José Ramírez III, the “discoverer”
In 1965, José Ramírez III, in his never-ending quest to perfect the sound of the guitar, revolutionised his guitar-building system by using «western redcedar» for the soundboards. Today, the wood that he discovered, along with spruce, is used by most guitar-makers around the world. Here is what the memoirs of José Ramírez III have to say about it. …It was around this time that I discovered an extraordinary wood that could replace and improve upon German spruce, which had been used for guitar soundboards since time immemorial. The wood in question, which was presented to me initially as common cedar, is “thuja plicata”, erroneously called western red cedar. I immediately noticed its outstanding lightness, strength, responsiveness
and, above all, the magnificent grain, which surpasses that of even the best spruce. Hailing from the Pacific coast of North America, the tree is actually a close cousin of Central European spruce. I wasted no time in building a guitar from this wood and it turned out splendidly in every aspect. I seem to recall immediately starting work on four guitars for Maestro Segovia, and I showed them to him as soon as the opportunity arose, which must have been around the summer of 1965. He tried them, without passing comment, but with obvious satisfaction, selected one and then returned the 1962 guitar to me… En torno a la guitarra José Ramírez III (An English translation exists, under the title “Things about the Guitar”)