1976 Alvarez "Bicentennial" Info?
 

Hey all,

I picked this guitar up from a local Craigslist ad. Wondering if anyone could give me some more info, especially in the area of "how much is it worth?". I emailed Alvarez, but not sure how much help they'll be, so I thought someone here might have some info. Curious about woods used too. Fingerboard and saddle look like ebony, not sure though. Thanks.

Pics here.

You should get a reply from Tom Kruszka. He's been w/ Alvarez/St. Louis Music forever and is a walking wiki on the company, their guitars, etc. If not, email him directly at the following:

[email protected]

Good luck!

Bruce

Beautiful guitar, by the way!!!

It's Alveraz 5039 limited only 800....

check this site out..
guitar looks great!!..I love 70's japanese guitars..(had 3 of them..)~

http://www.guitarsite.com/database/G...sages/58.shtml

Thanks. Tom got back to me right away this morning and informed me that the woods are a combination of spruce (top), and rosewood/jacaranda (back and sides), and are most likely laminates. Never heard of jacaranda, had to look it up.

cool. i've traded emails a couple of times w/ tom and he's always been helpful.

it's still a good looking guitar, even if the back/sides are lam. one of my alverez's has lam rosewood back/sides and it's got great, warm tone. i love it.

if you ever get bored with it, let me know :)

b.

Yeah, it sounds pretty nice. The only thing is that the action is a bit high past the 5th fret or so. I think the saddle needs to be taken down some. I also tried adjusting the truss rod, but it seems to only want to loosen (and it doesn't have nearly any tension on it at the moment). If I go the other way it just gets REALLY hard to turn. So much so that my allen wrench just wants to bend. Not sure what's up with that. Can the truss rod be taken out and lubed, or is there something else I'm missing?

So, it might have been tightened enough through the years that it's as tight as it will go. I'd take it to a tech and let them look at it to see what can be done. Forcing a truss rod to go past its limitations can only lead to bad things happening; meaning perhaps more expensive repairs should something go wrong.

If it's as tight as it will go, like you said, lowering the saddle might be the best and cheapest solution and give you years of playability without having to do anything w/ the truss rod. While you're at it, might as well have them replace the saddle with tusq, bone, etc. as I'm sure the original, if it's still the original, was plastic.

I had a robbery and my Alvarez Model 5039 Bicentennial Model 008 / 800 is missing.
REWARD for recovery.