RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 I don't want to go crazy on the price simply because it's something I won't use as often as my other acoustics - that's the reason for the under $500 caveat. Would appreciate any suggestions you might have as I begin my search for the perfect parlor songwriting tool. Thanks in advance for your time. :) There's a couple I'm looking at so far & I will come back shortly with pictures & details. This one for example: The Alvarez Artist Series AP70 Parlor Guitar is one of the most popular models in the whole Alvarez line. It has fantastic energy and response for its size and is incredibly comfortable to play. Center-scalloped bracing was used for this parlor, which lets the top really react to the finest of touches. This probably might make you play this small-bodied guitar differently to how you would larger instruments, which leads to all sorts of great stuff. The AP70 is a member of the Artist Series 70s, which are stunning guitars made from hand-selected A-grade Sitka solid tops with rosewood backs and sides. The high gloss finish really brings out the beauty and grain in the rosewood and like all Artist Series they have advanced scalloped bracing and all natural components. Just like Artist 60 models the 70s have incredible tone and the rosewood helps to accentuate the highs and lows just a tad more. Each model is designed to get the best out if its components, and for them to work together to produce a tone and player experience, rarely found in affordable instruments. The sound is warm, open and powerful, and both the treble and bass registers are clearly present and balanced in relation to each other. These guitars feel right and are exciting to play and responsive. The solid A-grade Sitka spruce tops are hand selected from quartersawn wood. This ensures consistent quality, and its no secret better guitars are made from better wood. These tops not only look great but they are stiff and strong and finely grained. This allows them to be cut just that tiny bit thinner, which lets them dance a little more and produce a lot more vibration, and ultimately a richer tone. New Artist Series guitars look stunning and all of their components are made of natural materials such as mother of pearl and abalone inlays, real bone saddles and nuts and rosewood appointments. Case sold separately. And this one: The ‘66 models are beautifully finished and have a deep glass-like shine. The vintage sunburst on mahogany brings out the grain to create a warm look to match its tone. These mahogany top guitars have a focused sound with strong mids, great for recording and live work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 A budget one that gets a few good reviews is the Gretsch Jim Dandy - probably get 2 or maybe 3 used for $500: BluesKing777. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 A budget one that gets a few good reviews is the Gretsch Jim Dandy - probably get 2 or maybe 3 used for $500: BluesKing777. Thank you for your suggestion! I know sitka spruce, I know rosewood & I know mahogany but I do not know "Agathis" wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 The above Alvarez guitars I referenced are on sale today via Musicians Friend - 15% off for Memorial Day discount. The AP70 spruce/rosewood would be $288, the AP66 mahogany one would cost me $305. Neither comes with a case but I don't plan on taking it anywhere - just a grab & go for the living room or out on the deck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 The above Alvarez guitars I referenced are on sale today via Musicians Friend - 15% off for Memorial Day discount. The AP70 spruce/rosewood would be $288, the AP66 mahogany one would cost me $305. Neither comes with a case but I don't plan on taking it anywhere - just a grab & go for the living room or out on the deck. Amazingly cheap. I hope they sound as good as they look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarrr Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 You might look for a used Eastman, worth every penny: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Eastman-E10P-Parlor-Used-/251964873005?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aaa46d92d Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayyj Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 The Godin family of brands (Seagull, A&L, Simon & Patrick etc) make some great cheaper parlours. The Seagull Grand is a particularly nice guitar. On a more Gibson theme, Hohner do a great little L1 copy and a nice L00. The Loar L00 types look pretty good as well although I've yet to play one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretplay Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 I had a Tanglewood TW73 Cedar top. Very nice guitar, comfortable to play with a good sound. I paid £275 for it and sold it for the same five years later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 I had an Art & Lutherie Ami and it was nicely made, with a nice neck but was a little dead sounding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Would appreciate any suggestions you might have as I begin my search for the perfect parlor songwriting tool. Parlor size is apparently not real well defined. Some say they have to be 12-fret guitars. Others aren't so restrictive and take the category up to OM or 000 size. You could probably find a used all solid wood Epiphone Masterbilt EF500 for under $500 (OM size). Those Alvarezes are 12-frets with solid tops and lam b/s. I'd add to the mix for your consideration an Epiphone EL-00 Pro. 14 fret, solid top, lam b/s, short scale, with electronics, nice burst, 300 bucks brand new! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 Parlor size is apparently not real well defined. Some say they have to be 12-fret guitars. Others aren't so restrictive and take the category up to OM or 000 size. You could probably find a used all solid wood Epiphone Masterbilt EF500 for under $500 (OM size). Those Alvarezes are 12-frets with solid tops and lam b/s. I'd add to the mix for your consideration an Epiphone EL-00 Pro. 14 fret, solid top, lam b/s, short scale, with electronics, nice burst, 300 bucks brand new! Never heard of that one! The video sounds wonderful too. This would only be $254 with the Memorial Day discount from Musicians Friend (looks like they've extended the sale). Hmmmmm very interesting & I like that it's acoustic electric too. Hmmm thanks for posting this one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 I had a Tanglewood TW73 Cedar top. Very nice guitar, comfortable to play with a good sound. I paid £275 for it and sold it for the same five years later. Nice looking guitar but at $703 for an "open box" one at Musicians Friend puts this out of my price range.