Description
Extremly rare 10-string guitar by Jose Ramirez made in 1981 – it sounds extremly nice!
This guitar was built in the famous Jose Ramirez III workshop, which for over half a century has produced instruments performed on by countless professionals from Sting to Segovia, Chet Atkins to Sabicas and Lee Ritenour to Christopher Parkening.
Popularized over the years by host of great players including Narciso Yepes, Vincenzo Macaluso and Goran Sollscher, the 10-stringed guitar has proven to be a versatile instrument for particularly for performing repertoire that does not quite “fit” on the range of a normal six-string guitar.
Baroque lute music – most populary Bach and Weiss – requires most 6 string players to transpose bass notes up or down an octave in places that break the original musical flow intended by the composer. The 10-string guitar resolves many such inconveniences, and also makes it possible to perform arrangements of larger pieces originally written for the piano and orchestral settings.
The tone of this guitar has that essential warm, mysterious and moody quality that made Ramirez famous. The guitar has a great dynamic range. Each note is very intense, with the overtones closely packed in a solid and well defined key note. This gives an almost cathedral-like echo effect of the sound, which radiates from the body and gives the instrument an enormous presence – both behind the instrument from the playing position and at a distance from the listener’s perspective.
The condition is excellent for its age – it has only the slightest amount of playing wear. An excellent example of a fine Ramirez for either collector or concert player. It is perfectly set up and comes with the original case.