I'm thinking about getting an Alvarez Parlor MPA66. I've injured my shoulder doing yardwork and now it's painful to play my D-18 sometimes. The parlor is a good size for an achy shoulder.
My little Recording King parlor is fun to play but the tone is lacking in my opinion. Of all the reasonably priced parlor guitars this Alvarez looks to be the best for the money.
Just curious if anyone here plays an Alvarez and what they think of the brand.
Every time I go into guitar center they try to steer me into an Alvarez. I love my Gretsch Penguin and my Art & Lutherie Roadhouse. I’m not falling in love with $100 Orangewood Dana but for $100 I’m good. I’m seriously looking at the Martin 000Jr or aPRS 20 e Tonare that baby blue one.
The Martin 000 Jr is real wood not HPL. I watched a video this am on YouTube comparing the PRS 20, the Taylor GS Mini and the Martin 000Jr. The guy picked the Martin as his favorite. I listened to it with my eyes closed and did like the sound of the Martin but when I look at them I like the thinner waist on the PRS.
I also watched a video with the Martin Guitar owner/son. He really knows little to nothing about guitars in general. He wasn’t raised with the Martin Family as his parents divorced early in his life. He is a businessman not a guitar builder. He even said he’s not a guitar builder, Bob Taylor is a guitar builder. The video was on the Martin Webpage under the 000Jr. My history with my longed for Taylor and the disappointment with the actual sound from it makes me hesitate to pull the. trigger on a Martin $$$ purchase. I really love my Roadie and Penny so much more than the Taylor. I still have the Taylor listed for sale on Reverb.
@jerseychicadee Good video. The Taylor sounded like my Taylor, the Martin sounded like my Martin. I like the Martin for the kind of stuff we do on this site. I picked up my Taylor for the first time in a month or so yesterday. It's easier to play clean but I just like the sound of the Martin for this kind of music.
I'm thinking about getting an Alvarez Parlor MPA66. I've injured my shoulder doing yardwork and now it's painful to play my D-18 sometimes. The parlor is a good size for an achy shoulder.
My little Recording King parlor is fun to play but the tone is lacking in my opinion. Of all the reasonably priced parlor guitars this Alvarez looks to be the best for the money.
Just curious if anyone here plays an Alvarez and what they think of the brand.
To be truthful i have never herd of that make.
I played a. Heap Alvarez electric bac in college a long time ago. Haven’t heard much from them since.
@jerseychicadee I was looking at the PRS parlor in blue, too. Sweetwater had one, and then a couple of days later when I went to look at it again it was gone. They are totally out. According to PRS they made less than a 1,000 of these in blue for the holiday season. 😥
@jerseychicadee The Alvarez Masterworks parlor is solid mahogany wood, front, sides, back. Has a much better and warmer tone than I've heard on any other small guitar.
I will say though, that in the video you put up I did like the Martin better than the other two. But it still has the very small guitar sound. I have a L'il Martin that sounds like a very small guitar, for sure.
I want to live in a guitar factory. I want them all mostly the little ones. 🌞
Last year I acquired in this order, a 3 year old Taylor factory custom order GS with cedar top and myrtlewood back and sides. It cost the original owner $6,000. I quickly discovered at my weekly jam session I was actually overdriving the top to produce enough volume to be heard with the other guitars being played. I'd never heard an acoustic actually distort before that. It was totally heavenly sounding played by itself. I traded it for a new Gibson custom shop Advanced jumbo with Adirondack top and maple back and sides. I was the envy of most of the other pickers at my jam but very soon I traded it for a 3 year old Martin custom shop HD28. This was the model with their VTS torrefied top, supposedly emulating the sound of a 1937 Martin. I became enamored of a new Takamine arch top and back flamed maple stage guitar in translucent blue, sold the Martin and bought the Tak.
I'd gone through all the top name guitars at that point, but all the while I was awaiting the return of my Yairi DY90. It was willed to me by a wealthy friend who went to Japan in 1982 and commissioned it from Kazuo Yairi, founder of Alvarez Yairi guitars. The guitar was badly crushed in a serious car wreck on a freeway that wasn't my fault. I posted pics of it on an online guitar forum, lamenting the total loss of the finest sounding guitar I'd ever owned. Somebody on the forum put me in touch with a total genius guitar restoration wizard in Kansas City, MO. I shipped the carnage off to him with little hope it would ever be the same. Seven months late it was finished and I made the trip to pick it up in person. The guy preserved all the original woods which was a superhuman feat to me. I was looking at the sides that had been broken through and splintered and shocked that I couldn't see anywhere a trace of the former damage. The only place I could verify it was the original wood was by putting a mirror down inside it and seeing the glue lines inside. For all intents and purposes, the guitar appeared to have never had any damage and I was amazed that it actually seemed to sound even better than before. The restorer explained that to me like this. He said that while Kazuo Yairi built this guitar 36 years ago, the setup geometry had gradually changed over the years. He put everything back to perfect specs and that's why the finest guitar I've ever owned sounded even better. He only charged me $1,500 of that $3,500 the at fault driver's insurance compensated me for it.
In my opinion, Alvarez guitars are the equal of any of the top name brand guitars. Two of my sons play Alvarezes I bought for them. Also, the Yairi has a finer sound than any of the other three custom shop guitars I owned last year. You just can't go wrong with one.
Brad Davis Plays this guitar.
I probably don’t need to say anymore.
Nice little parlor. Reminds me of my Little Roadie
@davidkellemsgmail-com Wow, that is quite a tale about the Yairi! Do you have any before/after pics? I'd love to see them if you do.
I have heard some wonderful Alvarez guitars and they're reasonably priced, that's why I'm looking at the Masterworks parlor. I'd love to play one first, but so far haven't found a guitar shop around here that stocks these.
