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Ramirez Model 4N CWE
Manuel Ramirez de Galarreta y Planell was born in Alhama of Aragon in 1864. Manuel was the younger brother of Jose Ramirez I and at the age of 27 he decided to open his own shop at 24 Cava Baja Street in Madrid. This move caused bad feelings between the two brothers that were never resolved.
In a short period of time Manuel Ramirez developed a very good reputation for building not only guitars but violins and was named luthier of the Royal Conservatory of Madrid. In addition to this, Manuel taught many young luthiers during this period, including Santos Hernández, Domingo Esteso and Modesto Borreguero.
Although it was his brother Jose Ramirez I who developed the “tablao” guitar design, it was Manuel who developed and perfected the design which is still the model for today’s Spanish classical guitar.
It was around 1912 when a young man in eccentric clothing presented himself at the Manuel Ramirez workshop asking to rent a guitar for a concert he was about to perform. Because of the strangeness of the young mans appearance along with the unusual request he was not taken very seriously until he sat down and played the guitar. His prodigious technique and vast repertoire prompted Manuel to give him the guitar, and the rest is history. The young mans name was Andres Segovia and that very guitar now resides in the Metropolitan Museum of New York!
The Model 4N CWE that I am reviewing today features all solid wood construction with a bookmatched Western Red cedar top, East Indian rosewood back & sides, ebony fingerboard, 650 mm scale length, a Fishman Prefix Pro Blend pickup/mic/preamp and unprecedented access to the upper registers via a Venetian cutaway and sloped neck heel!
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