Alvarez AD60

Alvarez guitars is one of the biggest guitar brands in the USA, having been at it for over 45 years. The company has a strong affiliation with master luthier Kazuo Yairi who, at 80, still oversees their daily operations in Japan.

The Alvarez AD60 CE is part of their Artist series, offering a truckload of features and exceptional value for money with each model. This particular guitar is a full-size gloss-finished cutaway dreadnought fitted with a B-Band Sys 650 preamp. The specs are rather impressive: a lovely warm sitka spruce top, chocolatey mahogany back and sides and a dark, tight grained rosewood fingerboard and a bi-level rosewood bridge designed to maximize sustain. A dovetail neck joint sets the neck to the body, increasing sustain and the note transfer, with notes jumping out into you. Alvarez consider this guitar their best value for money to date, the quality of materials, construction and craftsmanship normally unseen at this price. Visually, this instrument looks solid and smart with a darker coloured top, unique bridge design, cool pickguard and authentic abalone and mother of pearl inlaid on the headstock, rosette and even on the tips of the bridge pins. A cool cream pinstripe binds on the top to the body and a smooth satin cream binding surrounds the back and sides.

This guitar feels great, as a lovely cutaway provides easy access to higher frets and the silky smooth neck allows you to glide up and down effortlessly. String tension is strong, allowing you to slam the strings with a heavier pick for massive projection and a strong mid-heavy voice. Tuning is an absolute joy as the bone nut and bridge eliminate snags and further add to the tone, the chrome machineheads roll smoothly and the onboard tuner (on the B-Band) is awesome, changing from blue to bright green when the string is in tune. Out of the box, this guitar was almost perfectly in tune, only a couple of cents short of A440. The sound was strong and focused with clear tops and bottoms, with the AD60 sounding a bit bigger than your average dreadnought, producing a solid bass and natural hi-fi tone that's perfect for recording. Action was at a medium height allowing notes to ring clearly, but making it difficult to play fast single note runs, but finger-picking yielded a smoother tone.

Electronics-wise the B-Band SYS 650 is an absolute gem of a pickup, featuring an onboard tuner, controls for Bass, Middle and Treble as well as a midrange notch that scoops out annoying feedback at 330Hz. Ther AST and UST pickups (above saddle transducer/under saddle transducer) sound completely different to each other. The AST sounds very natural highlighting the lower mids, whereas the UST highlights upper mids and presence. You can achieve a killer tone just by blending the two sounds together, without going near the EQ. The Alvarez AD60CE is a professional instrument worthy of high-quality recordings, stadium-sized gigs or your own personal enjoyment. It's the perfect instrument if you're at the stage where you want to start gigging or you're a seasoned pro and open to the idea of using a mid-priced instrument.