SOLD!!! José Ramirez Auditorio Duo 1a Professional : Double-Top Guitar

Ramirez Auditorio Duo 1a Professional : Double-Top Guitar

The José Ramírez Auditorio Duo 1a Professional Double-Top Guitar  is based on the famous Ramirez 1a Traditional model with one remarkable difference: it is fitted with a Cedar “double-top”.

Master-Luthier Amalia Ramírez has been working with double tops for several years. She has been determined to incorporate this 21st century concept into a new model of Ramírez guitar. After a great deal of experimentation she has perfected the design. The Auditorio Duo / double-top construction is growing in popularity as luthiers around the world adapt this modern technology to their guitars. This unique construction allows the tops to be much thinner than conventional tops. Many luthiers feel there is less tonal variation from top to top with double-top construction compared to conventional solid top construction.

José Ramirez Auditorio 1a Professional: Auditorio Duo Guitar – the thinner, stronger nature of double-tops permits lighter bracing, improving treble response and clarity.

José Ramírez Auditorio 1a Professional: New Double-Top Guitar

We find that the extra treble harmonic content of the double-top makes a superb marriage with the huge throaty bass one gets with the famous José Ramírez “Traditional” model design. The guitar retains the essence of the classic Ramírez tone but seems to gain in the top end. Several of our customers have told us the guitar sounds like a Ramírez 1a that has been played for several years; more open sounding and balanced.

The world of classical guitar building is a conservative one, and change comes very slowly but over the past decade double-tops have become common. For the new Auditorio guitar, Amalia Ramírez elected to use the Nomex honeycomb-core system since it is the most commonly used double-top manufacturing method.

Interestingly, Ramirez Auditorio Duo 1a Professional: Double-Top construction protects the top from damage due to dryness. As top-level classical luthiers have used progressively thinner tops, guitars have become even more vulnerable to top cracks, something that simply won’t happen with a Nomex double-top guitar. Though one certainly does want to continue to humidify any double top guitar, we anticipate that these guitars will be more stable in the long term over the winter to summer seasonal changes that often play havoc with classical guitars.

Note: The price for the Auditorio guitar is slightly above the equivalent standard José Ramírez 1a Traditional.

Setup for new Ramirez guitars.

We carefully inspect and setup all new Ramirez guitars to ensure that they are in fully playable condition. We will do any additional setup adjustments according to the purchasers needs at no extra cost.

Generally the “factory action” is in the range of  8/64” treble and 8.5/64” bass; the normal range of standard classical “concert” action height for players using typical classical right hand technique with an aggressive light right-hand attack.  We always adjust the nut slots to our preferred settings.

If you are playing in the Latin jazz style with free-stroke right hand technique and don’t anticipate using an aggressive rest stroke, then we would advise that we lower the action before shipping.  If you are an aggressive player, then we generally stay with the current “standard” action height.

We setup any new or used guitar we sell to suit the player;  Please provide as much information as possible about your playing style so we can make an informed decision on how to setup the guitar;

• Your right hand picking attack; free stroke vs. rest-stroke
• Classical right-hand position vs. Chet or Latin style hand position
• Your estimation of your normal action height on your current guitars (low vs. medium or high) plus anything else that will help us to setup your guitar appropriately.