Biography
A guitarist once asked Cristina Ramírez: "How did your father convince you both to continue the tradition? My son prefers a different path." The answer was simple: they grew up with freedom of choice and full support in every decision regarding their future. José Ramírez IV never pressured his four children to inherit the craft. Instead, he encouraged them to study broadly and explore other disciplines. He wanted them to choose with knowledge, conviction and genuine inclination. For this reason, even though only two of them have followed in his footsteps, all four siblings – Cristina, Almudena, José Enrique and Javier – deeply admire and respect their father's work. Only Javier began training in the workshop alongside his twin brother José Enrique before pursuing the profession of their mother: pharmacy. Almudena, a psychologist, is still working on her first guitar.
José Enrique and Cristina felt drawn to the vocation from an early age. The musical atmosphere at family gatherings, shaped by a lasting love for music and the guitar, helped them recognise their path. José Enrique has combined his apprenticeship as a guitarist with a degree in law. Cristina is a graphic designer, journalist and sound technician, and she studies Spanish guitar at the conservatory with Ana Jenaro. She is also learning guitar-making techniques from her brother.
Both now guide the workshop in complementary directions: José Enrique serves as workshop manager and leads new research, while Cristina coordinates the commercial area and project development. The new models emerge from the collaboration between Amalia, Cristina and José Enrique.
The Ramírez Workshop Today
The house of Guitarras Ramírez has operated continuously for more than 137 years, a span that encompasses six generations and some of the most significant moments in classical guitar history. When Amalia Ramírez took over the direction of the workshop after the passing of José Ramírez IV, she did not simply preserve what had been built — she continued to research, adapt and push the instrument forward. Her children Cristina and José Enrique have grown up inside this dynamic, understanding from the beginning that tradition at Ramírez is never static.
Today the workshop's focus is divided into two distinct but complementary areas of research. The first continues Amalia Ramírez's work on the Auditorium Model, an instrument designed to achieve greater projection and volume without sacrificing the characteristic warmth and depth that define the Ramírez sound. This model responds directly to the demands of contemporary concert guitarists who perform in large venues and require an instrument capable of filling a hall without electronic amplification.
The second line of research looks further back in time, revisiting the heritage of José Ramírez I, who founded the workshop in 1882, and his brother Manuel Ramírez. This project involves recovering historical building techniques, the use of natural glues and traditional varnishes that were once standard practice but have been largely displaced by modern materials. The goal is not nostalgia but a rigorous investigation into whether these older methods can enhance tone, resonance or longevity in ways that contemporary techniques do not.
A Family Workshop, Not a Factory
What distinguishes Ramírez guitars from most other makers operating at a comparable level of recognition is the workshop's insistence on remaining a family operation. Cristina and José Enrique are not simply administrators of a brand — they are active participants in every stage of design, construction and quality assessment. The decisions about which new models to develop, which woods to select and which historical references to incorporate emerge from conversations between three people who have known the workshop their entire lives.
Cristina's background in graphic design and journalism means she approaches the communication and identity of the brand with the same precision that José Enrique brings to the physical construction of the instruments. Her studies at the conservatory also give her direct contact with the experience of a player — an understanding of what a guitarist actually needs from an instrument, not only what looks correct on paper. José Enrique's training as a guitarist reinforces this perspective: both siblings can evaluate a finished guitar not only as makers but as musicians.
This dual perspective — craft knowledge combined with playing experience — has historically been one of the defining strengths of the Ramírez approach. José Ramírez III, whose innovations in bracing, string length and construction during the mid-twentieth century helped shape the modern concert guitar, was deeply attentive to the feedback of the guitarists who played his instruments. Figures such as Andrés Segovia and Julian Bream had close working relationships with the Ramírez workshop during that period, and their requirements influenced the development of instruments that would become reference points for the entire industry.
Continuity and Evolution
The current generation has inherited both the responsibility and the freedom that comes with a name of this weight. Amalia Ramírez established the tone for the transition: she did not treat the workshop as a museum but as a living practice. Cristina and José Enrique have continued this approach, understanding that the relevance of a guitar-making house over more than a century depends on its willingness to respond to what players actually need.
The classical guitars produced at Guitarras Ramírez today are built with the same attention to tonal quality and structural integrity that defined the workshop under earlier generations. Spruce and cedar tops, carefully selected tonewoods for the back and sides, and meticulous attention to the relationship between neck angle, scale length and string tension continue to characterise the output of the workshop. At the same time, the Auditorium Model and the historical recovery project represent genuine contributions to the ongoing development of the instrument — not reproductions of past successes but original responses to present needs.
For anyone interested in the broader history of the classical guitar and the luthiers who have shaped it, the Ramírez story offers an unusually clear example of how a craft tradition can persist across generations without freezing in place. The great classical guitarists who have played Ramírez instruments over more than a century have each found something different in them — and the reason they continue to do so is precisely because each generation of the family has been willing to keep asking what a guitar should be capable of.
You can explore the full range of José Ramírez guitars available at Siccas Guitars, including instruments spanning several decades of the workshop's history. Whether you are looking for a concert instrument or a collector's piece, the Ramírez legacy represents one of the most consistent and documented lineages in the history of guitar making.
