José Ramírez III – 1960

Item 44

Price: $30,000

Appraised Value 2016: $30,000
Appraised Value 2021: $30,000

SOLD

This 1960 instrument preceded the universally accepted Ramirez 1A model.  It is of lighter construction, has a spruce top, asymmetrical bracing, restrained rosette design and French polish of shellac finish, resulting in a guitar with a delicate aesthetic and romantic traditional sound. A stamp with the letters “PB” on the inner foot of the neck indicates that it was made by Paulino Bernabé, a journeyman in the Ramírez shop who later became a famous luthier in his own right. 

The soundboard is made from matched halves of straight- and even-grained spruce with a near constant grain spacing of 20 per inch. The rosette has a design band of alternating open- and closed-fleur-de-lis figures. The bridge is rosewood with its tie-block top framed with bone. Back and sides are Brazilian rosewood with figured, but confused, grain patterns. Neck and head are Spanish cedar with the front of the head veneered with rosewood. The ebony fingerboard has high frets.

The sound is loud and sonorous. Trebles are bold but controlled, basses thunder if coaxed, and the midrange matches them in volume and possesses a mature Spanish quality. Overall, there is an interesting, slightly unpolished characteristic to the tone.

Listen to this Guitar


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Guitar Dimension Key

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