Alvarez Masterworks Series Dreadnought Acoustic-Electric Guitar - Solid AAA Sitka/Rosewood - Natural

The MD70e is a market-leading, all-solid Dreadnought designed with the flatpicker and powerful strummer in mind The MD60 has become one of Alvarez's best-selling guitars, and the Rosewood version takes power and clarity to a new level in the MD70e.

The MD70e’s response is instant, and its notes are clear and robust. The rosewood helps deliver sonorous bass frequencies complemented by shimmering trebles. When strumming, the FS6 bracing system and AAA Sitka top help deliver clarity and separation, and balance is clearly audible across all six strings.

These beautifully dressed guitars pay tribute to traditional Bluegrass instruments with open gear nickel tuners, classic inlays, premium tortoiseshell style pickguard and a flawless gloss finish. The projection and overall breadth of tonal reach of this guitar is outstanding, making it hard to put down for those players looking for a powerful open voicing and instant response. The MD70e is fitted with the LR Baggs HiFi system.

About the Alvarez Masterworks Series

Making a guitar from all-solid wood delivers strong tonal benefits, and Alvarez approaches the design of Masterworks to embrace all of them. Top thickness, brace weight and tapering, back design and wood choice all count, and when each is considered as a part of the sum total of the instrument’s voice, great articulation and quality of tone is achieved.

Alvarez's FS6 bracing system is a forward-shifted, scalloped X allowing for a slightly larger soundboard area around the bridge. This helps generate more vibration, which is heightened by AAA soundboards and premium components throughout, culminating in powerful voicing, inspiring articulation and instant response.

Masterworks acoustic-electric models are fitted with the LR Baggs HiFi system. HiFi is a premium, non-invasive design that pairs dual bridge plate sensors with high-fidelity electronics, providing exceptional balance, definition and dynamics. Due to the closed sensor design, HiFi also has excellent feedback resistance and its built-in, studio-quality preamp is voiced to compliment the pickups for an optimal plug-and-play experience.

All Masterworks ship with Alvarez's durable AFC30 Flexicase.

Alvarez's Approach to the Build

All of Alvarez's solid tops are selected by their team and graded independently of Alvarez's suppliers. If it isn’t worthy, it isn’t used. Alvarez's laminated backs and sides are uniquely constructed with Mahogany as their middle layer, and Alvarez's inner and outer layers are always matched.

Artist Elite guitars strike the right balance between strength and vibration, crafting a voice to both inspire and give players “tools in the tone.” Alongside this approach to development lies Alvarez's respect for sourcing, preparation and nurturing the wood they use to make they guitars. No matter how considered design may be, it can only be as good as the wood Alvarez uses to realize them.

Alvarez's all-solid wood tops, backs and sides, as well as the mahogany used for their necks, go through a curing process developed over years to create stability, strength and tonal benefits. Depending on the wood and its use, this process takes many months or even years for some of Alvarez's models.

After months-long seasoning, Alvarez performs an extra drying stage in thermo-kilns to further enhance wood stability and improve resonance. Alvarez calls this process ATR—Advanced Tonal Response. ATR™ is a form of torrefaction—oxygen controlled, vacuum curing at special temperatures to remove more moisture and volatiles such as saps and sugars from the wood.

This does two things:

• ATR™ makes Alvarez's wood more stable when exposed to adverse dry or humid climates. While Alvarez can’t stop the effects of dryness or moisture saturation that can damage guitars, ATR™ goes a long way in helping Alvarez's guitars become more resilient. Guitars will move or change according to the environment they are in and are more likely to move within the first two years from their production. A guitar usually becomes drier as it ages; this is one of the reasons why players often like the sound of an older guitar. ATR™ advances the natural, post-build drying process so the wood behaves as if it were more mature, stable, and resonant from the first day it is used.
• The effects of ATR™ are also audible in the instrument. The biggest difference is the clarity and separation between notes and the overall response of the guitar. As the top is drier, it’s also quicker, more resonant, more open, even louder. New guitars can sometimes take time to reach this state as the wood dries over the years. ATR accelerates this effect to deliver a more sophisticated and complex voicing from day one.

Alvarez's caring approach to development comes from one unwavering goal: To deliver the best guitars in the market at every price point—instruments of a truly remarkable value that offer an unparalleled player experience.

SPECIFICATIONS General

• Top Wood: Solid AAA Sitka Spruce
• Back and Sides Wood: Solid East Indian Rosewood
• Top Color: Natural/Gloss
• Back & Sides Color: Natural/Gloss
• Headstock Facia: East Indian Rosewood
• Bridge Pins: Ebony
• Shape: Dreadnought
• Neck: African Mahogany
• Case or Bag: AFC30
• Bracing: FS6
• Bridge: Bi-Level Indian Rosewood
• Inlays: Premium MOP
• Fingerboard: East Indian Rosewood
• Nut and Saddle: Bone
• Tuner: Premium Open Gear
• Strings: D’Addario XSAPB1253
• Neck Meets Body: 14th Fret
• Number of Frets: 21
• Pickup / EQ: LR Baggs HiFi

Dimensions

• Overall Length (mm): 1042
• Body Width (mm): 395
• Body Depth at Heel (mm): 100
• Body Depth at Base (mm): 122
• Scale (mm): 648
• Scale (inches): 25 1/2
• Nut Width (mm): 44.45
• Nut Width (inches): 1 3/4