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Kala Solid Cedar Top Parlor Guitar - Natural

6-string Acoustic Guitar with Cedar Top, Mahogany Back and Sides, Mahogany Neck, and Ebony Fingerboard - Natural

Item ID: SCTParG

Kala Solid Cedar Top Parlor Guitar - Natural

Backordered - More On The Way!

This item requires extra delivery time from Kala. Order today to reserve yours now, risk-free, or contact us for more information. Estimated June 2026.

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Kala Solid Cedar Top Parlor Guitar - Natural

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Q: What kind of sound can I expect from the Solid Cedar Top Parlor Guitar?

The solid cedar top on this parlor guitar delivers a warm, rich, and highly responsive tone. Cedar is excellent for players who prefer a softer attack or fingerstyle playing, as it produces a full sound with less effort. Paired with mahogany back and sides, it offers a balanced tone with clear mids and a pleasant sustain, making it versatile for various musical styles.

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Q: Who is the Kala Solid Cedar Top Parlor Guitar designed for?

This parlor guitar is ideal for players seeking a comfortable, compact instrument without sacrificing tone. Its smaller body makes it great for travel, practice, or intimate performances. Fingerstyle players will appreciate the cedar top's responsiveness, while its balanced sound also suits strumming. It's a fantastic choice for anyone desiring a portable yet full-sounding acoustic.

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Q: What are the advantages of a parlor body shape?

The parlor body shape offers several key advantages. Its compact size provides exceptional comfort, especially for smaller players or those who prefer a more intimate playing experience. It's also highly portable, making it easy to take on the go. Tonally, parlor guitars often produce a focused, articulate sound with less boominess than larger dreadnoughts, which is excellent for recording or fingerpicking.

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Q: What materials are used in the construction of this guitar?

The Kala Solid Cedar Top Parlor Guitar features a solid cedar top, known for its warm and responsive tone. The back, sides, and neck are crafted from mahogany, which adds to the guitar's balanced sound and sustain. It boasts an ebony fingerboard for a smooth playing feel and enhanced clarity, along with a bone nut and saddle for improved resonance and tuning stability.

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Q: Does this guitar come with any accessories?

The product details provided do not specify any included accessories with the Kala Solid Cedar Top Parlor Guitar.

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An Excellent Parlor Acoustic with Classic Sound and Style

If you're on the hunt for a lightweight, small-bodied acoustic guitar for songwriting, recording, or performing, the Kala Solid Cedar Top Parlor Guitar is your kind of instrument. This guitar's solid cedar soundboard exhibits a soft, lush tone that's tailor-made for fingerstylists and soloists, while its mahogany body unleashes a smooth blend of resonant warmth and ear-grabbing harmonics. You'll also benefit from effortless playability, courtesy of the Solid Cedar Parlor Guitar's comfortable mahogany neck and silky 19-fret ebony fingerboard. This acoustic guitar features a sustain- and tone-enhancing bone nut and saddle. Plus, its light-diffusing satin finish, traditional slotted headstock, and handsome walnut binding and herringbone purfling give it a charming, attention-snatching look. Don't let the Solid Cedar Top Parlor Guitar Guitar's budget-conscious price tag fool you. Its classic small-bodied sound and eye-pleasing style are undeniable.

Every part of this guitar enhances its tone

The Kala Solid Cedar Top Parlor Guitar was built using only high-quality materials. At Sweetwater, we've found that its solid cedar top yields subtle textures that are ideal for fingerstylists and soloists; its mahogany back and sides deliver all the resonance and harmonic-rich warmth you could want. This acoustic guitar's comfortable mahogany neck is capped by an effortless 19-fret ebony fingerboard. You also get a toneful bone nut and saddle.

