1950s Ramirez Blue Label Flamenco Guitar
Overview: To the average viewer, this might look like a simple, beginner-grade flamenco guitar. It even bears the Ramirez "blue label" which, in the '60s and '70s, was an obvious sign of a guitar made out-of-house but sold at the Ramirez shopfront with their warranty as a student model. This particular guitar, though, looks nothing like the out-of-house guitars I've been researching for some time, now, and looks more like it was an apprentice-made or lower-level in-shop Ramirez guitar. Certain features add-up to support this idea -- build elements, the headstock cut, bridge style, bracing, what-have-you. In any case, it's a quality instrument, built light, and with a fantastic, even, flamenco-style sound.
The story goes that the owner's father picked this up around when it was built -- the very late '50s -- and the "blue label" had only been in use since '57, which suggests that the above idea might be correct. I think someone needs to chat-up the current family and see if they know anything! I know that in my research, I found a Ramirez apprentice/builder from the shop who cut heels just like this thing and made guitars along the lines of this instrument but the example was from 5+ years later.
Suffice to say, when this arrived, some years ago, now, it was in a state. I'd always thought, "I'll get to this on a rainy day some years from now." That never happened -- but our intrepid Manny decided to take it on a little bit at a time over the whole of the last year. He's mostly doing violin-family instruments these days but he has a soft spot for classicals and difficult woodworking challenges. This certainly was both of those. As it sat awaiting repair, it had giant side cracks, a completely dislodged heel/heelblock area which had broken the sides, top, and back in many ways, and the neck's plane was offset from the body an inch or two. It was a complete mess.
Repairs included: I gave Manny a lot of advice and direction but he carried-out the work almost entirely by himself. The repair process began by cutting the neck away from the part of it that formed the neckblock. If you know classicals, you know that on most of them the neck and the neckblock are one piece. This meant turning it into two pieces.
Manny then repaired the area around the block separately and very patiently, adding blocking to either side of the neckblock "foot" and top and replacing a damaged section of top spruce that would have been under the fretboard extension. He then matched-up and cleated a ton of side cracks that extended down to the endblock, patched holes here and there in the sides, reglued the bridge, repaired top and back cracks, reglued all sorts of bracing, and got "the box" ready for the neck.
When fitting the neck, he made tenon pockets in both the neck's heel area and also at the (now) neckblock and joined the two with a third piece that bridges them. This was all done with extreme tidiness. He then planed and refretted the neck, fit the neck to the body, did a bit more cosmetic work, made a new nut and saddle, strung it up, and set it up. I'm skipping steps 207 through 878, but you get the gist.
This was a huge project. It's now playing like a new guitar, however, and sounds alarmingly-good. To say I am impressed by Manny's efforts is a huge understatement. I'm so glad this interesting, historical instrument could be saved and it looks like it will be going back to its family for the time being, too!
Since originally posting this I've now included Manny's "in-process" shots below all of the "pretty shots."
Specifications:
- Weight: 3 lbs 3 oz
- Scale length: 25 5/16"
- Nut width: 2 1/32"
- Neck shape: medium full D
- Board radius: flat
- Depth at first fret: 0.98"
- Depth at seventh fret: 1.01"
- Body width: 14 1/2"
- Body depth: 4"
- Top wood: solid spruce
- Back & sides wood: solid cypress
- Bracing type: fan
- Bridge: rosewood
- Fretboard: ebony
- Neck wood: Spanish cedar, I believe
- Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” overall (fast, spot-on)
- String gauges: normal tension D'Addario Pro-Artes
- Neck relief: straight
- Fret style: modern medium/wider
Condition notes: I don't even know what to write for this. This guitar has been through a lot. The entire neckblock/heel area had completely crumpled into the sides in a dramatic fashion that also destroyed the top under the fretboard extension and yanked it all out of place. There are cracks all over the sides. There are a few on top and back. There's wear and tear here and there throughout the guitar. This has all been repaired, however. The nut, saddle, and frets are new but it is otherwise original throughout. There's replacement top under the fretboard extension and some clear epoxy fill to either side of the missing part of the rosette to tidy-up the look.
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