I have an early to mid 90s Alvarez 5022 herringbone professional. It sounds very nice for the money, seems to be built rather well and the finish and construction has held up very well. No warping of the top, no warping of the neck, no protruding fret ends. I have not been extremely kind to the guitar, I do take care of it but it is sometimes left in our cellar where it gets rather cold. Still, no cracks in the finish, no playability issues. It features a solid spruce top, and laminate Rosewood back and sides. It has a very comfortable mahogany neck with a fairly chunky V profile, an attractive rosewood capped headstockf with an abalone inlay. The Rosewood fretboard features small mother of pearl dots and a wing type abalone inlay design at the 12th fret. The guitar plays absolutely beautifully, and although it doesn't sound amazing, it does sound very nice. It has a nice string balance top to bottom and is very comfortable to play all the way up the neck. I believe it has a plastic nut and saddle,which I will eventually upgrade. I did however upgrade from the crappy diecast tuners to a nice set of Grovers.This made a wonderful difference not only in the tuning and stability, but it seemed to improve the tone slightly. I have used a few different brands of strings and although it sounded very nice with Elixir coated strings, I still prefer the old-fashioned Martin phosphor bronze. There are no electronics in this guitar, it is purely an acoustic guitar. It is a comfortable guitar to play and has held up very well. Sounds very nice, but it is not a Martin D 28, for the money, an excellent bargain. I give it four out of five stars because for the money it is a great value, if it did not have laminate back and sides it might "sing" a little better but the use of better materials would certainly increase the price.

I have an ALVAREZ HERRINGBONE PROFESSIONAL SERIES guitar that I bought in 1999. It sounds great, but in the wintertime when the hear comes on in my apartment, the neck warps back so that the strings touch the fingerboard, rendering it unplayable above the 7th fret. In the spring when the humidity goes back up, the neck warps back to normal. In the summer months, the guitar has an EXCELLENT sound and plays well. I paid $375 for it and I think I was ripped off.