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a_arnold -> Flea market Ramirez? (Mar. 1 2007 21:26:20)
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Speaking of vintage Ramirez's, a friend of mine called me recently from the local flea market and asked me if I had ever heard of a guitar maker named Jose Ramirez, 'cause there was a guitar for sale for $250 "and the guy wouldn't come down to less than $225" so he was wondering if maybe it was a good guitar. It sounded "pretty good" to him, but it was an old guitar, (label says 1972) and he wasn't tpp sure. I knew the guy was a novice guitarist because I had given him a few lessons.
Naturally, I told him to buy it before anyone else did, and if he decided he didn't like it, I would buy it sight unseen, figuring the gamble was worth $225. A no-lose situation for him. He bought (and kept) it.
It has the characteristic Ramirez head, Braz. rosewood back/sides, a tight-grained spruce top, hand-rubbed finish, fairly cheap machines but otherwise good workmanship, and the guitar sounds really good -- definitely worth a lot more than $225, no doubt (with no label I'd still buy it for 4x what he paid), with only the dings you would expect in a guitar that age. No repairs, no cracks . . . but the label appears to me to have been printed photographically (that is, it has a lot of dots, the way a screened newsprint illustration in the newspaper does. I would expect Ramirez labels to be lithographically printed (namely, not an image consisting of densely-packed dots).
Which makes me wonder if there is a market in forged guitars with faked labels out there? I think it would be an easy thing for an unscrupulous dealer to (say) get a Paracho maker to crank out a few pretty good guitars with copies of famous maker headstocks, paste in photographically copied labels, and pass them off as high-end guitars to unsuspecting buyers. This IS a well made guitar. Just maybe not the guitar I hope it is.
So, 2 questions: Anybody ever heard of forgeries being passed off? (if so, why would anyone go to that trouble and then sell for $225 in a flea market instead of consigning it for $2250 in a store?).
AND: You authentic Ramirez owners out there with Conception Jeronimo labels -- would someone take a close look at their label (you'll need a magnifying lens) and check to see if the image is a screened print, or if the lines are solid?
Inquiring minds want to know.
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