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Small body guitars

Home › Forums › Guitar Techniques and General Discussions › Small body guitars

  • This topic has 10 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 11 months, 2 weeks ago by GnLguy.
Viewing 5 reply threads
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    • November 30, 2024 at 2:54 pm #382543
      sunjamr
      Participant

        Lately I’ve been really enjoying my collection of small-body guitars – Taylor GS Mini, Alvarez AF30CE, etc. They’re so easy to play, kind to the fingers, easier to bend notes, etc. So now you are all wondering what happens when the opposite occurs? That is, small bodies play large guitars? It just looks really creepy…….

        Sunjamr Steve

      • November 30, 2024 at 10:28 pm #382562
        GnLguy
        Participant

          No hadn’t really even considered that… some things aren’t worth our time to ponder

          My Breedlove is their proprietary Concerto body, designed to compete with a dreadnought in performance. It’s their largest body design, its larger than a dreadnought and very comfortable to play seated on my couch. It too meets all of the criteria that you laid out – so easy to play, kind to the fingers, easier to bend notes, etc….except I don’t bend notes on my acoustic unless just a slur. I leave that for my electric.
          In reality, if a guitar properly set up, it will have the qualities that you mention – easy to play, kind to the fingers, easier to bend notes, etc. And yes shorter scale length helps but let’s be realistic – how many will be doing repeated full step SRV bends on an acoustic unless they drop the string gauge down t0 10’s
          I use 11’s and 12’s on my Breedlove and like you with your small body guitars – I really enjoy it and look forward to each time that I play it.

          Muriel Anderson a very petite lady, 5′ 0″ maybe – if she’s lucky. She seems comfortable her harp guitar and classical guitar which seems to be a larger body than some classical guitars



          • December 1, 2024 at 3:01 pm #382593
            sunjamr
            Participant

              Wow, that’s a beautiful harp guitar she has. I’m too old to learn something that complex. Maybe in my next life.

              Sunjamr Steve

          • December 1, 2024 at 4:37 pm #382597
            San Luis Rey
            Participant

              Muriel may be petite, but she has 6′ tall fingers! 🎶

              Mike

              • December 1, 2024 at 6:57 pm #382600
                GnLguy
                Participant

                  Muriel is truly a under-recognized player (if that is a term) and such a great player.
                  From this video, I learned that she is close friends with Phil Keaggy, who is one of most versatile players of our day.
                  Ironically, I don’t know who is taller – Phil or Muriel 😉

                  Muriel tells a humorous story of her early days in Nashville. Chet Atkins asked if she would come to his house over the weekend, that he had a special project for her
                  After they had dinner, they were walking around Chet’s property, talking about music and songs that they were working on. As they got close to the barn, they came to the chicken coop and Chet said, ‘Mureil, the project that I needed your help with.,.. Since you are so small, I need you to crawl back into chicken coop for my banty chickens and get the eggs for me.
                  That was followed by Chet’s sky smile and a chuckle
                  Muriel helped Chet and got the eggs for him and they developed a deep friendship after that

              • December 1, 2024 at 10:03 pm #382602
                Cobalt
                Participant

                  I have one small body acoustic guitar. It’s a Alvarez parlor guitar. All solid mahogany. It’s really comfortable to play although even at my age bigger body acoustics do not bother me at all.

                  I have a plan to par my guitar collection down to two guitars. My parlor guitar and a Gibson J45 and ride it out from there!

                  par

                  • December 2, 2024 at 3:28 pm #382618
                    sunjamr
                    Participant

                      What a beautiful parlor guitar! Brian also has a nice parlor guitar. And even though I don’t even have a parlor in my house, I still have a parlor guitar. I read that a favorite Victorian age pastime was for groups of people to sit around in someone’s parlor inhaling laughing gas (nitrous oxide) and plunking on their parlor guitars. And you think you were lucky to live during the 70s!

                      Sunjamr Steve

                    • December 3, 2024 at 3:12 pm #382648
                      GnLguy
                      Participant

                        Hey Tim

                        To things in perspective, Sunjamr Steve noticed your parlor guitar
                        When you first came on the forum, it was the picture of Finley that caught my eye and that began our friendship 😉

                        Keith

                    • December 3, 2024 at 3:04 pm #382647
                      Cobalt
                      Participant
                        sunjamr wrote:

                        What a beautiful parlor guitar! Brian also has a nice parlor guitar. And even though I don’t even have a parlor in my house, I still have a parlor guitar. I read that a favorite Victorian age pastime was for groups of people to sit around in someone’s parlor inhaling laughing gas (nitrous oxide) and plunking on their parlor guitars. And you think you were lucky to live during the 70s!

                        I had the same girlfriend all through high school, were talking about the early 70’s and she lived on a ranch and it was in the middle of nowhere and they had a giant OLD Victorian house. The grandfather or great grandfather was a very famous botanist who passed on in 1926. I have no clue if the house came from him and her family although not poor were not rich at all but they had this great old home and a few hundred acres. The Dad was a cattle guy and the mom drove school bus. This place even had a tennis court out in the middle of nowhere. It was no longer usable though. There were even two stairways, one was a very nice one and the other one was an old wooden one from the kitchen and they said in the old days, it was for he help. LOL. What Im getting too is that they had a giant room that they called the parlor. They had a piano in there and other things. All three of the daughters were musical and could sing great. At 16 years of age I spent many hours in there with a sears silvertone and some junk amp strumming chords while they all sang! Maybe I should go back with my parlor guitar????

                        Those were good times for sure.

                      • December 3, 2024 at 3:16 pm #382649
                        Cobalt
                        Participant
                          GnLguy wrote:

                          Hey Tim

                          To things in perspective, Sunjamr Steve noticed your parlor guitar
                          When you first came on the forum, it was the picture of Finley that caught my eye and that began our friendship 😉

                          Keith

                          Very very true and I think of him everyday and every night before i go to sleep!

                          • December 3, 2024 at 3:27 pm #382651
                            GnLguy
                            Participant

                              I can fully understand, I still miss Penny that I lost in 2013
                              Just after I made that last post, Kiyah walked by me and I told my son that it’s amazing what a dog can mean to us. She just turned 10 on November 29

                              Keith

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