Parlour guitar advice: non-wide fingerboard

darcym · October 2014

To give context, I normally play a Martin OM28 and it's perfect.

While I was away from home I wanted a parlour guitar to just record / play around with, and Picked up a Sigma

000M-15s fantastic guitar for the money, really impressive however the width of the fingerboard is huge compared to the Martin I'm used to. I've persisted with it, but it seems wasteful to try to make something that doesn't work for you work. So I'm going to sell it and get something else.

I'm looking for a Parlour guitar, open to anything but it must have a more normal width fingerboard.

My Martin is listed as

Fingerboard Width at Nut: 1-11/16Fingerboard Width at 12th Fret: 2-1/8

It doesn't have to be exactly that, I put it there for reference.

open to options, anything really, doesn't have to be cheap, doesn't have to be expensive - although I'm not shy on spending for the right money.

From a visual aspect it would be nice to have a slotted machine head setup, but this is by no means something I need, just a visual look I like for the type of guitar.

The ability to fit a pickup would be useful if I ever do anything with this, so it must be able to gig.

Very interested in the Sigma range as the one I bought I was really impressed with for it's price, it's only the neck that's killing me.

Thanks.

Phil_aka_Pip · October 2014

Gretsch Jim Dandy is Fingerboard Width at Nut: 1-12/16 ie 1-3/4 Fingerboard Width at 12th Fret: 2-1/8 so "nearly there". Its cheap but sounds a lot better than its price would suggest (if you like that sort of thing). I don't think it would suffer unduly from having a pickup fitted.

However I wouldn't be offended if you decided you needed to be more up-market, or you needed a different sound

IanSavage · October 2014

Vintage V880 ticks the boxes (almost exactly the same nut width, slotted 'stock), I love mine. There's a very unobtrusively-electrified version as well.

darcym · October 2014

The Martin Ed Shearan model looks like it could be a really good option.

Thoughts ?

Like the vintage V880 too, looks very impressive for price.

xmrchi · October 2014

How about the washburn 1800s parlor repro I played one the other day and it was amazing! Decent width finger board n all, but I also have to agree with @IanSavage the vintage stuff IMHO is the best low to mid range money can buy, from someone who loves vintage Gibson's, and custom made guitars, I have always had a vintage in the collection and never feel short changed when I play it instead of the other guitars, the punch about their weight especially with the acoustics.

mellowsun · October 2014

Do check out the Tanglewood TW73. Impeccably made guitar for the price. I regret selling mine. It has quite a nice B-Band pickup too. Here's a vid of it in action

darcym · October 2014

just to be clear - I'm not looking for a "cheap" one, I'm looking for one I like, I was just saying it doesn't have to be pricey, but it doesn't have to be cheap either.

darcym · October 2014

those washburns look great, can't find any information on their neck width though, and they look "wide"

xmrchi · October 2014

Tell you what I'll be going into my local shop this week and they have one, want me to measure it?

mitch · October 2014

The Sigma TW range are great. Same size and style as the Martin LX1E / Ed Sheeren model but have the advantage of not having HPL back and sides. Check out the all mahogany TW15 and TW15E. They really are very good.

darcym · October 2014

mrchi said:

Tell you what I'll be going into my local shop this week and they have one, want me to measure it?

that would be amazing, thank you. I've also emailed washburn USA.

darcym · October 2014

mitch said:

The Sigma TW range are great. Same size and style as the Martin LX1E / Ed Sheeren model but have the advantage of not having HPL back and sides. Check out the all mahogany TW15 and TW15E. They really are very good.

are you sure it's called the TW range ? I can't find any TW sigma models.

xmrchi · October 2014

@darcym went in today and measured the neck width at the nut it was 5cm so actually REALLY wide, :-)

LooseMoose · October 2014

What about a MadDogGuitars Parlour? I've got one and it's bloody fantastic! Silly cheap too.

Gru · October 2014

Not sure, but the Faith Mercury might fit the bill? I believe the nut is good @ 43mm. they do a wide range of finished from naked (£350 ish) to eclipse cutaway & electronics (£650 ish). Might be worth a look.

birdo · October 2014

One of the best parlours I ve tried is the alverez ap70. They also do a masterworks version . Not sure about neck width but amazing guitar.

thermionic · October 2014

Check out the Hudson parlours. I remember reading a review where it mentioned that two versions were made - a "wide" and "normal" neck width. The website has models with 43mm and 44mm nut widths, although this review says 44mm isn't really "wide".

Edit - This one is 44mm, the wide is 46mm.

mitch · October 2014

Hi and Sorry its taken a bit of time to get back to you.

I did go into my local shop and they did have some real nice Sigma guitars. Great value and they all played well too. Your right they are not called TW they are called TM. They have a few different options including electro and non electro. They are really very similar to the Martin LX1 guitars only I think the Sigma is a better deal and sounds better too.

They have a standard 1-11/16 nut size so are not wide at all and feel very comfortable to me. I personally think in the price range they very hard to beat. But of course that's just my personal view. I didn't try the electro version plugged in because the shop was very busy but if its anything like the other Sigma guitars it will work well through an amp too.

I have a link to a page with a whole bunch of them listed below which may be useful.

http://www.projectmusic.net/sigma-travel-guitars-1089-c.asp

Hope this helps.

Frankieabbot · February 2015

My Tanglewood Roadster electro acoustic might fit the bill. Don't have it's immediate specs but I got it due to my little hands!! And at £100 it didn't break the bank.

RowlandwithaW · June 2015

Are you still looking? I've got a Yairi Rag 65 with a Baggs Element p/up. You list the OM28 as 1 & 11/16 which is what I reckon this is though some shops describe them both as 1 & 3/4. It's lovely guitar. Where are you based?

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Parlour guitar advice: non-wide fingerboard

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