Manuel Ramírez

Manuel Ramírez (1864 - 25 February 1916) was a Spanish luthier.

Early life

Ramírez whose full formal name was 'Manuel Ramírez de Galarreta y Planet' was born in 1864 in Alhama in Aragon, Spain to José Ramírez de Galarreta, a very well-off land owner. His father José Ramírez de Galarreta had been born in Salvatierra and had originally come to Madrid to work for the Marques de Salamanca who was a property developer responsible for the Barrio del Salamanca, an upmarket area of Madrid.

When his older brother José Ramírez opened his guitar making workshop in Madrid in 1882, Manuel joined him. As a result he began producing guitars that had a lighter delicate sound, that became popular within the flamenco community. By 1912 Manuel Ramírez had been appointed luthier to the National Conservatoire in Madrid.

Andrés Segovia and the 1912

In 1912 a young Andrés Segovia visited Ramírez with a request to rent a guitar for a concert at the Ateneo de Madrid. Segovia used the guitar in concerts and on recordings from 1912 to 1937 and played it at his United States debut in the New York Town Hall in 1929. After the guitar developed a crack Segovia switched to using a guitar made by Hermann Hauser. These performances bought Manuel Ramírez's style of guitar and Hernandez's skill to the notice of other players. The guitar that Ramírez gave Segovia was gifted by Segovia's widow, Emilita to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it now resides.

Notable users of Ramírez guitars

Among the artists who have used Manuel Ramírez 's guitars have been:

Francisco Calleja González Campos Andrés Segovia