Alvarez 5020S Artist Series

I found this Alvarez at a Pawn shop in my town. It is a Dreadnought with a vintage-burst thing going on. The Head stock is overlaid with rosewood and has a laser etched "double-A" that is inlaid with a faux mother of pearl. The top is solid spruce, the sides are mahogany( cant tell if solid) and the back and neck are solid mahogany. It is set up with generic tuners and plastic nut and saddle. It has an interesting shaped bridge. Hard to explain but I've seen this model guitar here and there on television around the shoulders of various anybodies and those guitars all have the similar fashion of bridge. It is a pretty basic Twenty fret Dreadnought. Another note, This guitar was stamped "almost perfect" which is Alvarez's stamp for "2nd". It is also has the name: "Alvarez handmade" branded into brace running long the inside of the bottom of the guitar. Tuners are average. They are starting to jump a little especially on the D string. Kerfing inside: not so hot. This guitar is sloppy! there are chips out of the wood used inside and glue to be seen everywhere. This is a Factory second though, so I'm not angry. Someday I'll have a guitar company and my factory second equivalent will be "Beauty is Skin Deep"!

I found this guitar hard to resist by looking at it, but unfortunatly I wasn't able to play it just yet as it was unstrung in the pawn shop. Having owned an Alvarez before (Model name Regent) I decided to bite the bullet and buy it. I got it home and discovered the Frets were out of whack starting at the join with the body at the 14th fret. The 14th through 20th frets were all raised up and not level with their other brothers. I was pretty angry with myself for buying it by its looks. But still... anyway. I got it fixed and it sounds good enough for the girls I date. ha haha .
heres the scoop. It's not a loud guitar, but is responds very well to being stroked with the edge of a pick you know what I mean? not with the point but by sliding the edge while strumming. I get a buttery sound that is nice. I play acoustic guitar because I can hear all the pieces of the chords I've worked so hard to learn. this guitar brings them out well enough I guess except that the intonation is a little bunky. I attribute this to my immediate decision to take the saddle out and to sand it down. this lowers my action, but now that I know a thing or two about guitar care and whatnot, I know this isnt the best thing to do. I will be getting it overhauled soon with tusq nut and saddle and also new tuners. So I know this babe can sound even better. It has a good treble and mid. Bass is acceptable.

This guitar was used, a factory second, and I love it. It has flaws, but I am still giving it a chance everyday. I've had it for two years, and not only is it the only guitar I have, I can deal with that.

This is a guitar is reliable and durable. I've taken it outside in muggy wheather and crisp wheater and never had a problem but tuning.

I have been playing Ten years and have had guitars by Washburn, hohner, a sigma, and I still own a gibson les paul special. I play acoustic music mostly though, so my gibson just lays around. I have my Alvarez equipped with a Seymour Duncan MagMic. and play through a Fender Acoustisonic SFX.
My Alvarez and I have played a couple gigs and I would be pretty bummed out to see it gone. I've grown to love it despite it flaws. Those little things are fixable. If it was stolen, it would be harder to fix a broken heart. sounds cheesy but you all got it for a special guitar too. you know it. And even though sometimes I get jealous and want to get a fresh guitar no one else has played before, I always think "Its not the guitar, its me". No one says you have to have a super good expensive guitar to sound good except the add wizards IN MAGAZINES. listen to your self, and your guitar, you know,... the one you got in your hands.