I am a classically trained guitarist who plays all sorts of stuff and I've been in search for a cutaway guitar with a slimmer neck and possibly a truss rod which could serve me equally well both in studio as on a stage.
FEATURES
The guitar comes with a very nice padded and quite stylish gig-bag, with a lot of practical handles. It seems to be of a good quality, but I don't really know how durable it is in the long run because I only had the guitar for a short time. It also comes with a sponge-like feedback buster featuring the big Alhambra branding on the front and a truss rod key.
What I do find a bit ridiculous is that it doesn't come with strap buttons installed, not even one; unlike the guitar featured on the pics here, the input jack was moved to the lower side of the body (which is actually a good decision, in my opinion. Many classical players might want to play the guitar holding it in a classical way while plugged in, so with the input jack moved somewhat below, the cable won't come in the way, plus the jack won't become loose as the result of a constant tugging from the strap. Also, the battery compartment is on the outside, right next to the jack, so you won't need to go through all the trouble of changing the battery that's located inside of the body, as it seems it was the case with the earlier versions of this model (including the one featured on the pics here, at least in the moment of writing this review). They've made a good decision with moving the input jack, but they should've added at least one strap button at the bottom of the body (although, I really think that ''a crossover'' guitar, which will likely be played in standing position by many players, should come with both strap buttons installed. It's a small and a cheap job for the maker, but a great help to the players who deserve to have a stage-ready guitar right away, especially for this kind of money).
SOUND
I am very disappointed with the acoustic sound of this instrument; both the bass and the treble strings sound very muffled and lifeless, with not a particularly long sustain. There isn't anything inspiring in the sound and it doesn't really sound any better than some of the much much cheaper guitars I've tried. The strings reach the dynamic ceiling very fast and start to buzz, especially trebles in the higher registers; it's possible that some of that could be compensated by loosening the truss rod and sacrificing the action, but I didn't get the impression that the strings are too low. Also, maybe putting some better strings with higher tension would help; Alhambra web page mentions that they use extra high tension strings (D'Addario XTC 44 Extra Hard Tension) on their guitars, but I am not convinced that those strings are actually on this guitar, because they seem a bit soft for extra hard tension. If those strings really are on this guitar, then I don't think changing strings will make much difference.
I cannot really comment about how does it sound when plugged in, because I knew right away I will not keep it, so I haven't really tried it.
QUALITY
For the most part, the guitar seems to be neatly made, at least from the outside; I haven't really find anything worth of complaining when it comes to the wood and the finish (when looked inside the body, some sloppiness is evident though). I would prefer though if the neck wasn't glossy but more of a satin texture, but this is my personal preference, because I find that glossy necks can feel a bit sticky sometimes. The frets are nicely polished and rounded off at the edges. Tuning machines could be better though; some of them don't feel particularly smooth. Also, the intonation of the 1st string wasn't good, the note on the 12th fret was considerably flat when compared with the open 1st string.
CONCLUSION
This guitar looks good on paper, it features all-solid woods, but it falls terribly short, in my opinion, especially considering the price. For example, I've found Cordoba Fusion 12 Maple, which was about 777euros to be more convincing and pleasing acoustically (just the maple version though, cedar was actually comparable with this Alhambra), and it didn't really had to shy away when it comes to the build quality either.
Needless to say, I am not pleased with this guitar and I am sending it back.
