Product: Alvarez-Yairi CYM 200
Price Paid: USD 2500
Submitted
05/04/2007
at
02:14pm
by
Joe Eldring
Features
:
No Opinion
Classical Guitar with solid Indian Rosewood back and sides, solid spruce top, mahogany neck, ebony fret board. 650 mm scale, 52 mm nut width.
Noteworthy is the neck back profile; compared to the traditional (Spanish) wide and flat back, the Yairi neck has a more rounded "soft C" style back profile. IMO, this is very comfortable and provides a lot of flexibility regarding my left hand position.
Sound
:
10
I consider the sound of this guitar as very rounded, well balanced and even over the entire fret board. It does not come over as bold and loud as some of the Spanish made guitars, but what I love most about this guitar is its sweet tone. There is some subtle complexity in the tone that always makes me want to go back and play this guitar. Studying the classical guitar is tough, and often I just want to throw in the towel. But this guitar just "calls" me to be played. What else can be better for a student than a guitar that makes her/him to pick it up again and again?
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
Very comfortable to play. Action is 2.5 mm at 12th fret. No buzzing even at strong rest strokes. Perfect intonation over the entire fret board. I found that the low action however requires me to deploy a very careful right hand technique for playing loudly in free stroke.
The guitar has been built with very great care and quality. All inside struts appear to be sanded, no excessive glue to be found anywhere. Very clean inside and outside. Everything has been cut to fit perfectly.
Reliability/Durability
:
No Opinion
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
10
Playing for 30+ years, mostly blues, rock, jazz. I play the classical guitar between 25-50% of the time, dependent on what mood I am in.
Over the years I owned >30 guitars. This is the first instrument ever that I simply ordered through my local store based on Alvarez/Yairi's reputation for building great sounding, great quality and affordable guitars. After having played it for a year by now, and after having had the chance to compare it with various instruments in the $2500-5000 price range I feel that the CYM 200 must be one of the best kept secrets among classical guitar players.
