Alvarez MD5000 Brazilian Rosewood Guitar Demo @ House of Musical Traditions

House of Musical Traditions in Takoma Park, MD (just outside of Washington DC) is a dealer for Alvarez Guitars. Here we have Mark Sylvester, one of our teachers, demonstrating the MD5000 Brazilian Rosewood guitar. This model features an Englemann Spruce top, solid Brazilian Rosewood back & sides, ebony fingerboard & bridge, maple binding, abalone rosette and gold die-cast tuners. It is part of the Alvarez Masterworks series of guitars.

This guitar has been sold, and this model has been discontinued by Alvarez. For questions about the other guitars we carry, please contact HMT directly at hmtmail@hmtrad.com or 301-270-9090, or visit our website at www.hmtrad.com.

To find out more about Mark Sylvester, visit www.marksylvester.net. Inquiries on lessons with Mark (he teaches guitar, banjo, mandolin and bass) can be made to House of Musical Traditions.

On this video Mark is playing two original selections from his CD "Music For Solo Guitar." The first is called "American Gypsy Pt 2;" the second is "I'll Not Be Weary." Tab for these songs is available at www.marksylvester.net.

Video produced by Glenn Tucker with audio engineered by HMT's in-house engineer and pro audio repairman Trevor Higgins.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• alvarez
• acoustic
• guitar
• md5000
• brazilian
• rosewood
• yairi
• house
• musical
• traditions
• takoma
• park
• mark
• sylvester

[StandardMeasurement]

How much electronic enhancement are you using?... I was listening to the announcer's voice "This is a..".. and his voice sounded unaturally enhanced and I'm just trying to get an idea of the guitar's sound w/out effects.

[musicaltraditions]

@StandardMeasurement No effects were used in recording. Our aim was to capture the most natural sound of the guitar. We used a stereo pair of Neuman TLM103s through a tube preamp and with a DBX compressor set in stereo. The only change to the audio, in post, was the lossy compression that comes with video. The store owner (who does the announcements) does have a rather bassy voice, which is what you might be hearing.

[wilderness62]

Made in Japan has a new appreciation with Yari guitars. My MD95V 12 fret is excellent in all aspects. Great guitars are they!

[musicaltraditions]

This particular Alvarez is actually manufactured in China, not in the Yairi shop in Japan. The craftsmanship is quite comparable to Yairis though. The MD5000 is all solid wood whereas many of the Yairis have laminate back & sides.

[jetsonjoe]

I have an Alvarez from a couple of years ago one of the Artist Series, a beautiful thing to look at and a beautiful tone...a few instructors kind of said it will be difficult to do anything that sounds good on one of these ...that was until I started playing and he said...how are you doing that...and then he played and said...that it has an amazing sound...good tonal clarity...however the projection is not as strong as some other makes...but for the price it was and still is a beauty

[GameLevelEditor]

A local boutique guitar store owner kinda shrugged when I mentioned Alvarez although I believe its hit and miss across the whole line of instruments. I owned a md95 I believe with rosewood back n sides and a englemann spruce top that had the vine inlay. It sounded BIG and had nice overtones. Was pretty impressive at $600 compared to various martins, taylors etc in the showroom. Once in a while you find a musical instrument if you listen good and A B them with someone else.

[andreipetunin]

Great sound - love it!

[patrickchong2002]

Its hard to say a guitar was completely made in Japan, I had a field trip in a Famous OEM guitar factory in China and found a full range of Headway guitar there, also 6-8 model of Parker acoustic guitar, its hard to tell but they were good sounding guitar.

[haselock1963]

i have had a look at most of your vids and can only say thank you ,,,i have a better understanding of the different tone woods and makers,,,,i did think all alvarez guitars were made in japan not china but the guitar does sound fantastic,thanks again,,,a yairi owner,,

[StandardMeasurement]

@StandardMeasurement Ok.. I appreciate the response.. You guys have put quite a few guitars on tonal display w/your demonstration videos here and that effort is noble and appreciated. The whole effort can be nullified if effects are used..so thanks for listing your recording equipment.

[razpaul]

how refreshing to hear someone demo a guitar who can really play it. Great stuff!

[treatb09]

wow.....