For most of its history the Spanish guitar had a spruce top. Torres used spruce, his followers used spruce, and the great guitars of the early twentieth century were spruce. Today cedar tops are as familiar on concert stages as spruce. The change happened within a single generation, and it is worth knowing how.
The Madrid workshop of José Ramírez III
José Ramírez III (1922–1995) led the famous Ramírez workshop in Madrid from 1957 until 1988. He met Andrés Segovia in 1952 and built for him, and for a growing number of concert players, larger and more powerful guitars than the Torres model. Around 1962 he adopted western red cedar for his soundboards. Cedar had been used before, in the 1950s, but it was the Ramírez guitars that made it popular, and within a few years cedar-top guitars were heard on concert stages and recordings around the world.
Why cedar suited the new guitar
Western red cedar is lighter and less stiff than spruce. A cedar top therefore answers quickly and produces a warm, full sound from the first day, without the long playing-in that a spruce top often needs. For a workshop building powerful concert instruments, it offered volume and immediacy; for players, a guitar that sounded mature from the start.
Worth knowing: “cedar” in guitar making usually means western red cedar, Thuja plicata, a North American tree that is not a true cedar at all. Spanish cedar, used for necks, is a different wood again, a relative of mahogany.
Two voices, one instrument
The arrival of cedar gave classical guitarists a real choice of character. Cedar became associated with warmth, a round tone and an easy response; spruce with clarity, articulation and a sound that keeps developing over the years. Neither replaced the other. Read our comparison of cedar and spruce.
Cedar in the Arrius collection
We use Canadian cedar in several models. The Arrius MPR-5000 is built on a special-grade solid Canadian cedar top, which gives it its deep, warm and generous voice. The S-1000 joins cedar and spruce in a double top, and the MPR-400 and MPR-100 S let you choose either. See our tonewood library.
Further reading
Read next
- Cedar or spruce: what the soundboard decides
- Antonio de Torres and the modern classical guitar
- Tonewood library
Our key instrument: the Arrius MPR-5000, master-grade cedar and rosewood guitar with a resonance port, raised fingerboard and ebony armrest. More in the knowledge base.