Short scale parlour

[jim_m]

I decided that I'd better get into my 5th acoustic around late October if I was to get one built before last year slipped away. A relatively plain, shortish scale parlour with movingui top, back & sides, silky oak neck, ebony & MOP for the rest seemed to give me some chance of a reasonably quick build. Of course it wasn't finished until a week or so ago but better late than never. It's actually exceeded my expectations with a great voice, far bigger than suggested by it's small size, in a nice easy to play package. I'm a bit smitten actually

[Mark McLean]

Jim
What a beauty! There are lots of things I like about this guitar. First, the overall colour scheme and minimal aesthetic is spot on, in my opinion. I have never seen or even heard of movingui before. Have now googled a bit of information about it and become very interested. It is a lovely colour, and it is nice to see the uniformity of same timber in b&s as well as the soundboard. We see this a lot with mahogany or koa, but this is quite a different colour palate. Where did you get this stuff? Can you tell us more about what it is like to work with? What about top thickness and bracing for this timber?

The silky oak neck looks great. I have just been using it in some furniture building and like it a lot. I might take yours as inspiration and use it in a future guitar build.

Small body, short-scale and 13-fret body join. This is a winning combination, I think. It is nice to see you knocking together the same ideas - and your execution looks to be great. Thanks for sharing!

[ozziebluesman]

Yep, great looking little guitar.
There is always something intimate for me when playing a small parlour size guitar.
Your design, rosette, body shape and wood appointments are simple and elegant.
Beautiful little guitar.
Cheers
Alan

[lamanoditrento]

Jim
What a beauty! There are lots of things I like about this guitar. First, the overall colour scheme and minimal aesthetic is spot on, in my opinion.

+1

[jim_m]

Thanks Chaps.
Your considered & perceptive comments are always encouraging.
Yeah I reckon it all came together well too : )
I hadn't heard of Movingui either when Barry Kerr suggested it as an answer to my request for a full hardwood top B & S set that would be good sonically, without breaking the bank. I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived & it just got better as I went along. It works nicely, has way more sheen than I suspected when I started, the open pore structure gave me the perfect excuse to finish it satin & it has proven to sound very nice indeed. I wouldn't call it particularly stiff, but I did attempt to keep everything as light as I dared (ie very!) while experimenting with an alternative carbon reinforcing method. I may have overdone this slightly as the initial pull up was a bit concerning, which lead me to chicken out & put a bridge doctor in it JIC.......
Live & learn......
Barry doesn't have any more left I'm afraid.
I've asked.......
I drew the body shape specifically to fit a particularly beautiful Ziricote set I have. The rest was dictated by where I wanted the bridge to land and my vague desire to give a short scale a bit of a go.....
I just chopped the first fret off a Martin 25.4 scale which fitted in nicely with 13 frets clear.

Cheers
Jim