PARLOR TUNE-UP TIME

[WIZARDMI]

I've had my P-05 (mahogany) for a few months now and I've been mostly satisfied. But now I want to trick it out and get it sounding (and feeling) more the way I want. I'm asking my friends (the god's of the fretboards) to post any and all ideas on how to get more boost out of the bass and clean up the mid-high section. I'm not going to look into shaving any internal braces....yet. But something tells me there's a few tricks out there that I've never considered. I'm going to have Elderly's put on some new John Pierce strings in the process. What about changing out the bridge, nut, etc.? Improving the action?

Thanks to everyone in advance for the help. This is by far the best guitar forum on-line I've ever visited.

[Ratishna]

First, the guys at Elderly are pretty sharp. and they can tell you the sorts of things you can do with string guafes, nut/saddle combos, and even how you hold the guitar that will help you get better tone.  Be sure to ask them about shaving the braces because they will carefully explain why you do *not* want to do this.

[poki]

something i did which added a touch more to the low and mid range of my parlor is installing an John Pierce Arm rest.  they don't quite fit the curvature of the parlor but it's pretty easy to shape it match if you wanted to.

[dcarey]

I'd say to add a John Pearse Slimline Jr. armrest and a set of John Pearse Phosphor Bronze Medium guage strings.
Bet you'll be satisfied with that. Stay far away from brace shaving...

Dan

[WIZARDMI]

Excuse my ignorance, but what's a John Pearse Slimline Jr. armrest?

[joopie]

wizard- here is a pic of a ebony  JP slimeline armrest on my Martin 00-18V.


J.

[Larrivee4me]

I have a rosewood parlor that improved a lot with a bone saddle.  The sustain goes on and on.  I used to use DADGAD strings with a heavier 1st, 2nd and 6th string.  Just recently I put a set of medium gauge Elixers on and it sounds very good. That surprised me becaused I didn't care for Elixirs when they first came out.  Keep in mind it is parlor body afterall and you can't expect it to sound like a larger bodied guitar. It does have a unique voice and that's what I like about it.

[WIZARDMI]

I understand. I have a Martin D-35 for when I want the "boom". I'm just looking for some other tricks of the trade to get the most out of my parlor. And like I suspected, so far you guys haven't disappointed!

[poki]

here's my Larrivee parlor with the ebony slimline arm rest.  the propose of the arm rest is to prevent your arm from resting on top of the soundboard which would otherwise dampen the soundboard vibrations a little. There is a small but noticable improvement in the mid and low freq as well as volume with the arms rest in place.   i reshaped mine to fit my parlor and shortened it about 1 1/4 inch to fit the parlor dimensions better.  it actually was suppose to be for my goodall parlor but ended up on my larrivee parlor.  as mentioned previously med gauge strings will also add more low range to the parlor and many parlor owners use meds for that very reason.
good luck

[JohnM2001]

Before you go buying a Pearse armrest, you can see what effect it will have.  Simply play a nice big open G chord as usual, then strike another one and lift your arm off the guitar;  you should hear the volume increase slightly, and more sound overall.  Try it a few times, playing stuff you like.  I find that I usually get 10-15% more sound when using one of these arm rests on a guitar.

[WIZARDMI]

These are great thoughts and suggestions.

Does anyone have any strong feeling one way or another on making changes to the saddle, bridge or nut?

I really appreciate all of your help on this topic so far.

[WIZARDMI]

I forgot to add: is the consensus for medium gauge strings to increase the volume?

[poki]

from what i recall from the times i used meds on my parlor, it did have potential for more volume but the meds also made it harder to fret and it required a firmer pluck to get the strings to vibrate with authority.  i tended to get tired out quicker using meds but this was back when i was a beginner.  in any case i switched back to lights since then. i'd say give meds a try and report back your findings.

regarding the arms rest, i had to take it off the parlor because of all things...rash.  the contact point on my arm got welted and itchy.  this also happened when i had it briefly on the goodall parlor but i didn't realize it was the arm rest causing the rash till now.  go figure

[Blue in VT]

Poki,

Can you walk me thru the process you used for reshaping your armrest?  I got one but am dissappointed that it doesn't fit...I'm willing to do a little work.  Sorry to hear about your rash...

Wizard,
I put in a bone saddle on my p-01 and it made a huge difference in balancing out the tone of the guitar...however as yours in an 05 I think it already has bone...upgrading the nut may have some effect but not as significant as the saddle.

Medium strings are a must on my parlor!!!



Blue

[Denis]

I forgot to add: is the consensus for medium gauge strings to increase the volume?

Yes, yes, yes...always mediums!

[poki]

here you can see the difference between my now defunct rash inducing re-shaped arm rest and a stock slim line jr.  the stock rest seemed too large for a parlor size body which is why i decided to shorten it and shape it more to my personall liking.  i used a dremel cutting disk to cut off part of the tip and did most shaping with a dremel sanding disk followed with a hand sanding block


to get the arm rest curvature to match the parlors i removed the adhesive strip on the arm rest and then taped it in place where i wanted it but being sure to leave a little of the rest above the body edge and traced a line against the body edge onto the arm rest sticking edge as seen in the pic.  this left a line on the rest that matches the parlors body conture.  then i used a dremel tool with sanding disk to sand away the excess wood but be used a hand sanding block to finish the shaping carefully following the drawn line since it's easier and safer as the dremel can over do things very quickly.  i had to get new adhesive strips from breezy ridge ($6.50 each  :<> ) to replace the removed strip since it loses some stickiness once removed.

as mentioned the arm rest project went bust since i get rash from it but i'm going to try making one for my larrivee and goodall using other woods than ebony like koa and or maybe bloodwood.

good luck

[WIZARDMI]

I had a bad rash once. I can't seem to remember what her name was......

[Blue in VT]

Poki,

Thanks amillion...I may have to give this a try...I have the arm rest and a dremel...plus the arm rest will cover up a dinger on the spruce top on my parlor...a nice bonus!



Blue