-1887: Gold Medal at the Logroño Regional Exhibition

-1893: Medal in the Chicago Exhibition

-1962: Gold Medal at a Guitar Society of Chicago 

– Bronze Medal of the Official Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Madrid (undated)

-1968: Honorary Member of the Centro Culturale di Chitarra of Rome

-1972: Gold Medal for Exemplary Craftsman in Madrid

-1986 Traditional Craftsman of Madrid, Madrid

-1987: Diapason D’OR of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Paris

– Madrid City Council grateful for services to the city as a hundred-year-old establishment, with a bronze plaque designed by Mingote and fixed to the pavement at the entrance to the shop by the Madrid City Council (undated).

-1997: At the Festival Andres Segovia, gift of a Centenary guitar to Prince Felipe, now King of Spain, to be included in the collection of the Royal Household.

-2006: Gold Acoustic Guitar, Players’ Choice Awards 

-2007: Milestone Awards, NAMM 2007, celebrating 125 Years

-2007: Trujamán de La Guitarra Award to José Ramírez on the 125^th anniversary
-2008: Città di Fiuggi, Festival Internazionale della Chitarra, 2º Edizione, Premio per la liuteria Amalia Ramirez

-2008. Gold Acoustic Guitar, Players’ Choice Awards

-2009: Honorary tribute to Amalia Ramírez and the tradition of her family. The Museum of Greek

Popular Instruments “Foivos Anogianakis”

-2012: Crafts Prize of the Community of Madrid 2014: Gold Medal of the Bicentennial of Paraguay, and Gold Brooch for “enterprising woman” of Paraguay

-2013: Photograph of Amalia Ramirez with Vicente Amigo at the Suma Flamenca exhibition.

-2014:”Chitarra d’oro” Premio speziale “Una Vita per la Chitarra” del Convegno Internazionale di Chitarra Pittaluga en Alessandria, Italy

-2014: Medal of the Andrés Segovia Foundation, granted to the Ramírez dynasty of luthiers, presented by the current successor Ms Amalia Ramírez de Galarreta y García, in recognition of her outstanding work making guitars used by Andrés Segovia, contributing, thanks to their exceptional quality, to the triumphant artistic career of this universal master.

It should be added that my great-great-uncle, Manuel Ramírez, was the restorer of the quartet of Stradivarius of the Royal Chapel, as well as official luthier of the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid.

My great-great-grandfather, Jose Ramírez I, at the request of the flamenco guitarists of the time and given the need of a more powerful sounding guitar for the flamenco tablaos (stages) that were beginning to emerge, created the so-called Tablao Guitar, which was a great success. We are currently making an enhanced version of this guitar.

Manuel Ramírez, based on the Tablao Guitar designed by his brother José, created the foundations of the modern flamenco guitar, which their apprentices continued to make. These apprentices – Modest Borreguero, Domingo Esteso and Santos Hernández – achieved great renown when they established businesses by themselves. These parameters are still used in the construction of current flamenco guitars made in Spain.

My grandfather, Jose Ramírez III, carried our further research and achieved a guitar that became internationally famous as the model chosen by Andrés Segovia. Eventually, all the most renowned guitarists acquired and used our guitars throughout their musical careers.

He conducted research on the ellipse, the golden ratio, the weight and shape of the bridge and on the sound quality of the soundboard, the length of the strings, and the types of varnish, among other aspects. He also began to use red cedar for the soundboard, a type of wood that had never been used previously and which provides a rich, deep and very characteristic sound. Most guitar makers around the world now use this type of wood. He also made very beautiful ornamentation designs.

Furthermore, he created the ten-stringed guitar in collaboration with Narciso Yepes, as well as the eight-stringed guitar for José Tomás; instruments that are highly appreciated for baroque music. In addition, he designed the chamber guitar, a system that provides clarity and separation to the notes, eliminating the so-called “wolf tones”; ideal for recording sessions.

My father, José Ramírez IV, perfected the construction techniques in the workshop, making our guitars more comfortable to play and providing greater stability. 

Amalia Ramírez has continued researching the golden ratio and designed the first MIDI system acoustic guitar. She has also used new materials, such as Nomex, to provide greater sound volume, openness and better sustained notes and she is still researching in this field to achieve even better sonority for our instruments. In addition, she occasionally creates new designs for the ornamentation of our guitars, the beauty of which are highly appreciated by guitarists.

Several Ramírez guitars are on exhibition at various museums around the world. The most important conservatoires in Spain have at least one Ramírez guitar for educational purposes.

– The Metropolitan Museum of New York has a Ramírez guitar donated by Andrés Segovia and another by Christopher Parkening.

– The Museum of Barcelona also has a Ramírez guitar.

