Parlor or parlour guitar usually refers to a type of acoustic guitar smaller than a Size No.0 Concert Guitar by C. F. Martin & Company. Mottola's Cyclopedic Dictionary of Lutherie Terms describes the term as referring to "any guitar that is narrower than current standards." ^[1]

Overview

The popularity of these guitars peaked from the late 19th century until the 1950s. Many blues and folk musicians have used smaller-bodied guitars, which were often more affordable, mass production models.

Parlor guitar has also come to denote a style of American guitar music from the 19th and early 20th centuries. ^[2] Noted composers include William Foden, Winslow Hayden, William Bateman, Justin Holland, and Wilhelm Bischoff. The music for the guitar includes a variety of dance forms ( waltz, schottische, polka), instrumental arrangements of popular songs, guitar arrangements of then popular classical music, operatic arrangements and music from European guitar composers ( Sor, Giuliani, Carcassi, Coste and Mertz). In the 1860, Henry Worrall composed two influential pieces for parlor guitar, "The Siege of Sebastopol" (sometimes spelled Sevastopol) and "Spanish Fandango." ^[3]

• 
  Spanish-style (c.1845) / Size No.3 (3-17) (1859) guitars by C. F. Martin
• 
  Very first Size No.1 guitar with earliest X-Bracing (1842) by Martin & Schatz
• 
  c.f. Size No.0 (0-45) guitar played by Joan Baez

In the 2000s, the parlor guitar began enjoying a renaissance among players "who like their midrangery tone, historic vibe, and easy portability". ^[4] Modern luthiers are making parlor guitars in a wide variety of tonewoods. Takamine Guitars produces one made of cedar and koa, with a preamp powered by a 12AU7, the first acoustic guitar with a tube preamp. ^[4] Fylde Guitars produces the 'Single Malt Ariel' constructed from used whisky casks.

Modern parlor & mini guitars

• 
  C. F. Martin Little Martin (Modified Size No.0)
• 
  C. F. Martin Claire (Size No.5) ^[5]
• 
  Taylor Baby Taylor (¾-size) & GS Mini

See also

• Fingerstyle guitar — Finger-picking style is preferred on Parlor guitars (in contrast to the strumming style on Dreadnought guitars)
• Baroque guitar — small guitars in Baroque era
• Early Romantic guitar — small guitars from 1790 to 1830
• Classical guitar
  • Antonio Torres Jurado — father of modern classical guitars in Romantic era
• Travel guitar — a similar small modern guitar
• C. F. Martin & Company — Martin defined the larger "Size No. 0" as Concert Guitar, in contrast to the smaller, traditional Parlor guitars.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parlor guitars.

• Parlor guitars information
• Article on Guitar Adventures