Alvarez Yairi – The Forgotten Ovangkol Models!

Recently we’ve been lucky to get our hands on some top shelf Alvarez Yairi acoustic guitar samples. Most were your basic widely available models, and when I say basic, I mean that the new Yairi acoustics are some of the best you can buy for the money, with a very rich history to back them up!

But we also stumbled across 2 that were sent to us with some strange model numbers. The LOK7OVA, and the YWK7OVA. A Google search was almost entirely fruitless, but we did discover that these were foreign market exclusives (sold in 2011), never sold in the US, and not sold in large quantities anywhere. But really, its a wonder why because they are very special guitars!

What we have here is a one-two punch of beautiful ovankgol wood guitars! The LOK7OVA has “mini dreadnought” dimensions, and the YWK7OVA is a full size dreadnought. They featured nicely tinted solid Sitka spruce tops, and solid ovangkol back and sides. The satin finish lets the solid woods breathe and creates a nice looking “pore” on the ovangkol. Both guitars also feature a bone nut and saddle, Gotoh tuners, mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard, and a rosewood bridge.

And what’s that? Is that a wood pickguard!? Yep, they even have ovangkol pickguards! You may know that Taylor started using rosewood pickguards in 2014. I wonder where they got the idea from? Even if I’m being slightly facetious, a wooden pickguard is a beautiful, classy touch that we’ve come to expect from a Yairi build.

Check out the pictures and videos of our friend Michael Neverisky playing them! You can own either for $999!