Parlor vs. Baby guitar?

I like rosewood or mahogany in a parlor - maple is nice but tricky, and you might end up with less of a warm depth to the bass - though I love maple also.
Larrivée makes wonderful guitars. My best is a Larri (full dreadnaught size)

If you think Seagull, look at their "Grand". It's a parlor size, with a solid top.
Some economical all solid parlor sized instruments can be found among the imports such as Recording King.
 
I've had several Larrivee parlors and liked them but was never very wow'd by them. They efinitely do not sound like a full size guitar, lacking the bass response. Of the little Larrivee's I've had, the rosewood gave the fullest and roundest tone by far. The Larrivee Parlor has a scale of around 24", as I recall.

Then I found the Carbon Acoustics Cargo guitar - 3/4 scale guitar made of all carbon so it's pretty much indestructable. It doesn't look anything like a wood guitar, but the tone is fantastic for such a small bodied guitar. Not that the Cargo has a wide fretboard that might give some folks some trouble, but the scale is real short - shorter than the Larrivee Parlor - around 22 or 23".

I second the comment on the Blueridge rosewood parlor guitar. It has a much fuller sound than the Larrivee parlor, and it has a full size scale. So it's a small body, but long scale - I think 26".
 
The Art & Lutherie Ami parlor guitar is quite well-regarded and is very affordable.

gtramicedantbst.jpg
 
Of all the guitars I bought and sold, the one steel string I hung on to was the Seagull F6 Folk guitar. It might be a little bit bigger than an official "parlor" guitar, but it plays well, sound great, and I couldn't beat the price. It's no beauty queen (I've always disliked the Seagull headstock design) with it's flat sawn cherry wood but it has an all solid cedar top (where it really matters) and it makes up for it by sounding so good, even up against models costing several times as much. I don't find the F6 listed any more. I think the closest model now is the S6.

FYI, Godin, La Patrie, Seagull, Art and Lutherie and a few other brands pretty much all came from the same shop, just different options and styles.
 
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I don't play guitar anymore, and when I did, I wasn't very good at it (I could strum most chords, and play a few songs, but not much more than that.) However, I did play on quite a few models, as a buddy of mine worked at a local music store. One of my favorites aside from the Larravees was a second-hand parlor guitar. I can't remember what brand it was, but it sounded WAY better than the "you-know-who" baby guitar, or the "you-also-know-who" backpack guitar, as well as many of the big-name full-sized guitars. It may have been an indication to my subconscious that big things come in small packages :)

So, my vote is for the Parlor. I think Boat Paddle Ukes makes a parlor, or they used to...

yep, at the bottom of this page: http://www.boatpaddleukuleles.com/listen.php but it will undoubtedly bust your budget :/

Either way you go, it's all about making sweet, sweet music (eventually!) Good luck with your shopping!
 
RevWill said:
The Art & Lutherie Ami parlor guitar is quite well-regarded and is very affordable.

gtramicedantbst.jpg
Click to expand...

At $299 USD it is a great deal. I have been tempted by that guitar myself.
 
Skrik said:
Let me put it this way: if out of the blue, I had to sell all my musical instruments but one, I would keep only my Tanglewood parlour guitar. That's right, all the ukuleles would go before I'd let go of this beauty.
Click to expand...

Nice guitar. Not easy to find one in the USA. I have seen one up close and personal. Parkwood guitars are seldom seen outside the USA.
 
i'm wondering if the person with the martin style 5 parlor guitar could weigh in as to whether it sounds fine in standard tuning or whether they feel they need to tune up to "terz." i'm looking at an all-mahogany 5-15 but wish to play in standard and am kind of put off by posts i'm finding here and there saying this guitar doesn't sound good in standard and only comes alive tuned a minor-third up, in terz....

same with guitarlele---i'm very interested in Mele's baritone guitarlele, but the only input i could find from an owner was a post on one of the uke sites by someone who tunes his up with different strings......thanks.
 
I keep my size 5 in standard. With higher tension strings, it works great and sounds fantastic. It sounds fine in terz, but by no means do I agree with the "doesn't sound good in standard". In fact, it's one of the finest sounding guitars I own in any tuning.

Here's one (I'm a crappy player, but you get the idea):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qRGR8J3ay4&feature=related
And another:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPao--ebm28

Incidentally, those vids are both with the thinner strings - it sounds even better now.

As for my guitalele, I have the Yamaha GL-1 and use high tenson classical strings. Works like a charm and sounds great.
Here's the review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjYh63r_IFE

And a song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_kMMRlbGys
 
thank you for the input, and nice clips!

the yamaha guitarlele works in standard? wow, i thought that one you could only play in "a to a" like a kanilea tenor six-string....
 
ceemonster said:
thank you for the input, and nice clips!

the yamaha guitarlele works in standard? wow, i thought that one you could only play in "a to a" like a kanilea tenor six-string....
Click to expand...

Sorry for the confusion - for the guitalele "standard" is ADGCEA. 5 half steps up from a guitar.
 
yes, that's why in addition to wondering about the style 5 (thanks for the info!), i'm wondering about the Mele guitarlele, which differs from yamaha, kala, and kanilea, in being standard-tuned, i.,e., a Bari with two added strings. but the sole post i have been able to find by a Mele guitarlele owner was kinda like the posts i've seen about the martin style five-i.e., the person said they were tuning "up" from standard to a-a because it sounded better that way. i wondered if there was anyone else with a Mele guitarlele who had input as to how its standard tuning sounded. :confused:
 
I would go with a parlor guitar only to be getting used to a full scale length. A lot of the "babies" have shorter scale length, and that can be nice: less string tension, less of a leap from ukulele; but I think it may be better to go straight to full scale length to train yourself right to that length. Since you have to make a jump, it would be no big deal to go right there.
 
Resurrecting my old thread... :)

I've been bitten by the "I want a guitar" bug again. An Aria dealer close to me has a secondhand parlor that looks to be pretty nice. I can't find hardly any information on this model, though. I found one YT video featuring it. It's a parlor-size body but full length (25.5") scale. Solid spruce top. Kind of blingy which I actually like. Any opinions?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10zi7ahTmiw

I'm also interested to see the response to the Cordoba Guilele, which is set to be released any day now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgU1ZrHwA_M
 
I bought my daughter a Big Baby Taylor guitar for Christmas a couple of years ago and I have a Gibson Robert Johnson which is a parlor guitar. I like the Big Baby but if I was going to be serious about playing I would choose a parlor size. They just have a really nice feel to them and very comfortable to play and a better and fuller sound then the Baby or Big Baby guitars.
 
I just bought the Taylor GS Mini - to me, it's the ultimate small guitar. Better sound than any parlor I've tried - really amazing sound. Do yourself a favor and try one before you decide.
 
I took advantage of a good deal on a used Larrivee parlor last week, and I'm glad I did. :) I'm really happy with it so far. My fingers are protesting the steel strings, but I can't stop picking this thing up and learning chords! I find that having a few years of uke experience is helping a lot because I don't have to learn fingerpicking and strumming technique, just the new chord shapes. Having six strings to play is both challenging and a nice change. I'm glad I've made the leap into guitar playing!
 
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