Alvarez Laureate Series Acoustic Guitars | Their Best Guitars Ever? 

Good to hear you have had a great experience with the Alvarez model! I've personally only had my hands on a few Yairi models but was blown away when I tried them!

That is quite shocking, as they are very expensive guitars. How did that leave the builder in that state ? I think they are good guitars but would expect it to be absolutely perfect, checked by quality control several times before it left them and got delivered to the customer. My Lowden could not have been any more perfect, stunning build quality and perfectly set up.

@@DjNikGnashers The second one (PLEK'd) played better in the middle of the neck on up to the higher frets, but down low had unacceptable buzz on A and D strings. I can safely say these guitars have a high returnability factor. Both of them are going back. The same fret rocking issues were on the second one and again loosening the truss rod all the way was not enough to coax some relief in the fret plane. The final thing I thought about doing was trying a lighter gauge of strings but instead I just tuned down a half a step and that fixed the buzzing issues. The sound of this guitar is really good and I hate to send it back, but I would only be able to play it tuned down. That could be an advantage for someone that play's that way all the time. I like to play in various different tunings and open G or E would put more tension on the strings, so I had to return it. I really liked the feel of the neck on this guitar, so it's not all bad. I suppose you could get the setup work done on it to correct most of the issues. It could have just been a bad batch of serial numbers as well.

@@michaelkrailo5725 Thanks for the update. You could forgive one odd friday afternoon guitar slipping through, but the fact both have fret level issues does seem to indicate a common theme. It would put me off even considering one, no matter how good they sound. I'd think 'if they can't even get a basic thing such as level frets correct, what else have they not got correct' ?? Plenty of small luthier builders out there, which I'm sure will sound just as good if not better, and smaller builders usually take extra care to ensure everything is as perfect as it can be, as every sale counts.

@@DjNikGnashers I would say that the only other issue with these guitars are sharp fret ends. That's a minor thing though, and can easily be dressed up. I wish there were more local guitar shops in my area so I could just pull the one that plays good off the shelf and buy it, but it's slim pickins around here. They look beautiful, and the abalone is of higher quality along with the tone woods, and I really like the feel of the neck. If you get one without fret work issues, you will be very happy with it.

@@michaelkrailo5725 I have already found my perfect brand sir. My Lowden is everything I could ever wish for. Amazing balanced tone with overwhelming natural harmonics, which rings like bell. And the highest quality build I have ever seen.