Once he had finished his apprenticeship he left, and with his younger brother Manuel (1864-1916) opened a guitar making workshop in 1882 on Cava Baja in Madrid, before in 1890 moving to Calle de la Concepción Jerónima nº 2.
However, for unknown reasons, Manuel changed his plans, and decided instead to start his own workshop in Madrid, which would be in direct competition with his brother.
[2][6] Segovia used the guitar in concerts and on recordings from 1912 to 1937, and played it at his United States debut in New York's Town Hall in 1929.
[2] Segovia encouraged luthier Hermann Hauser and other makers to copy Manuel Ramírez's style of guitar.
After touring Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, the group dissolved, and after meeting his future wife, he took up residence as a guitarist in Buenos Aires.
These shortages encouraged José III, known as Pepé, who had formally joined the workshop in 1940, to experiment with non-traditional woods and design techniques.
Among the luthiers who were trained or worked for Ramírez Guitars during this period were Marcelo Barbero (1904-1956), Alfonso Benito and Manuel Rodriguez Fernandez (1926-2008).
[2] By 1960, Andrés Segovia was sufficiently impressed with José III's efforts to borrow his first Ramírez guitar and take it on tour with him.
Made by Contreras,[2] it incorporated Ramírez's latest ideas with a longer string length of 664 mm, larger body, and asymmetrical bracing, unlike the symmetrical Torres pattern which most luthiers had adhered to since the mid-1800s.
As high quality German spruce became difficult to source, and increasingly expensive, José III in 1965 introduced western red cedar on the soundboards of the company's 1a and 2a models, and convinced influential artists to use them.
[6] In the 1960s, to cope with increasing demand, while retaining the original premises at Calle de la Concepción Jerónimo nº 2 as a shop the company moved its workshop to Calle de General Margallo nº 10, and greatly expanded its number of employees in order to produce more guitars.
Ramírez established an efficient production basis where the apprentices using dedicated procedures did the basic tasks, which allowed more time for the qualified luthiers to undertake the difficult work.
Prior to this, all fine-quality Spanish guitars had been produced by individual luthiers which had resulted in small production levels.
[3] In the late 1980s the end of government export support and changes in Spain's tax structure led to a decrease in sales and the firm getting into financial difficulties.
[9] In 1983, Jose Ramirez III designed the “Camara” guitar, with the intention of eliminating the “wolf notes.” It gave some positive results, for instance, the clarity of its sound was excellent for studio recordings.
[9] To complement it José IV developed the Especial, a new brighter, lighter-sounding, more comfortable guitar, which was introduced to the market in 1992.
In the summer of 1995 Ramirez were unable to renew the lease on the original shop at Concepción Jerónima nº 2 and moved to Calle de la Paz nº8.