Alvarez is a guitar manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri and founded in 1965. Along with manufacturing acoustic guitars and acoustic-electric guitars, Alvarez also manufactures classical guitars. Originally Alvarez guitars were known by the brand name Westone, but was switched to Alvarez. From 2005 to 2009, the brand was owned by LOUD Technologies, which also owns Mackie, Ampeg, Crate and other music-related brands. In 2009, Mark Ragin brought the management and distribution of the guitars back to St. Louis Music. As early as 2011, SLM senior vice president Chris Meikle has acted as Alvarez head of development, overseeing the redesign of Artist Series and other models and rolling out new instrument lines such as the 2014 Masterworks Series and the Alvarez 50th anniversary 1965 Series.