Alvarez AD65CE Archtop P90

Alvarez AD65CE
What an interesting guitar this one is! At first glance this looks like a round-shouldered (or gypsy-jazz?) version of an early Gibson ES-175... especially with the P-90 pickup located at the neck/mid position. Once you have it in your hands, though, you notice the big differences. These include a bridge loaded with an acoustic-style piezo pickup, a long 25.5" Fender-style scale length, and a fretboard extension that's quite raised (in the style of a modern "jazz" hollowbody archtop) and fretted right up to the pickup (22 frets).

The full-hollow 16" wide body is laminate all-over with spruce on the top and maple for the back and sides. It has decent acoustic volume because of its construction and feels roughly comparable to old Gibsons as far as how it sits in the lap.

It's an interestingly arranged axe, with the electric/piezo pickup combination (perhaps going after that "clean jazz" or "Taylor T5" market?)... but has a nice feel and build quality that's surprisingly-excellent.

I love P-90s on "jazzboxes." So, so much more lively than your average humbucker-equipped model. This has two volume controls (one for each pickup) and a tone knob. Sending the signal to a single amp sounds great when using a clean, full, hifi tone.

I have owned several Alvarez guitars and I think they make a really great neck.

I found a Youtube video of a guy playing one of these. I believe he has it set up with flat wounds...which is what mine currently has. I have had it set up with a variety of string types and the P90 works great with all of them.



All my friends are advising to not sell this, but my attentions have recently turned back towards pure acoustic guitars. Unfortunately I need to sell this in order to finance my next move. Plus...my better half insists more than 10 guitars is too many. She's probably right.

Comes with the original hard case.