The guitar question I hate asking

[Mutso]

Hello All,

I am new to this forum. I am from Olympia, WA and I am a good noisemaker on the guitar. I have been studying/playing classical guitar for four years and I pretend to play bass in a blues/jazz band. I have been hyper-focused on classical guitar and I am feeling the itch to seek more. As such I have always been a fan of both blues and bluegrass guitar. I am divesting myself of some of my GAS attack(s) acquisitions and I would really like to acquire a parlor-style guitar to try my hand with some Leadbelly/Lightning Hopkins/Blind Blake et al style music. I am looking for some input from folks on guitars they have enjoyed playing or listening to that might fit my naivete'.

I searched the forums and couldn't find any entries that seemed to fit my question. My price range is up to ~$1000. Of course, visiting one of the local guitar vendors leaves me more confused. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[Blindboy]

Seagull makes a decent parlour guitar for a reasonable price. That is all I can think of off the top of my head, but I will check around and get back to you.
I play a Regal parlour guitar from the '50s that I paid $120 for in Seattle a few years ago. If you get to Seattle, check out a store called The Practicing Musician. They were a great store and had a nice selection of new and used gear.
By the way,

[Strummer07]

Seagull are good guitars for sure ( canadian made)
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... Grand/10/1

I'd also check out Takemine ...perhaps a TAN45C or a G406S NewYorker

or the Taylor 314 ........lovely guitar ......this would be my #1 choice ( aside from a Gibson ..........which would blow the $1000 budget !!)
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... s/314/10/1

I hear Tanglewood are also good ..................Tanglewood TW70,

Try before you buy ...and good luck

[Mutso]

Thanks for the input! For the life of me I can't find a shop in Seattle called The Practicing Musician. Any clues as to where in Seattle?

[weelie]

I think the Art & Lutherie parlor is even nicer than the Seagull- It has 12 frets to body, nicer headstock, sunburst or spruce top. It's $100 cheaper than Seagull too, at least here.

It's still not the perfect choice, I think. But a really fun guitar, I had one for 3 years, and sold it at the price I paid for it new! They might be difficult to get hold of apparently.

Also heard of some neck problems on them. Neck not set at the correct angle etc.

I kinda like the Republic(?) resonator parlor too. That's cheap and Chinese, though.

The actual best choices are the vintage "cheapos". They are not available here, though.

Taylor 314 doesn't fit into my idea of vintage blues. Nice guitars tho. A lot of people like the Martin 00-15 or the 000-15S.

You ought to check: WEENIECAMPBELL.COM

I've only been at Lark in the monring in Seattle. They might have smaller guitars too, but it ain't a big store.

[Strummer07]

Seagull...Art and Lutherie, Simon and Patrick , Norman ......all same heritage , just different brand names and market sectors .But .Same factories, similar wood stocks, similar build quality etc etc

quote
Godin Guitars' head office is located in Montreal, and they build their instruments in six factories in four different locations, three in Quebec and one in New Hampshire.

Godin Guitars makes instruments under several different labels. Norman makes entry- to mid-level acoustic guitars. Art & Lutherie makes entry-level budget guitars. The Simon and Patrick brand make mid- to high-range steel-string acoustics. La Patrie manufactures classical guitars. Seagull is known for manufacturing solid wood entry- to mid-range acoustic guitars. Guitars under the Godin brand are primarily mid-range to top-of the-line electrics that are made of high quality wood from the northeastern part of North America. They have many models that feature synth pickups and some with piezo pickup-equipped bridges. Godin are notable for their use of synthesizer pickups as a standard feature in their high end models, and many of their electric models use piezo-acoustic pickups integrated with the bridge assembly. Aside from their technical innovations, Godin has a strong reputation among guitarists for their product quality

Unquote

I've had a Seagull and it was very good

[BadBluesPlayer]

I have an Epiphone EL-00. I would not recommend it. It plays nice but doesn't sound that great.

[weelie]

Seagull...Art and Lutherie, Simon and Patrick , Norman ......all same heritage , just different brand names and market sectors .But .Same factories, similar wood stocks, similar build quality etc etc

Yes, that's why I mention the A&L. Normans are not available here. The almond colored A&Ls are laminate tops, rest are solid tops, the sunburst and black are solid cedar top (like Seagull) and red one is spruce, iirc.

I had an Epiphone Masterbilt OM, that was quite good, but sold it to a friend the day I got it! He loves it. It had a V-neck that I didn't like, and it just felt too big in my hands overall. Looking at getting a Tacoma C1 myself (they are not made anymore, AFAIK).

You can play blues on nylon strings too. I quite like Samuel Jones' recent record, a lot of nylon strung playing. He plays on one episode of woodsongs.com too.

[Blindboy]

Strummer and Weelie both have good suggestions. I like Weelie's remark about vintage "cheapies" That is the route I take. If you do some research and know what you are looking at, you can find very cool blues guitars for not a lot of money. By the way, I misremembered the name of the store in Seattle...

trading musician sticker.JPG (83.07 KiB) Viewed 14138 times

Good luck in your search.

[Mutso]

Thanks so much everyone!!

[Bluesmole]

Welcome! The best parlour guitar I've played for a long time is the YARI. This might be marketed as ALHAMBRA??? in the States. Good hunting.

[VikingBlues]

Strummer mentioned the Tanglewood TW70 in an earlier post. I've not tried that one but I do have a TW45 which stood out from the competition in its range when I was getting an electro-acoustic - one of those episodes of trying several guitars and its a no-brainer which was best.

However the TW45's more a folk sized guitar than parlour size for the upper and lower body bouts but the body depth is only 100mm which I believe is parlour size - folk being more like 115mm. It's body length is sort of mid way between folf and parlour size. So it doesn't feel as huge as some, but maybe too big for what you want Mutso. Shame I'm so crap at playing acoustic guitar though.

Good luckwith your search.

[Jondo]

if you do a search for Thin-Line SG acoustic on ebay you will find a guitar i recently bought for $109 bucks delivered. acoustic/electric with EQ. overall i like the guitar. i had to take about 1/16 of the bridge to drop the action slightly. it play great now. it may not be what youre looking for, but it is worth twice the money that i paid. good luck!