Ramirez 1a flamenco guitars are built in the traditional Spanish style at the ‘home’ workshop. The guitar centers on a ‘slipper foot’ neck to body joint, with the sides fitting into slots cut into the heel block. The body pairs a Spruce top with Cypress back and sides – a very light wood in terms of weight and colouring, also providing a lot of brightness to the tone.
Blanca
Here is an historic piece – one of Lenny Breau’s Ramirez 1a Flamenco Guitars, built during 1961 and used during many appearances with Lenny as seen in the attached clips. The first clip is from is a CBC documentary from 1968 with Lenny playing the guitar with its distinctive friction tuners, and the visible, protective tap plates (Golpeador). Note the technical deviation from ‘strictly traditional’ Flamenco style – the use of a thumbpick, very likely a Chet Atkins influence.
The Ramirez FL2 Flamenco Blanca is a traditional Flamenco Blanca model, built to provide brilliant, percussive and loud rhythms at brisk tempos. This model, and its new replacement the Estudio Flamenco “Serranito” are the only ‘Student’ Flamenco guitars offered by Ramirez. Flamenco is now very professional and formalized, but is at its roots a folk style combining highly expressive, rhythmic percussion and melody using voice, dance, hand claps, finger snaps and guitars.
This instrument has sold
MORE →Here we have a Ramirez 1a Long Scale classical guitar built during 1967, during the ‘golden era’ of Jose Ramirez III’s leadership of the Ramirez workshop at Concepcion Jeronima No. 2 in Madrid, Spain. This well-used instrument features a long scale of 664mm or 26.14 inches, intended to provide increased volume and projection for the professional concert performer. With Jose Ramirez III leading the workshop, this Ramirez 1a Long Scale has the initials CLL on the slipper foot. Its construction defines the tradition that countless other builders follow, with the slipper foot join integrating the sides and neck for maximum resonance and response.
This instrument has sold
MORE →The Laskin Flamenco is built using a Sitka Spruce top paired with a Cypress back and side set, and Cedro or Spanish Cedar for the neck, linings, and back bracing. Construction is the traditional Spanish ‘slipper foot’ style – the neck, heel and neck block are one unit, with the sides slotting into the heel. This is in distinct contrast to other methods where the neck and body are built separately, often using a dovetail or mortise and tenon joint. The head plate and binding are Ebony, and the fingerboard is Ebony with Ebony binding. The bridge is Indian Rosewood.
This instrument has sold
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