Alvarez 5018

Dread body 12 string guitar. Laminate spruce top, laminate maple sides. Rosewood board and bridge. Sealed tuners. Made in Japan. Mine left St. Louis Music in September of 1986. Was probably found under someone's Christmas tree that year. Sunburst finish. Solid, heavy guitar.

Very full sounding for an all-laminate guitar. Dread body gives it plenty of volume. All strings ring clearly, no buzz. Use it mostly to strum chords and mess around with some blues. Have had a friend play who is into bluegrass and folk. He really sounds great using it in that style. The guitar nails the sound of SRV's on "Life by the Drop."

The finish drives the rating on this down from an all-out 10 for action. Mine has moderate clouding, seen one on ebay that was quite severe. Nothing you can do about it. Where it is not cloudy, it's incredibly glossy. Suprisingly this does not gum up the neck any. Just very wet to look at.

The action is what makes these MIJ Alvarez's worth the effort in hunting one down. The action on this (and the 5021 and 5054 models) is like butter. Medium-wide neck is easy to hold, even for small hands. Very easy to fret chords. Not quite Taylor quality, but certainly better than most newer 12-string models on the market including Ovation. Mine appears to have last seen a shop in 1986 when it was checked out by St. Louis Music and it has held up incredibly well for a twenty year-old guitar.

This guitar was definitely used over the course of its past ownership and it appears to have survived very well. Other than the clouding and a few character dings, the guitar is solid. Stays in tune incredibly well. Everything is original on this axe. Would definitely gig with it. Does anyone bring another 12 as a backup?

Emailed St. Louis Music for some background information about this guitar (nothing until this review was avaiable on HC). Was amazed that someone gave me an email back the same day with great background info about this guitar. I would guess that the same interest in customer satisfaction applies to newer purchases.

Have been playing for 21 years and this was my first 12 string purchase. I wasn't sure if this was going to be a passing interest or if I would enjoy a 12 string so a new one was never a consideration. Fell in love with the action on a 5021 and 5054 I played and became obsessed with finding a resonably priced Alvarez 12. Be patient, they do exist. I remember how snobbish players and salespeople were back in the 80's when the Japanese were pumping out these "cheap" guitars. Truth be told, these were very well built copies of Martin and Gibson models.

This guitar is like my favorite jean jacket. Worn, but has character and good vibe with it. I would not be happy if something happened to it because it was hard to find this sunburst finish. Wish I could do something about the clouding. If you're looking to keep your purchase price under $250, I highly recommend tracking one of these down as opposed to settling for something made in Korea or China. By far, a very enjoyable guitar to play for the money.

I also play an Ovation Balladeer, Martin 000-15, 1968 Reissue MIJ Strat and Little Martin.