I’ve had a long journey with this guitar. I bought it super cheap about 6 or 7 years ago. It’s a blue label Ramirez from Madrid. The blue labels were cheaper guitars made by other Madrid luthiers and rebranded for sale to tourists in the Ramirez show room. This one is slightly larger than a parlour guitar, solid cedar top (I think) solid mahogany back and sides. No idea on the vintage. I’d guess 60’s but who knows.
When I got it someone had painted the rosewood finger board and bridge black (frets and all). It also seems like they had stood back and flung shellac at it. It was covered in thick drippy layers of the stuff. It looked so bad and the action was so crazy that a local shop had it up for $100. It was a total dog but I knew there was something cool under all the gunk. I bought it and played it as is for a few years. Even in its terrible state it sounded fantastic.
A couple of summers ago I finally decided to strip off all the gunk. It took ages but I got it down to bare wood and then gave it a coat of teak oil. I’d dropped it off at my repair guy to have the bridge fixed last summer and quickly forgot about it. He did too it seems. It sat in the shop for 6 month until I remembered it and pestered him. I just brought it home tonight and can’t put it down. So cool.
With the repair I think I’m in about $200 for a vintage, hand made, solid wood classical. Not bad.
