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RE: Repairable? 1973 Ramirez 1a Blan... (in reply to silddx)
That's a bit more than a project, and with pieces of the puzzle missing it becomes a headache. She'll be spray finished if similar models of the same age are to go off. If you owned her and needed to get her repaired, that's one thing, but I'd advise caution if you're thinking about buying her as a restoration project to sell on.
RE: Repairable? 1973 Ramirez 1a Blan... (in reply to silddx)
Everything is fixable to a degree, whether you repair the back and sides or replace them. The problem is with the attitude of the next buyer.
If you piece her together, you'll always get somebody tell you that the value is effected. If you replace the timber you'll have somebody complain that it isn't original, and the value is effected.
If it costs you around 500 and you get charged a few grand for the work then you might feel it's a bargain. If a repairer fixes it to sell on then they might get paid for the work eventually, but it could take a few years to sell.
Sometimes I get offered guitars and have to explain that even if they gave it to me for free, I'd still make a loss on the labour hours it would take to restore it.
RE: Repairable? 1973 Ramirez 1a Blan... (in reply to silddx)
Agree. It’s probably easier to replace the back and one side and to fix the cracked top from the open inside. What makes it challenging is the poly finish and sintetic glues. Everything is fixable to some extent but this is a time consuming kind of work and therefore an expensive one.
RE: Repairable? 1973 Ramirez 1a Blan... (in reply to silddx)
All the old parts could be glued back together and anything missing could be made with old wood left over from over restorations. The top is the least damaged thing, and since the back has to come off, it’s much easier to make a fixture to cradle it in while you glue the cracks. It’s upwards of $3000.00 for a decent job.
It reminds me of the story David Serva told me about a Barbero he bought at the Rastro Market. It was a Barbero, but half the top was gone. He took it to Arcadio Marin, a guitarist and guitar maker in Madrid. They decided to walk it over to Archangel Fernandez’ shop and see what he says about restoring it. They asked him what they should do with it. He said, “Go out this door and throw it in a dumpster in alley.” Then he rummaged around in the shop in some ancient boxes on a high shelf and gave them a box of rosette’ tiles made Barbero himself in the 1950’s. He said take this and get out of here. Arcadio brought it back to life with a new top and authentic parts from Marcello himself. I never saw that one, but David said, good guitar, but can’t really call it a Barbero.
RE: Repairable? 1973 Ramirez 1a Blan... (in reply to silddx)
It might be a nice project if you can restore it yourself. I've always had an interest in various kind of music/instruments. One of my father's students was the guitarist of trio hellenique. I loved to play along with their records using a mandoline or guitar rather then the intended bouzouki. Knowing my interest my father's student gave him a damaged bouzouki for free. It wasn't as damaged as this Ramirez the body was still intact but a small part of the last bow and front was smashed. My father was not only a good musician but also a great painter and inventive restorer. So he made a project of it. For the gabs he used fluent wood from a tube. For the pearl inlay he found himself a matching one along the colorexample carts used by the local music shop to show the color options of their drumkids (the verry same Music store that had the currouge to offer the verry first flamencoguitar in Rotterdam in a time no one but me was playing flamenco yet in this part of the Netherlands. It happened to be a Jose Ramirez 1a from 1978, .a beautiful instrument my father ended up buying for family use). The endresult of my father's restoration project was so nice the previous owner could not believe it was the same instrument and instanly regretted giving it away (it was a professional instrument).
Not sure my father would have given this Ramirez a try but the story of Torres claiming the backside of a guitar don't matter and even can be made of karton might have triggered his creativity :-).
Speaking about Torres, my father was pretty sure the first guitar he bought as a child was in retropect an original Torres. But it was totaly unplayable dude to neck issues. He could not afford buying another instrument so he removed the neck, glued it back better then it was and then quickly sold it when it still looked OK. From that money he bought himself a guitar that actualy could be played.
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