Art & Lutherie Roadhouse Parlor Acoustic-Electric Guitar Bourbon Burst

I just recorded a version of "Can't Find My Way Home" by Blind Faith. Clapton plays a small body guitar on the song. The guitar sounds great. I bought it after seeing and playing it at the NAMM show. Mine has no electronics. It came perfectly setup and the only thing I do is change strings. The tone is surprising for a parlor. The intonation is spot on up and down the neck. It has a full sound with good bass. I play it in group settings and the tone cuts through the larger guitars and is noticeable in the room. Others have commented how well it projects. The neck feels terrific (1.72mm). It's not too flat and is fuller than many of the modern acoustic necks. Clearly I'm a fan, but this thing is great and great for my purposes.

I have been playing a long time and have grown weary of the obligatory dreadnought guitars out there. They are too big and too boomy. Enter a small body guitar for true ring and sustain with sparkle. Either a 00 or an 0. Both of those sizes border on what a parlor guitar is and used to be. Early blues music was written and performed exclusively on just such a guitar. There are many for sale today. Priced from $200 to $2000. A true parlor has a sloped shoulder. Many early Gibsons were the defining brand in the early 20th century. Other brands were had through mail order catalogs. Let me tell you THE ART & LUTHERIE (GODIN) Roadhouse is ONE FANTASTIC GUITAR. It has a solid Sitka top BUT HAS APPALACHIAN SCALLOPED BRACING! That is almost unheard of in the $500 price zone. The sides are nicely grained Wild Cherry. The neck is Maple. The guitar is a charmer. Out of the box the guitar was ready to play. The action was sweet and the neck was straight with low action. A true blues machine for sure. The guitar rings "forever". The sustain and the sparkle out play my Guild M 240e (which up to getting the A&L was my main acoustic guitar). The 1.7 nut width with the 16" radius is perfect for me and I have less than average size hands. If I were building a custom guitar I would use this as the structural model. But wait...I don't need to build a custom guitar...I HAVE THIS ONE.

The first thing I did after getting my brand new roadhouse parlor guitar, was get it fixed. (I had to get a new saddle because the saddle slot in the bridge was way too wide for the saddle it came with, causing the saddle to rest at a sharp angle in the bridge, and the nut had to be worked on too to fix the intonation). After that, the guitar worked well for two months... then the bridge cracked off.... ruining the show I was playing and almost costing me my job. I don't know if they're all like this, but the roadhouse I bought seemed like it was made from a bunch of mismatched parts shoved together. Save your money and frustration and go with something else.