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 The Godin family of brands (Seagull, A&L, Simon & Patrick etc) make some great cheaper parlours. The Seagull Grand is a particularly nice guitar. On a more Gibson theme, Hohner do a great little L1 copy and a nice L00. The Loar L00 types look pretty good as well although I've yet to play one. Hmmm that Seagull Grand has a select pressure tested solid cedar top with Wild cherry back and sides - that's certainly different & interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 You might look for a used Eastman, worth every penny: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Eastman-E10P-Parlor-Used-/251964873005?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aaa46d92d Looks very nice but even at used prices it appears to exceed my price ceiling.. thanks for the suggestion though :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 I had an Art & Lutherie Ami and it was nicely made, with a nice neck but was a little dead sounding. Um.. would prefer something that isn't "a little dead sounding".. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gov Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 had the same search as you...i would play these or make sure you can return easily. many i tried were in fact dead sounding. i looked at recording king, epiphone, eastman & larivee. Hard to say what you are looking for via an internet thread, but methinks you might need to look around. I stumbled upon a used washburn 125th anniversary edition parlor that was $495 all in with the case. It's one of my favorite guitars and always brings a smile to my face. The $15-$400 new guitars did nothing for me--I hope your luck will be different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobouz Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Never heard of that one! The video sounds wonderful too. This would only be $254 with the Memorial Day discount from Musicians Friend (looks like they've extended the sale). Hmmmmm very interesting & I like that it's acoustic electric too. Hmmm thanks for posting this one! I picked up an EL-00 Pro last year. A-Bed three of them, and one was really sweet. If you find a good one, it's a best buy for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 had the same search as you...i would play these or make sure you can return easily. many i tried were in fact dead sounding. i looked at recording king, epiphone, eastman & larivee. Hard to say what you are looking for via an internet thread, but methinks you might need to look around. I stumbled upon a used washburn 125th anniversary edition parlor that was $495 all in with the case. It's one of my favorite guitars and always brings a smile to my face. The $15-$400 new guitars did nothing for me--I hope your luck will be different. Thank you! I hear what you're saying and yeah - if I can't try one out locally I will definitely make an online purchase that has an easy return policy because you really don't know until you get it in your hands & try it out for yourself. I've had very little exposure to parlor sized guitars and thus that's the reason for posting this thread here to get suggestions as to what has worked for others to broaden the horizon of my search. Just trying to whittle it down to a few especially since I'm finding out there's many more of these smaller guitars out there than I realized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 Here's one I did play locally last week that was surprisingly good - especially given how cheap they are ($219 new, down to $197 if I buy through Musicians Friend) - the local guy is asking $249 + 6% sales tax. This would be my very first "classical" type acoustic guitar purchase & would, knowing me, eventually lead to a much more expensive classical type guitar down the road. My notion of "classical" guitars was born out of some really crappy ones I tried out in my youth & I never understood back then why anyone would want any guitar with (gasp) nylon strings on it lol.. funny how maturing and playing a much wider variety of music as we get older (not to mention the wide selection of acoustic guitars available these days versus 40+ years ago) changes your way of thinking. :) It felt really good to play and sounded good too. The Alvarez RC-26: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars68 Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 The Little Martin is an excellent late night, couch guitar, and it is virtually indestructible. Great for travel too. Lars http://www.ebay.com/itm/Martin-LXM-Little-Martin-Acoustic-Guitar-Set-Up-In-My-Shop-For-Easy-Play-Case-/201284724583?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2edd812767 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars68 Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 By the way, one of the rare 1930's Gibson L-00s in the 3/4 size would be my dream parlor guitar. http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/98659-my-early-30s-l-00-34/ Lars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 The Little Martin is an excellent late night, couch guitar, and it is virtually indestructible. Great for travel too. Lars http://www.ebay.com/itm/Martin-LXM-Little-Martin-Acoustic-Guitar-Set-Up-In-My-Shop-For-Easy-Play-Case-/201284724583?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2edd812767 Whoa! I'm ready to jump on that right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevDavidLee Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 By the way, one of the rare 1930's Gibson L-00s in the 3/4 size would be my dream parlor guitar. http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/98659-my-early-30s-l-00-34/ Lars Oh jeez - who wouldn't love that!!!! A bit over my price point however. No wait - A LOT over my price point - but gorgeous & well worth the coin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clayville Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Not a traditional parlor shape, but the small and portable Taylor GS-mini sounds outstanding to me for contemporary guitars in this general size/price. They're deeper than many this size and the back is dished a bit, both of which seem to add to volume. Comfy as all get out, surprisingly loud and clear. The mahogany version has a warm earthiness that leans a little more "Gibson" sounding to me than the ones with brighter wood tops. Sure, they have veneer backs/sides... but definitely let your ears do the shopping on this mission. https://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/gs-mini-mahogany-top Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurfbird Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 If deciding on a Little Martin (with the electronics), give Bill at Imperial Guitar in New Paltz, NY a call. He has my used one for sale around $200. PM me if you have trouble googling the #. I only got rid of it because I decided I liked a full-body Washburn with electronics instead for quick recordings. As for Parlor size, I have it covered with Gibsons LG-0, LG-1, LG-3. The Gibson LG-0 is only slightly out of your price range. I found mine for around $600 with case -- on Reverb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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