Alvarez Guitars
I prefers to play Alvarez guitars. His first acoustic he bough when he was 15 was the AJ60SC.
About 15 years later I got a new guitar. After trying out so many other guitars I came back to Alvarez and bought the AG75CE.
After gigging more frequently, i thought it would help having another guitar similar to the AG75ce, and the AG70CEAR recently came out.
I prefer to use Elixir strings, and the electronics are from LR Baggs and K&K.
AJ60SC
The AJ60SC was a jumbo body, solid spruce top, maple back and sides (laminate).
When i was in highschool, i fell in love with this jumbo body at my local guitar shop. I saved up every penny from my part time job, paycheck after paycheck. I went back to the shop and the guitar had already sold. Thankfully I had written down the model information, and had them order it. When I got the call that it had arrived, I strapped up my rollerblades (only means of transportation) and rushed over. I carried it all the way back home. Since then, I took it everywhere, that guitar never left my side.
Years i played that thing, beat on it, day in-day out. That is the guitar that started this all; this whole looping adventure. From open mic nights, to being asked to be an opening act, to playing numerous gigs now.
AG75CE
The AG75CE has a solid cedar top, rosewood back and sides (laminate). The body shape is called a Grand Auditorium. It fits even more comfortable in my lap.
I spent 15 years pounding on that jumbo body, and it was great. But I was always running into issues with feedback. I know plenty of factors play a roll in that, and I’m still a novice when it comes to all these things. I thought what might help was using a different body shape, something not as robust. I searched around for a couple years, trying out different guitars. I didn’t want to break the bank, and was trying so many brands. It was funny to me, that so many big name brands weren’t as comfortable in my hand as my Alvarez. I admit there were a couple brands that I did like, and would still love to get, but then when I plugged them in they weren’t reacting the way I wanted when i got percussive, stomped on effects, and started looping. Traveling around to different shops, trying out guitars. I ran into a row of Alvarez guitars. I honestly hadn’t seen Alvarez’s around shops. Picked one up, and it felt exactly like my old one. I plugged it it, and it was wonderful. The B-band electronics on it were so responsive.
Took another year to finally pull the trigger on that guitar, by this time they had swapped over to LR Baggs, which sounded beautiful, but didn’t give me that percussive thump i was hoping for. I started pounding and thumping harder, and shortly after cracked the soundboard. Which brought me to my local guitar shop for repairs, and also started the hunt for adding something to help with precussion.
The guitar tech found another LR Baggs model that would easily swap out, so no major modifications would be needed. He swapped out the '“Stage-Pro Element” with the “Stage-Pro Anthem.”
The Anthem was a microphone placed inside, under the bridge plate. And then you could blend between the Element under the saddle, and the Anthem inside. The sound was so much more full, and it helped with percussion.
Self modifications
The LR Baggs system was wonderful, and the guitar tech even offered to split the signals, but i loved the sound of them together. I wanted something else to have a separate percussion signal.
I found the K&K Pure Mini: 3-head transducer for steel string acoustic guitar.
But instead of using it the proper way, I placed each transducer head in “hot spots” where I hit during percussion loops.
Talk about tension, drilling a half inch hole into my guitar.
You may ask about the “X,” it was to let me know where the crack was (at first), but then i use it as a marker to know where I’m hitting.
I also had the idea to take clear pickguard material and lay it out over where the crack was, to help reinforce the strength. And then that expanded to adding it in areas where I hit. The top was almost one complete pickguard. I even had to repair a couple cracks myself.
It was beginning to turn into a little bit of a Frankenstein guitar. But it did exactly what I needed it to do. I love this guitar.
A couple of setup shots from gigs. Everything was evolving, guitars, pedalboard, sound system. Yes, i used to use my amplifier as my speaker, and yes it was not ideal.
Putting on miles
This guitar became my workhorse. From writing to playing gigs. My whole pedalboard evolved around this guitar. My old Alvarez would come along as a backup, or alternate tunings.
While putting on miles, I was also bringing the guitar back and forth to the guitar shop for repairs. I would easily get lost in the music, and put the guitar through all the emotions.
The old guitar isn’t setup the way the newer guitar is, so it couldn’t really fill in while the new guitar was being repaired. This got me thinking towards another guitar. I had seen that Alvarez had just came out with a new lineup, and one of them really caught my eye.
The night the newest guitar showed up.
AG70CEAR
This new model was gorgeous, solid Spruce top, Rosewood back and sides (laminate), the same Grand Auditorium shape, but an amazing curly maple binding that expands to an armrest bevel.
Other than the spruce top, everything else was the same. I wasn’t sure how much the top would play a roll, but now I use it as an advantage. Even though acoustically they were similar, electronically they weren’t.
This meant i had to go through all the same upgrades as the other one.
Upgraded the LR Baggs Element to the Anthem. Added K&K Pure Mini for percussion. And also covered the entire soundboard with pickguard material.
