Alvarez AG70AR Grand Auditorium Acoustic Guitar
Sporting a solid Sitka spruce top and forward-shifted bracing for plenty of projection, this Alvarez Grand Auditorium sings with a voice all its own.
Overall User Ratings (based on 2 ratings)
Submitted June 16, 2018 by Jeff M in Washington Boro, PA
"Alvarez AG70AR"
Verified Customer
zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
I read another review of this guitar and thought that they couldn't be talking about the same model. As far as the fret ends go, this guitar is the smoothest of all my guitars...including electrics. I didn't care for the sound and playability at first. I changed the strings out to 80/20 bronze 11's and man, what a difference! Now I love the way it souds and plays. Outperforms my son's Taylor model of the same size and woods. I'm so glad I took a chance on this guitar!
Musical Background:
Playing acoustic and electric guitars for 40+ years. Do occasional small gigs.
Musical Style:
Blues, rock, folk, etc.
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Submitted January 3, 2018 by Danny D in Canton, OH
"Not great, and not terrible but, pain and blood have been involved."
Verified Customer
zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
Purchased this guitar in the end of 2017 from zZounds. Let me say zZounds is the best! This is my second purchase from them and there will be more purchases soon! Now about this guitar. To qualify, my main guitar since 1973 has been a 1962 Gibson Hummingbird. I have owned and sold others such as Fender, Yamaha, Ovation, Martin, Mitchell. Let me start off with the number one no no on any guitar. The fret ends on both sides of the neck have cut my hand and shredded cleaning cloths from being so sharp. The nut was left with bad cuts for the B and E string resulting in lots of snapping and cracking and hard to get the right tune because of it. The tuners, well, they are die cast so I didn't expect them to be much and they aren't. The finish is acceptable. The action is too high for my liking and this guitar likes to put up a fight when you play it. I strongly considered returning it to zZounds but there is something hidden here that is making me keep this guitar. Yes it will cost me more to take it to my Luthier to fix all that is wrong to make this guitar playable, and new tuners will have to be installed, but for some reason the sound has a likeability to it that I am enjoying. It has a V shaped neck that does not fit my hand well and causes me pain which I may end up having sanded down. The neck sides themselves are a bit too squared off and hurt when trying to use a thumb to wrap around for bass notes which I do often. The Grand Auditorium size is nice and I like it since all my other acoustics are dreadnoughts. Every new guitar is like a new girlfriend. Time, and give and take, and compromise, may lead to a very long wonderful relationship. I'm hoping that Alva and I will continue our relationship and this won't end up a costly divorce for me.
Sound
The sound quality is good for a new acoustic guitar. A little age will tell what the long story will be.
Features
The woods used seem to work well with each other but with an acoustic guitar only time will tell.
Ease of Use
This baby is a fighter. She fights me for every note I try to get out of her. I'm hoping some adjustments by my luthier will end our fighting.
Quality
The die cast tuners will have to be replaced ASAP. Only time will tell on the rest of the construction.
Value
With the non finishing of the fret ends, and poorly cut nut the guitar is not worth the selling price.
Manufacturer Support
I did ask the company what size the truss rod is since they did not include a truss rod wrench. They were prompt with their reply.
The Wow Factor
The only thing that made me go WoW with this guitar was how poorly the fret ends were neglected and cut my hand and shredded my cleaning cloth.
Musical Background:
Pro for over 50 years. Muti-instrumentalist.
Musical Style:
Many.
5 of 8 people (63%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
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