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| 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. |
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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 Andre 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 heal! |
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Specifications
Ramirez Model 4N CWE
* 50 mm wide nut
* ebony fingerboard
* ebony reinforced Spanish cedar neck
* 650 mm scale length
* Western Red cedar top
* solid Indian rosewood back & sides
* custom mosaic soundhole rosette
* rosewood bridge with angled tie block
* Venetian cutaway body design
* Fishman Prefix Pro Blend pickup/mic/preamp
* gloss finish
* hardshell case
To see if this piece is still available
please go to the main index of our What's New
section
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| The design features, inside and outside
of the Model 4N CWE Ramírez guitars, as well as the template, decoration,
tone, and quality of sound and materials, are exclusively Ramirez. These
guitars are made outside of the small Ramirez workshop, in limited runs,
by carefuly selected Spanish manufacturers. They are specifically and uniquely
built for Ramírez, and although their construction is not directly
inspected by Amalia Ramírez, all guitars are finally adjusted
in her workshop by her craftsmen under her personal supervision. |
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