About James Koontz Expertise Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, Amplifiers, Most anything Music related... Also most anything related to security, Fire and access control, as well as CCTV system.
Experience 20 years as a sound engineer, part time luthier, and general all around technical dude for many local bands. One of which was fairly large in the 80's and 90's with multiple recordings, and was the opening act for David Allen Coe, as well as got a nashville recording opportunity. The band disbanded before making it mainstream.
Organizations Loyal Order of the Moose, Boy Scouts,BMI
Publications Highlights for Children, Mystery Magazine,several online Publications, multiple cd's from various artists.
Education/Credentials I have 20 years experience, some electrical college experience. Studied Law, philosophy, and theology.
Awards and Honors well, too many to listm and none worth much more than a paperweight to hold down the ones that are on paper.
Expert: James Koontz Date: 7/17/2007 Subject: Alvarez guitar
Question QUESTION: John; I have an Alvarez model DY74C, I bought this new in either 1995 or 1996. There are 7 numbers stamped in the heel 0511 575. I thought I would be able to tell the year it was made but I am confused as to which numbers apply. Also do you have an appox. value for it?
Thanks
George
ANSWER: Well, with Alvarez, there isn't any real way to tell, The serial numbers don't actually mean a whole lot... Unless it's a Yaari line instrument... Which this would not be.. As for value, well, it's worth whatever someone would pay for it. There is not much info available on these instruments, and though they play nice, and look nice, and are sought after instruments, people dont really want to pay alot for them unlessthey are a Yaari, so, it's worth around $150 or so in decent shape... You can get Yaari's for around $300 right now... That doesn't mean they aren't great instruments..that's just the nature of the market... sit on it a while, and it should go up in value...
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: John
Actually this is a Yairi.
Answer wow.. that's strange... because the numbers you indicate, would date this to be a 2005 Yairi, The 05 is the emporer year, which would be 2005, anything in the early to mid nineties would be simply a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. The second two numbers are the month, so based on this number, it would be made in November of 2005.. The number is usually stamped in the neck block, That is what threw me off... This is verified threw the Alvarez website, http://www.alvarezgtr.com/technical.php
So that is strange... As far as value, well, anywhere between $300-$1000 depending on the day.. They are an inconsistent seller... Just watch Ebay on any given day.. You'll see some sell for $250 sometimes... Great for the buyer, bad for the seller... then you'll see one in not as good condition sell for $900 or more.. very strange... Anyway, That is odd, if it didn't have the 0 in the front of the number, it would make sense to me.. But this has me puzzled... It's gunna drive me nuts too... ;o)
