I have an Alvarez that I have been playing for about 12 years bought it new for about $300 bucks. That guitar has been through late night beer fests, drunken stupers, fallen out of the back of a couple of trucks, been knocked over, passed around, and spilled on (just to mention a few things). It still sounds great!! I played it exclusively untill last year when I bought myself a Martin D16GTE. My Alvarez still sounds great and still gets played regularly. A great guitar for the price!