– There is a Ramírez guitar in the Torres Museum in Almeria, where they are also organising a monographic exhibition of Ramírez Guitars.

– The Casino of Madrid also has a Ramírez guitar donated by Andrés Segovia on display.

– The Casa de la Música de Asunción, Paraguay, has a guitar by my great-great-grandfather, José Ramírez I, which belonged to Agustín Barrios, and that was recently acquired by the Paraguayan government from a U.S. collector with the sole and exclusive purpose of adding it to their national heritage.

– A Ramírez guitar is also on display at the San Telmo Museum, at the foot of the Monte Urgull, in the Basque Country. It belonged to the Basque singer-songwriter Mikel Laboa.

-Sociedad Española de la Guitarra (Spanish Guitar Society)

-Amigos de la Guitarra de Valencia (Valencia Friends of the Guitar)

-Asociación de Comercios Tradicionales y Centenarios de Madrid (Association of Traditional and Centenary Establishments of Madrid) (together with Lhardy, Loewe, Lucio, La Antigua Relojería, among others…)

-Fundación Andrés Segovia (Andrés Segovia Foundation)

We try to help students with talent, as well as artists, to disseminate and support their work. With this in mind, we awarded the Jose Ramírez grant, worth 3,000 Euros, through the AIE, from 2002 and 2012.

– INTERNATIONAL MUSIC COURSES IN COMPOSTELA: At the courses conducted by Andrés Segovia, and subsequently by José Luis Rodrigo, we donated a concert Guitar (currently valued at 8,565 Euros) to the best musician between 1963 and 1993.

-CORDOBA FESTIVAL: From 2004 to 2009 we donated a concert guitar (currently valued at 8,565 Euros) to the winner of the guitar contest held at this festival.

– We have donated guitars selectively at other guitar festivals to support their initiatives to provide a good instrument to the winners of their contests.

We have also organised an event at our shop in Madrid since 2008 where musicians can either give a concert, present a record, a book or give a talk on issues of interest for guitar enthusiasts. This event takes place once a month. Attendance requires advance booking and the proceeds are given to the musician.

Other music establishments have copied this format, given its success among musicians and the public interested in the culture of music.

We have one of the most complete and acknowledged collections of historical guitars. It includes unique specimens that reflect the evolution of such a typically Spanish instrument from the 18th century to the present. This collection has been fully and partially exhibited at various national and international cultural events.

Some of the fairs at which our guitars have been represented include:

GERMANY: FRANKFURT MUSIKMESSE. Annual attendance with our own stand.

CHINA: MUSIC CHINA, Shanghai. Annual attendance with our own stand.

U.S.A.: WINTER NAMM, Anaheim, California. Present at the stand of our exclusive agent, Gold Tone

RUSSIA: NAMM MUSIKMESSE RUSSIA, Moscow. Present at the stand of our exclusive agent, JS Coda.

JAPAN: Musical Instruments Fair Japan, Tokyo. Present at the stand of our exclusive agent, Arai & Co. Inc.

INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVALS AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL EVENTS, to which Amalia Ramírez has been invited over the past year and events planned so far for this year where she will give speeches on the Ramírez guitar maker dynasty and to represent the firm:

JAPAN: Visit by Amalia Ramirez and José Enrique Ramírez, invited by our agent ARAI & Co. Inc. At conferences organised in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya, various guitarists played a short concert using our brand of guitars.

SINGAPORE: Visit by Amalia Ramírez and José Enrique Ramírez; invited by our agent THOMAS MUSIC to a Conference to speak about our family and to give a demonstration of mosaic construction.

ISRAEL: Visit by Amalia Ramírez organised by our agent TENOR MUSIC, where she gave a speech at the Academy of Jerusalem and the Academy of Tel Aviv. These events were also preceded by a concert conducted by Eylon Amir, a young guitarist of great talent, who needed the permission of the Israeli Government to give this concert because he was in the army at the time.

UNITED KINGDOM: Visit by Amalia Ramírez, as a special guest, to the Special Launch Concert of Segovia the Ramirez Years in the UK, by John Mills, at Glynde Place in East Sussex.

BELGIUM: Brussels Big Festival, under the patronage of Her Majesty The Queen. Ramírez Guitars was present at the festival and on the festival poster.

PARAGUAY: Visit by Amalia Ramírez, as a special guest, to the Cultural Centre of the Republic in Asunción, Paraguay, to give a speech on the dynasty of the Ramírez guitar makers at the 1st International Forum of Luthiers in Paraguay and to visit local luthiers and contribute some advice on guitar making.

ITALY: Visit by Amalia Ramírez invited by our agent BODE srl, to give a speech on our family at the music conservatoires of Milan, Alessandria, Roviro and Bologna.