Alvarez ABT610E Baritone Acoustic-Electric Guitar Shadow Burst

The overall quality of construction on my Alvarez ABT610EBK is excellent. I love playing on a big sounding all black jumbo size guitar. According to the Alvarez serial number, this bass was built in October 2021, but Guitar Center San Francisco had it for sale as brand new on clearance in March 2024. (thank you Sean MF for the great price!) Everything on the guitar is out-of-the-box-new, so it must have been "in the vault" for a while. The big concern with an acoustic baritone guitar is intonation on a 27-3/4" scale neck. This guitar was very well set up from the factory and didn't require much fussing around from me. Since the factory strings were probably 2-1/2 years old, I put a new set of Stringjoy Naturals Baritone Light Gauge .015-.070 Phosphor Bronze strings on it. The purely acoustic tone is wonderful and the big deep chords this baritone produces are very satisfying. The one drawback on this guitar is the factory Alvarez UST undersaddle pickup and 1-Band EQ running through the Alvarez SYS100 endpin premap. It's a bit distorted and is just not very good sounding. If I want to record with this guitar, I'll use a Rode NT4 stereo condenser mic to capture the full acoustic baritone experience.

The overall quality of construction on my Alvarez ABT610EBK is excellent. I love playing on a big sounding all black jumbo size guitar. According to the Alvarez serial number, this bass was built in October 2021, but Guitar Center San Francisco had it for sale as brand new on clearance in March 2024. (thank you Sean MF for the great price!) Everything on the guitar is out-of-the-box-new, so it must have been "in the vault" for a while. The big concern with an acoustic baritone guitar is intonation on a 27-3/4" scale neck. This guitar was very well set up from the factory and didn't require much fussing around from me. Since the factory strings were probably 2-1/2 years old, I put a new set of Stringjoy Naturals Baritone Light Gauge .015-.070 Phosphor Bronze strings on it. The purely acoustic tone is wonderful and the big deep chords this baritone produces are very satisfying. The one drawback on this guitar is the factory Alvarez UST undersaddle pickup and 1-Band EQ running through the Alvarez SYS100 endpin premap. It's a bit distorted and is just not very good sounding. If I want to record with this guitar, I'll use a Rode NT4 stereo condenser mic to capture the full acoustic baritone experience. All that said, I 100% love this Alvarez ABT610EBK.

Nice, rich, deep tones. Decent setup for a new guitar. Fit and finish were all very good. Electronics are very good for this price point. First baritone for me. It is more than I expected. #sweepstakes

The first guitar that came had been treated roughly in very delayed shipping and had much of the amplifier electronics dislodged. After considering that and a significant buzz, particularly on the D string, the good assistant at the Boise store arranged to send the guitar back for a replacement, which came promptly. Except for several frets which had to be better seated and/or trimmed down to eliminate some string buzz, the guitar is well built; a few frets needed some minor filing of their edges to keep from snagging fingers. With or without amplification the sound is refreshingly powerful, especially on the low strings; I particularly like a little (or a lot) of tremolo when running through an amp. The treble register is a bit metallic, but that gets fixed easily enough with simple equalization. The pickup, though very elementary, is adequate for producing good audio for most any venue. As compared to a standard guitar, the larger baritone instrument requires a bit of deliberate attention when performing, but it is not at all difficult. My rating of 3 is relative to the several other fine guitars which I own and play.

I ordered one with the deal of the day, not sure what to expect. All the electronics where banging around and loose, so before I even played it, I was going to return it. The electronics are just tapped to the inside and that is just cheesy cheap, but before I returned it. I had to try it out. I was surprised with the rich tones, nice action, easy playability and overall great sound. The finish, fretboard and overall construction is really quite nice. I'm not really into the burst finish, looks a little cheap, but overall not bad. I returned it and they asked if I wanted a new one and I said, pass cuz I'm definitely investing into a really nice baritone after playing this one. That sound is pretty awesome and definitely makes things musically interesting.

Useful folk-style guitar that can also serve as bass. Lower-pitched harmonics sound quite rich. Not as hard to play as I feared. Think of it as a complementary instrument, not a mainstay.