José Ramírez II | Guitarras Ramírez

In 1885 José Simón Ramírez de Galarreta y Pernías was born. He grew up in his father’s workshop and learned the trade with him. In addition to being a guitar maker, he was a guitarist and, at age 20, he was hired to do a two-year tour of South America.

He had a hard time convincing his father to give him permission to accept the contract, but he finally mde it since two years was not a long time. However, the tour was prolonged and those two years became almost 20, since, once the rondalla with whom he traveled was dissolved, he decided to stay in Buenos Aires. There he met the Spanish young lady Blanca, who would later be his wife. They had two children: José and Alfredo.

In 1923 he received the news of his father’s death and decided to return to Madrid with his family. Two years later he took over the guitar shop located at calle Concepción Jerónima number 2.

At that time, the store, which was on the ground floor, was attended by Jesús Martínez, while in the workshop, located on the upper floor, they worked: Alfonso Benito and Antonio Gómez as officers; Marcelo Barbero, still as an apprentice; and Manuel Rodríguez – nicknamed “Marequi” – as a varnisher.

José Ramírez II was also a recognized master, for this reason he obtained in 1923 the Gold Medal at the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville. Unfortunately, in 1936, to the many evils that the Spanish Civil War brought with it, the difficulty in obtaining materials and wood for the construction of guitars was added (a situation that continued for a long time after the war). That shortage was the main cause of the discussions with his son José Ramírez III, when he reached the level of officer and began to do his experiments.