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Hey Guys,

I'm making a parlor guitar for my daughter's 16th bday. This is only my third guitar, and I'm using sinker redwood for the top and claro walnut for the back and sides. The top has a really nice ring to it when tapped, sounds very resonant. Can you guys give me a standard thickness to kind of shoot for, since I'm a newbie and wanna make a good one for my daughter? Also any recommendations on bracing thickness and height? Advice would be appreciated.

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If its pretty stiff, no more than .100 for a parlour .. maybe less, you would have to deflection test to see .... also depends how much bracing to put on it ... X brace 1/4 x 1/2 at most, maybe a little less height ..

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Perhaps this is a dumb question... but what size do you mean by a "Parlor" guitar? I have heard people talking about an OM being a Parlor... but really - an OM was an "Orchestra Model" - a large body at the time... Size 5 and O models are more along the lines of what I consider "Parlor"... but that isn't shared by everyone.... Many folks call OO and OOO and L-00 "Parlor" guitars... even though a OOO is larger than a Concert Classical guitar - and the OO and L-00 are close to the size of a concert classical....

My own feeling on the little guitars (~12" across the lower bout) is that they need thin tops and light bracing to sound "Right" to me - where they are nicely balanced and do have a full bass (It won't ever have the bassy Whomp of a D, though..). The body is so much narrower that they are just massively tight if you don't build them crazy light - many factory models sound like kid toys when strung up because they are so stiff... Literally - the bracing on my "Parlor" guitars looks like toothpicks next to Dread bracing....

If you have a piece of redwood that is more along the "Light and floppy" end of the spectrum - maybe use it for the Parlor model.... This is also a fine place to use topwood that is farther off quarter... as the narrow body makes up for the lower crossgrain stiffness...

Thanks