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I am about to start a scratch build on a parlour sized guitar. I don't have a lot of building experience so I am looking to the wealth of experience on this forum to help me decide which tonewood and soundboard wood species to use on this, my second build.

I have a set of flamed maple B & S and a set of peruvian walnut B & S that I am trying to decide between...any suggestions as to which tonewood would be best suited to this type of guitar?

I have a similar question regarding the soundboard. I have Sitka, Engelmann, Lutz and Cedar to choose from and I am not sure which combination of tonewood and soundboard will yield the "best sounding parlour guitar" . And yes, I realize that my use of the term "best sounding parlour guitar" is difficult to quantify, is purely a matter of opinion, and I have just opened a can of worms.

Suggestions anyone?

I'm new to building myself, but I'm pretty familiar with most of those woods.

Engelman and Cedar are going to be very responsive to a light touch. I've never played anything made with Lutz, so I can't speak to that. You really can't go wrong using Sitka Spruce.

As a player I would recommend Walnut on a parlor over Maple. Maple fundamentally has a "brighter" sound. I owned a Sitka/Walnut guitar for several years, and the Walnut will "open up" with some playing and sound really nice and balanced. The low end on my guitar filled out quite a bit.

I have heard recordings of a couple of small guitars that were made with Cedar and Walnut, and they sounded really nice.

I would say either Engelman & Walnut or Cedar & Walnut. It just depends which direction you want to go. I'm using Cedar and Mahogany to build a 00 right now, and it's been interesting working with Cedar. It's more delicate, but based on what pros like Dana Bourgeois say about it, Cedar will sound "more mature" sooner than spruce.

Personally I prefer darker tones over bright, and small guitars usually don't need any help being bright or favoring the high end. I prefer balance over most anything else in a small guitar. There are songs that I won't play on my D-18VS because it's too boomy on the low end for those songs. I pick up a cheap parlor that I modified the bracing on instead. Hopefully here in the next several months I'll be picking up my Western Red Cedar/Sinker Mahogany 00 instead.

*Edited for spelling error.*

Walnut/Lutz would be my choice from what you have. If you can scare up some Mahogany that would be even better.

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"I have Sitka, Engelmann, Lutz and Cedar to choose from and I am not sure which combination of tonewood and soundboard will yield the "best sounding parlour guitar" ."

Any of those combinations can make a fine sounding guitar. If it was my "second build" I would pick whatever I thought would look nice and inspire me to build.

any of those top woods with the walnut b/s.

what size parlour?