the construction, the results, or the buyer. In 1954, his brother Alfredo, who had been doing the administrative work of the family business, died, followed three years later by their father, forcing Ramírez to give up guitar making for a time to supervise the business. Undeterred, he committed his designs to paper for journeymen to make. Ramírez worked closely with top performers, which brought acceptance to his innovations. In
Andrés Segovia Andrés Segovia Torres, 1st Marquis of Salobreña (21 February 1893 – 2 June 1987), was a Spanish virtuoso classical guitarist. Many professional classical guitarists were either students of Segovia or students of Segovia's students. Segovia ...
, whom he first met in 1952, he found a performer who was like him passionate about achieving greater volume and clarity, to allow the classical guitar to be accompanied by a full symphony orchestra. Daring to tamper with the designs of
Torres Torres may refer to: People *Torres (surname), a Spanish and Portuguese surname * Torres (musician), singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott ** ''Torres'' (album), 2013 self-titled album by Torres Places Americas * Torres, Colorado, an unincorporated ...
, Ramírez built larger and more powerful concert guitars, with longer scale lengths and asymmetrical bracing. Both of these innovations, and many others, are standard today. Segovia was an uncompromising customer, but when Ramírez' designs gave him what he wanted, an unsurpassable supporter. More radical still, in 1963 Ramírez built a
ten-string guitar There are many varieties of ten-string guitar, including: * Both electric and acoustic guitars. * Instruments used principally for classical, folk and popular music. * Both coursed and uncoursed instruments. Uncoursed ten-stringed guitars ...
for
Narciso Yepes Narciso Yepes (14 November 19273 May 1997) was a Spanish classical guitar, guitarist. He is considered one of the finest virtuoso classical guitarists of the twentieth century. Biography Yepes was born into a family of humble origin in Lorca, ...
, to accommodate Yepes' unique chromatically balanced tuning. Later he developed an
eight-string guitar An eight-string guitar is a guitar with eight strings, or one more than the Russian guitar's seven. Eight-string guitars are less common than six- and seven-string guitars, but they are used by a few classical, jazz, and metal guitarists. The ...
for
José Tomás José Tomás Pérez Sellés (26 August 1934, in Alicante – 7 August 2001) was a Spanish classical guitarist and teacher. Considered a major influence on the evolution of classical guitar technique in the second half of the 20th century, he traine ...
. He also experimented with different woods and varnishes and countless other major and minor innovations. In the 1960s, to cope with increasing demand, Ramírez moved his workshop to its own building, and greatly expanded the number of employees, leaving the original premises as a shop only. He continued to supervise every aspect of the business until 1988, when he passed control to his children José IV (also known as José Enrique Ramírez García or just José Enrique) and Amalia, both themselves by then guitar makers. He continued to experiment until the end of his life, and to collaborate with top performers, including younger performers and those from other musical traditions. With
Marcel Dadi Marcel Dadi (; 20 August 1951 – 17 July 1996) was a Tunisian-born French virtuoso guitarist known for his finger-picking style which faithfully recreated the instrumental styles of American guitarists such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and Jer ...
, he designed a classical guitar with a cutaway body, still in production. In 1983, he designed the "camara" guitar, with the intention of eliminating the wolf notes. Ramírez trained more than a generation of journeymen, many of them becoming top-ranking luthiers with their own establishments, and including his own children José IV and Amalia. In 1979, the company sent a number of its finest guitars to Segovia, from which he chose one which as it happened was to be the guitar he would use for the rest of his life. The one he chose was by José Ramírez IV. He had learned well, but he had a peerless teacher. In 1962, Ramírez was awarded the gold medal of the Guitar Society in Chicago. In 1968, he was elected Honorary Partner of the Centre Culturale de la Chitarra in Rome; In 1972 he received the Bronze medal award by the Official Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Madrid, gold medal to the exemplary Artisan of the Union Work of Craft; And in 1983 was made an Honorary Partner of '' Música en Compostela''. There followed in 1987 the
Diapason d'Or The Diapason d'Or (French for "Golden Tuning Fork") is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of '' Diapason'' magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the ...
from the Ministry of Education and Culture of France, but to the end of his life the award he most cherished was a letter from Andrés Segovia acknowledging his work.


See also

* Classical guitar making


External links

*
Ramirez & Classical Design Evolution
' by George Gruhn;
Guitar Player ''Guitar Player'' was an American magazine for guitarists, founded in 1967 in San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francis ...
July 1983.
José Ramírez III
biography at the Ramírez Company website.

describes several members of the Ramírez dynasty.

at the Ramírez Company website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramirez, Jose 1922 births 1995 deaths Guitar makers Inventors of musical instruments Spanish luthiers