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I know of two different opinions about how guitars sound when they become older:
1) Spruce top: They get better Cedar top: They get worse.
2) Guitars with spruce top have their deadline, too.
Some talk of about 70 years for a spruce top.
Which one is right?
I don't mean the fact that spruce top guitars improve after the first years, but i talk of the long run. Does this make sense?
I think of this, since there are a lot of very old guitars sold at very high prices. If the second opinion is right, then this would be completely irrational, wouldn't it?
My point of view is that at some point, guitars no longer are being purchased as a musical instrument but more as a collector's item. At that point the price is no longer set by its musicality but more by its demand. Where that point is, I would say depends mostly on the guitar itself. As evidence, I point to the really old guitars that people typically put in a glass case to look at, not to play.
One of my instructors has a '57 (??) Archangel Fernandez, cypress and spruce....
U N B E L I E V A B L E..........
The clarity and separation is astounding, and - except for maybe a Ruck Concert Double Top Classical - is the loudest guitar I've ever heard. It almost sounds amplified.... I almost fell over dead when I heard this guitar played.
50 years and no signs of dying in that beauty. Besides, many violinists play 100 year old Strads' in concert, so....
Hi, Mike. I'm in east Mesa close by Falcon Field. I don't play anywhere except at home mostly because I am not too good yet and would be embarassed to let people hear me. Wayne
tengo una guitarra flamenca blanca de Ramirez del ano 1971. La tapa del cedro rojo y suena un canon!! Me parece que no va a morir nunca, cada dia mejor.
tengo una guitarra flamenca blanca de Ramirez del ano 1971. La tapa del cedro rojo y suena un canon!! Me parece que no va a morir nunca, cada dia mejor.
Saludos
DIKOHA
"Hello I have a 1971 Ramirez blanca the top is red ceder and it sounds like a canon!! It seems to me that it will never die and get better every day"
Would be hard to test my theory since time is such a factor, but I would suspect that the "death" or long life of a guitar has not so much to do with how much it was played, as with the way the guitar is taken care of. For example is it polished, and tuned, kept in the case, watered and loved like a plant, braces and glue joints checked every so often, etc.
I will say that I have experience first hand, guitars of all price ranges, tend to sound BETTER or open up faster (spruce top at least is my experience) when they are played A LOT, espeicially by a good or heavy handed player.
And I have always heard about this, but find it hard to believe, that CEDAR does not open up at all. Even if it is played hard? I used to have a Cedar top ramirez, but it was older than me. I never really liked the sound of that anyway. But I am taking this "born opened up" thing at face value, but would really like to see a test. I would bet that if you get 2 of the same Cedar guitars, (same make and sound more or less), give one to a collector to put in a glass case, and the other to an experienced player, that the Cedar guitar that was played will sound BETTER and more "open" than the one in the case, after a year or two. But that is just my guess, I would really be surprised if they sounded the same after that long.
yes i also have 1973 jose ramirez every day i love it more and cant leave it from my hands here it is my guitar picture its attached but actually you ve to treat your guitar kindly as long as it makes you happy as long as you must take care of it .
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here it is my guitar picture its attached 
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