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If you do use heavier gauge strings, you might want to de-tune when putting away the guitar. I now de-tune my Alvarez guitars when I put them away for longer period storage even though I use 11's on them. And those who own them should probably stay away from heavy string gauges, i.e., not bigger than.12's on high 'E'. There may be no practical remedy (Search web for comments on it.). My 5056 has pretty high action on it, and these guitars are very bad candidates for neck resets, as the necks were glued with epoxy, not hide glue (which can be softened with heat).Īnyone who looks at buying a vintage Alvarez should bear this in mind if the action is high. And actually, due to the neck attachment issues, I gravitate towards the 80's vintage, as they have had less time to have their neck angle change from string tension. To me, that's the first indicator that a guitar might be post 1980'ish. You'll see a lot of people claiming that they have, or are selling, 70's vintage Alvarez guitars, but have sound-hole truss-rod setup. I have another Alvarez from 1981-2, that adjusts in the sound-hole. As you can see from the response from SLM, the headstock truss-rod adjustment was on the earliest Alvarez guitars. FWIW: I have the same guitar, and it is around the same vintage as yours, with a 4 digit serial number and the headstock truss-rod adjustment.
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I have heard of some poeple reffering to these as Yairi built guitars even though they don't carry the Yairi headstock logo. Don't know if they switched over to your style at a later date.
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Looks like yours adjusts from the head stock under the cover and mine is an allen adjustment through the sound hole. Interestingly I did notice your guitar has a different truss rod construction than mine. Mine has a tag identical to this one but the date 16 5 78 is stamped onto it and it also has the name of the person who inspected it stamed on it. Judging by the tag in the sound hole, headstock logo, and general construction of the guitar I would think it's definite made earler than '86. These are great guitars that can be bought very cheaply when you can find them. It was a gift from my mother who used it in a country band way back when. I too am getting ready to do some much needed TLC to mine as it has been my most loved acoustic for 20 years now. I know the model name due to an Alvarez advertisement clipping that depicts the model I have. Based on the similarities to yours I would date it around the same years, '77-'80. The tag is identical to yours as is the headstock logo inlay. Mine is a 5059 autumn heringbone model and there is actually a production date on the tag in the sound hole of 1978. I too have a similar Alvarez made in Japan, 4 digit model no. I'm starting to lose the binding on the neck (as you can see in the last shot) but I love it too much to replace it. The reason I got the urge to date it is because I have finally decided to restore it. Yes, there are screws missing, but it actually stays in tune. The double A as opposed to the AY logo shows it s definately an Alvarez and not a Yairi. This has been my number one kick back and play guitar for over 20 years. O.K., crappy pictures of a beautiful but well used guitar. I'm by no means an expert on Alvarez acoustics, but I hope that info offers at least some help. If Alvarez says mid-70's based on the serial number, that's probably the best you're going to get. I believe after 1985 or so their production moved to Korea (and later China for budget guitars). This site includes some good general info if you scroll down to the Alvarez section: Based on the type of label you have with the eagle, and the Made in Japan, I would have guessed your guitar was built in the late 70's or early 80's. But seriously, I think it's hard to definitively date Alvarez guitars from that era because the company itself doesn't have accurate records. Buy her a set of strings first, and maybe she will give you her number. According to D Hughes who ran the Yahoo Group for Yairi-Alvarez Yairi the “automated” dating site does not usually give the correct info when you input the numbers. There was an automated Alvarez-Yairi serial number decoder but link no longer working.