Ramirez Fan Bracing Diagram
Source: Guitar Plans

The Modern Classical Guitar – The Ramirez Brothers:

After Antonio de Torres died in 1892 he had left no pupils or immediate successors in the guitar making business. He did, however make Madrid, Spain the Mecca of classical guitar construction.

From the last part of the 1800′s and the beginning of the 1900′s the Madrid school of guitar making was led by 3 prominent luthiers. Vincent Arias, Jose Ramirez I and his brother Manuel Ramirez. Both of the Ramirez brothers trained pupils and they became famous in their own right. They were Santos Hernandez, Domingo Esteso and Enrique Garcia.

Later luthiers included: Arcangel Fernandez, Marcelino Lopez Nieto, Hermanos Conde, Paulino Bernabe, Manuel Contreras and Felix Manzanero. As you can see the power of classical guitar construction was centered in Madrid, which is where all of these shops were located.

Jose Ramirez had children take over his shop and the business still carries on today, with Jose Ramirez III. If you own a Ramirez Grand Concert 1A, consider yourself lucky as this is one of the finest instruments made today. I was lucky to get one back in 1975 direct from Madrid for only $500 and I still play it every day. I still gives me the tingles every time I pick it up to play.

There is both praise and criticism connected with a Ramirez, but by far, most of the most prominent classical guitarest’s own one, including the late great Andreas Segovia, Christopher Parkening and many more.

The Ramirez Brothers not only carried on the legacy of Antonio de Torres, they experimented with the classical guitar and improved on Torres designs in many ways.

The most notable changes in Ramirez designs are:

Ramirez Fan Bracing: While Torres had a symatrical layout of 7 fan braces, Ramirez added an additional transverse brace to the top, putting more emphasis on the treble strings and as a result the symmetry of the fan braces is disrupted.

Add Cyprus Lining to the Guitar Sides: If you look inside a Jose Ramirez you will see that the sides are constructed of a laminate of Rosewood for the exterior and Cyprus for the interior. Even before you see it you can smell the strong aroma of the Cyprus wood. That is one of the reasons you know you are playing a Ramirez , even with your eyes closed. : ) This would not be considered a plywood guitar though. Far from it. The Cyprus give the guitar a very powerful and loud tone. When you couple this with the strong presence of the treble bracing, the guitar has no problem filled a concert hall with music.

Extended the Scale Length: Ramirez not only learned from Torres the effect of lengthening the scale, they took it a step farther and extended the scale from 650mm to 660mm. This gives the guitar even greater power.

Top Plate Wood: Ramirez made it standard on his concert series guitars to use a Cedar top.

Fingerboard Taper: In order to maintain a reasonable string height and still play the bass strings with power, Ramirez tapers only the bass side of the fingerboard to give the guitar player a buzz-free instrument.

While not much more difficult or different than the Torres bracing pattern, the Ramirez pattern does pose some challenges to the first time guitar builder. the joint where the 2 transverse braces joint is very difficult to get just right. If you force it or have an ill-fitting joint you will need to remove the braces and start over.

If you fell you have pretty good command of hand tools, go for it and try the Ramirez fan pattern. You do not need to laminate the sides with Cyprus as they do. I have made a many Ramirez braced guitars without the Cyprus and they have a great well-balanced tone.

Classical Guitar Building Plans You May Be Interested In:
Torres Braced Grand Concert Classical Guitar
Ramirez Braced Grand Concert Classical Guitar
Kasha Braced Grand Concert Classical Guitar
Bouchet Braced Concert Classical Guitar

Tags: guitar building, guitar making, ramirez guitars, torres fan bracing

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