@ewartboer  The little Martin is smaller than a parlor guitar so it can be hard to hold onto sometimes. In fact, you could almost call it "child sized." It's very small. It has decent bass for its size, but nowhere near what a full-sized Martin sounds like. Fretboard is a bit narrower, too. For sure play one before you buy one, because you may be disappointed. Martin makes some better small-bodied guitars but they aren't cheap.

Recording King actually makes some small guitars that have a better tone than the Martin, in my opinion, they also have a better price. I have both Martin and Recording King now. The Little Martin wasn't cheap but the Recording King was, and if it got damaged in some way I'm not going to cry over it, I'll just buy another one. But I would be very unhappy if I damaged the Little Martin. 😒 Also I think Yamaha makes some smaller guitars that are decent for a reasonable price. 

Allright, thank you for your elaborated answer. I play some of these small guitars and indeed the sound is smaller than a full-size guitar. 

Yeah, when your guitar costs a lot of money, you van easily be disappointed when it obtains some scratches. That's the beauty of low/medium priced guitars. 

I have never heard about Recording King but it can be a nice option too. What is the type of your guitar? I will search on the internet if they are selling that one here in the Netherlands. I also saw some guitar from Cort. I don't know if you know these but they seem to be good for their money. 

I amazed at how much I like the little Recording King Dirty 37 series parlor I’ve named Goldie. I don’t like huge dreadnoughts. I have a huge Classical at my sons I barely ever touch.  I feel like I’m trying to hug a barrel. Not comfortable for me.  I’m a little fat old lady so the little parlor size fits just right.  I watch reviews on YouTube to hear how the models sound. The parlors look tiny against the (mostly) men who do the demos. I have my little Art & Lutherie Roadhouse, Roadie, and I’m absolutely in love. Now that Goldie is here I feel more contented with my little guitar family (hoard). I still want a Gretsch Penguin 5021 parlor but only because it’s so cute and shiny. I’ve run out of spots to prop them. I have one next to every chair I sit in in my house so I left one at my sons house so when I’m there I have my pickin partner. My little Goldie was only $179 and will bring me more joy, less resentment than an expensive, frivolous guitar would. I’m only playing for the cat and to torture my son in law anyway. Oh yeah, and I do enjoy learning to play. 

@shysue

I think I will try a 12 fret. I've never played one

I love my little Recording King Series 7 Dirty 30’s. Mine and Sues’ are almost the same but hers is a 2017 (I think) and mine is a 2019 or 2020. I had to dress the frets though and I still think they’re a little too rough. I’ll work on them more when I dress it down for restringing. I like this little Art & Lutherie Roadhouse more and this Gretsch has even better fret work. I’d love to get a Fender Paramount TE or PM 2 deluxe model but I’m on a guitar buying restriction since I’ve bought 5 in the last 6 months. I LOVE these parlor size guitars though. I want them all in every color too. 

Posted by: @shysue

It's good to have more than one guitar, in my opinion. You always have a favorite but to have different instruments helps the favorite last longer. That sounds weird, but I noticed a lot of wear on the frets of my D-18 because I was playing it every single day. Getting the parlor and having others to choose from spreads out the playing wear on all of them. 

in my opinion, guitars are like guns...you can never have too many.they don’t go bad just sitting there. Lol

🌧🌧🌧💦💦💦hoping for rain. Stay inside the hutch 

@jerseychicadee

How do you dress your frets?  I've seen cheap and cheerful luthier tool sets on Alibaba with files etc for the job but never tried it myself. My Eastman had a full set up, and my Yamaha is, well a Yamaha, so no need for extra work really. Just wondered how you go about doing the job, and the tools you use?

Posted by: @shysue

Sure has been quiet in here. I go away for a short trip and look what happens. LOL

We're still plugging away on our practicing. Hubby took a week off of work, we went up to Prescott for a couple of days for a mini-vacay and I found another guitar at a small guitar shop. It's a used guitar but a good one with a tiny ding on the top, a 12-fret Recording King parlor guitar and it sounds really good for a small guitar. 

 IMG_4545-2.JPG Sweet

Jerusalem Ridge has me well occupied 😀 

I bought some fret files off eBay. I watch these guys videos and they tell you what they use. I think one guy is the fret guru 

I bought all these tools years ago when I had fret problems on my Ohana Mahogany Ukulele 

  For a little more than the cost of a luthier I bought the tools (not from Stew Mac) and did my own set ups and fret ends 

Started a new shift today 5am-2pm. I’m too old for this !!! 

@jerseychicadee that sounds like fun. I worked 12 years of graveyard shift when I was younger. These days I like to go to bed by 11pm lol

@rinny51i worked all my nursing career on night shift. I still don’t sleep at night