All-Solid Wood, Cutaway Access, and LR Baggs Electronics — a Lot to Love
There's a certain kind of guitar that checks every box without feeling like a compromise anywhere. The Alvarez MG60CE Masterworks is that guitar. It's all-solid — top, back, and sides — with an AAA Sitka spruce top and African mahogany back and sides built into a cutaway Grand Auditorium body. That combination gives you an open, balanced voice whether you're playing fingerstyle at home or plugged in at a gig.
The Shadowburst finish is subtle and sophisticated: a dark gradient that fades toward the center of the top, letting the grain of that solid Sitka do the talking. Clean lines, minimal decoration, and a gloss finish that highlights the natural beauty of the wood. It's the kind of guitar that looks serious without trying too hard.
The Masterworks series represents Alvarez's approach to all-solid construction at a real-world price point — guitars designed with the same attention to wood selection, bracing geometry, and hardware quality you'd expect from boutique builders. If you want an acoustic-electric that you can take from the living room to the stage without a second thought, the MG60CE is worth a long look.
Solid Tonewoods That Work Together
The AAA-grade solid Sitka spruce top brings clarity, articulation, and a wide dynamic range — it responds just as well to a gentle fingerpicking touch as it does to an aggressive strumming attack. Sitka is the workhorse tonewood for a reason: it's responsive, resonant, and gets better with age. Pairing it with solid African mahogany back and sides adds warmth and focus to the midrange, keeping the sound full and grounded without muddiness.
Alvarez uses their FS6 bracing system on the MG60CE — a forward-shifted, scalloped X-brace design. Moving the brace axis closer to the soundhole creates a larger vibrating area around the bridge, which translates to more energy transferred from the strings to the top. The result is a guitar that feels lively and responsive, with strong projection even at lower playing volumes.
The Grand Auditorium body shape sits between a dreadnought and an OM in feel and sound. It's comfortable to play seated, has a narrower waist that sits naturally against your body, and emphasizes the treble and mid frequencies slightly more than a dreadnought would — making it a favorite for players who want versatility across fingerpicking, flatpicking, and light strumming styles.
Hardware and Playability Details
The neck is African mahogany with a hybrid soft "V" to "C" profile — a shape that's comfortable in open-chord territory near the nut and transitions to a rounder feel as you move up the neck. The 25 1/2" scale length keeps string tension feeling familiar for most players, and the 1 3/4" nut width gives you enough spacing for clean fingerpicking without feeling wide. The East Indian rosewood fingerboard has 21 frets, with the neck joining the body at the 14th.
Hardware throughout is carefully specified: a real bone nut and saddle (which improves string resonance compared to synthetic materials), ebony bridge pins, a bi-level Indian rosewood bridge, and premium mother-of-pearl inlays on the headstock and fingerboard. The cutaway gives you full access to the upper frets — a meaningful advantage if you're playing lead lines or chord inversions up the neck. Vintage-style Alvarez open-gear tuners with a 20:1 gear ratio offer smooth, precise tuning stability.
LR Baggs HiFi Pickup System
The MG60CE is equipped with the LR Baggs HiFi system, one of the more refined acoustic pickup solutions available at this price point. The HiFi uses a pair of bridge plate sensors paired with a discrete endpin jack and onboard volume and tone controls. The design is intentionally non-invasive — it captures the natural acoustic vibration of the guitar rather than coloring the signal in ways that can make amplified acoustics sound processed or unnatural.
The system is known for its reliability and battery efficiency, running 700+ hours on a single 9V battery. Whether you're running directly into a PA, plugging into an acoustic amp, or going through a DI at a recording session, the HiFi gives you a clean, natural signal to work with.
Product Features:
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Top: Solid AAA Sitka Spruce with Shadowburst/Gloss finish
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Back & Sides: Solid African Mahogany
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Body Shape: Grand Auditorium with cutaway
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Bracing: FS6 forward-shifted, scalloped X-brace system
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Neck: African Mahogany with hybrid soft "V" to "C" profile
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Fingerboard: East Indian Rosewood, 21 frets, joins at 14th fret
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Scale Length: 25 1/2" | Nut Width: 1 3/4"
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Nut & Saddle: Real bone; ebony bridge pins
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Bridge: Bi-level Indian Rosewood
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Tuners: Vintage-style Alvarez Premium Open Gear, 20:1 ratio
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Electronics: LR Baggs HiFi pickup system with dual bridge plate sensors, volume and tone controls
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Inlays: Premium mother-of-pearl
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Finish: Shadowburst Gloss
Brand: Alvarez
Model: MG60CE Shadowburst
SKU: MG60CE SHADOWBURST
Condition: New
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