Alvarez?

How is the quality of Alvarez artist series ukes? Are they still in business? When I go to their website It doesn't seem to work.

alvarez uke

whistleman123 said:

How is the quality of Alvarez artist series ukes? Are they still in business? When I go to their website It doesn't seem to work.

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I have not seen their ukes but I have had many of the artist series guitars and all have been excellent build quality with outstanding tone and playability. You can find them online at musicians friend and at your local guitar center ( not my favorite place ). They seem to have a very reasonable price point. Good luck.

I don't know much about them, except that my niece bought one last summer, and it was a new one, not used. I played it once, and it played well .

One of the ukuleles I was first interested in was an Alvarez. The RU22C. I had played a few ukuleles and it was the beginner model that sounded best to me (at the time). The big concern I would have now...being far more educated, would be the setup of the ukulele. That isn’t to say that it won’t be setup well (talking string action and fret ends) but that it might not be setup well.

So...if you love it and aren’t bothered by the price, and it has either been setup by the dealer (unlikely in most Music stores), you are going to set it up yourself, or you are going to take it somewhere to be setup, go for it.

I haven't had a uke, but the the guitars are amazing quality at their price point. My guitar is superb in every way.

Any uke or guitar for that matter generally needs a proper setup if straight from the factory, only in that even on higher end instruments, enough room is left for it to be adjusted to many different player's preferences. The only brand I've owned that didn't need to be adjusted to my own preferences brand new is my Collings. It was perfect. For just under $2K I would expect it to be.

I had one a couple years ago, a baritone. They had some issues with cracked tops, and I exchanged a couple before I got one that was acceptable (I bought from Musicians Friend). It was a good player, honestly sounded great for a sub-$200 uke. My main complaint was it had a slotted bridge, which I find impractical, so I sold it.

Teek said:

Any uke or guitar for that matter generally needs a proper setup if straight from the factory, only in that even on higher end instruments, enough room is left for it to be adjusted to many different player's preferences. The only brand I've owned that didn't need to be adjusted to my own preferences brand new is my Collings. It was perfect. For just under $2K I would expect it to be.

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Learning to do a setup is not that tough and I actually enjoy the process; although I wouldn't consider dressing fret ends, as noted in another post, as normal instrument setup. Over the years I've picked up nut files and a hobby bench table saw and on occasion have made my own saddles and nuts. It is rewarding when playability and intonation gets dialed in.

John

A few months back I tried out an Alvarez soprano with a solid spruce top/mahogany back and sides at a local ma & pa music shop. I was quite surprised at the playability and tone for $129. Not sure if the shop had already done the setup, but one reason why i tried it is that it was a soprano with 17 frets, and I need at least up to the 15th fret on the A string for some songs now.

I dont recall the model # - RU26S maybe?, but I have too many ukes and need to sell a few in order to build up funds, and if I did not already have a Martin 0XK, I might have bought this one when I played it.

The one I tried, intonation was decent (not more than +5 cents after the 5th fret, all strings same), action was great, and fret ends were smooth, it had a punchy tone when strummed and great note clarity when played campanella and was plenty loud...

It had Aquila Nylguts or SuperNylguts on it, but I would have likely changed them out to Martin M620 (yes tenor strings in soprano, done many times with no issues) or Worth CM...

Booli said:

It had Aquila Nylguts or SuperNylguts on it, but I would have likely changed them out to Martin M620 (yes tenor strings in soprano, done many times with no issues) or Worth CM...

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I wouldn’t want to divert this thread, at least not by more than my question and one response, but I’d be glad to understand why M620’s rather than the usual M600’s please.