Altamira M20

Pros: Overall a quality guitar, neck, tuners, projection

Cons: slight buzzing

I bought my M20 in October 2016. It's been quite the experience with it so far. I've had good and some bad. Let's start with the bad. After owning the guitar for a couple months it cracked. I don't blame anyone but myself for this accident. I think it is because it went from a humid Seattle fall to a blistering cold Wisconsin winter and I wasn't prepared for the humidity and temperature difference. I wouldn't blame Djangobooks or Altamira for this but it was certainly off-putting having a $1,200 guitar crack after only a few months. I took measures to humidify and fix the crack and its been fine since. The crack was right under the neck above the cutaway, which I've heard is very common for this type of guitar. Next bad, when I restrung the guitar the first time the bottom string didn't fit in the tailpiece whole. What happened was the thread on the bottom of the string was getting caught and not sliding through the tailpiece. The rest of the strings were fine so I think it was a fluke on the one string. I did learn that I will always buy loop ends. The last issue and probably biggest one I've had is slight buzzing from certain strings. Keep in mind, this is not a constant buzz. I'm waiting to see that eventually changes but so far it hasn't. This is something I'm able to look past and it only bugs me when I notice it. I'm sure if I look into it I could get this fixed. Those are the only reasons I gave it a 4 on quality. Those may never be issues again though besides the slight buzz. Other than that, the guitar has been wonderful! The tuners hold tune and I probably retune it once a week. All of the hardware seems to be high quality. The wood work is absolutely beautiful! Before buying a gypsy guitar, the neck was an issue for me because I had heard gypsy guitar necks are different than other guitars(ex: Paris Swings are flat and thick necks compared to your Taylors and Martins) but I can promise that this neck is very similar to a regular 6 string acoustic besides that the nut width is slightly wider and the action is slightly higher. Both of those are common on these guitars but it is still very easy and enjoyable to play! This guitar definitely has that gypsy guitar projection. I've played other guitars like this that don't project near as much as this one. Bottom line, the guitar is a blast, great quality, and Michael was so helpful about picking the guitar, strings, picks, etc. My last words of wisdom. I've been playing for roughly 10 years. If you're a guitarist and have debated between guitars before you may know spending that extra couple hundred dollars can be worth it long term. I was in that position and decided to spend more for a better guitar and I am very happy that I did that with the M20. If you are in that position, this very well could be the guitar you're looking for!

Submitted by: Matt on 02/22/2017 03:31:11 PM