Kala Solid Cedar Top Parlor Guitar Features:

Solid cedar top exhibits a soft, lush tone that's great for fingerstylists and soloists
Mahogany back and sides deliver resonance and harmonic-rich warmth
Comfortable mahogany neck
Easy-playing 19-fret ebony fingerboard
Toneful bone nut and saddle
Light-diffusing satin finish and handsome walnut binding and herringbone purfling

Resources

Acoustic Guitar Buying Guide

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Tech Specs

String Type: Steel
Number of Strings: 6
Left-/Right-handed: Right-handed
Body Shape: Parlor
Back & Sides Wood: Mahogany
Top Wood: Solid Cedar
Finish: Satin
Color: Natural
Binding: Walnut/Herringbone
Neck Wood: Mahogany
Fingerboard Material: Ebony
Number of Frets: 19
Scale Length: 24.875"
Nut Width: 1.6875"
Nut/Saddle Material: Bone/Bone
Bridge Material: Ebony
Tuning Machines: Open Gear
Case/Gig Bag: Gig Bag
Manufacturer Part Number: KA-GTR-PLR W/BAG

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Reviews

4.6

Customer Photos & Videos

I had basically given up on playing guitar for the past 20 years due to left hand pain. I have recently heard that the short scale guitars with lighter tension could be easier on the hands. I didn't want to spend a lot of money since I didn't know if I'd be able to really play ANOTHER guitar, even if short scale, but price on the Kala Parlor was so low and reviews at Sweetwater and other online sites were so consistently positive that I bought the Kala.

I LOVED the Kala at first sight and first touch. The size is very comfortable, nice light weight, looser tension felt great, and the solid cedar top gave a surprisingly rich warm tone. I finger picked a little since that's what the 12 fret guitars are popular for, but then I jumped into some rusty flat picking. Being able to flat pick after all these years was amazing!

I'm playing a LOT, at least an hour each day, so my time on other instruments (fiddle, mandolin, claw hammer banjo) is suffering lol. My chops are slowly coming back, but they ARE coming back!

Complaints? One minor one - the back of the neck feels grainy and that bothered me at first. I'm pretty much not noticing that now. Also, I do like the look of a 12 fret guitar, but I do miss the easier reach to higher frets on a 14 fret guitar.

SO, I highly recommend the Kala Parlor. Even if you don't need lighter tension, the portability is nice (and the included gig bag is of better quality than I would have expected), and the low cost make it a great travel guitar and for situations in which you might not want to take your higher priced guitars.

Love it!

If anyone had told me that I'd be purchasing a parlor guitar from a company I had never heard of I would have said pigs would fill the skies, but here I am. The Kala is my first full acoustic guitar in over a decade and my first parlor guitar ever. When I went shopping for a new acoustic guitar the last thing I was going to consider was a dreadnought. I'm 67 years old. I suffer back pain (If someone were to give me a Les Paul I'd sell it and get a Martin OM 28), and wanted something smaller bodied. Having said that, I didn't think I would go for a parlor but when I saw the Kala I was all in!

The largest drawing card for me for this guitar is the solid cedar top. The grain is very tight and the top should get darker over time. The finish is satin, which I prefer to the 'dipped in plastic' tone killer of other models. This is one of the most beautiful instruments I've ever owned. At first look you would think it 'blingless', but the instrument possesses a simple beauty (understated, classic) that is quite beguiling. Surrounding the top and the rosette is walnut herringbone trim, as well as walnut binding. The slotted peg head (my first) is mahogany and complements the satin cedar top beautifully. Taken together they give the Kala a kind of old world aesthetic. The back and sides are a mahogany laminate, also in satin, and you can visibly see the pores in the wood. The peg head has the company name Kala in some form of pearloid pearl / abalone. It all depends on how the light catches it. The ebony fingerboard and bridge and the bone nut and saddle all add to the aesthetics of the instrument. For its price point these are very nice appointments.
Because of the shorter scale length and the 12th fret neck join the action is tighter and you have to approach the Kala parlor differently than you would a normal scale guitar. It is a much more intimate instrument. If you're expecting the boom of a dreadnought this is definitely not the guitar you want. I don't fingerpick, but I do use a range of flatpicks. It is responsive, but you can't hit it too hard, as in strumming, or the sound will compress. It does possess an interesting dynamic range. But it's all in how you approach it. It responds to you as you respond to it (If that makes sense).

Essentially with this guitar you are getting a replica of an instrument from the 19th century. I think parlor guitars had their heyday in the 1870s through the 1890s, though they were around before the Civil War. Let that sink in for a minute. In that time period there was no radio, no recorded music. The only way you could hear music was to either make it yourself, hang with someone who played, or go to a live music venue. Families learned to play, and after dinner, they'd gather in the parlor and perform, for themselves and any guests present. With that said, the Kala parlor guitar is a relic of American music history.

The included gigbag is well padded and better than many I've had in the past. All in all, the Kala parlor is a very sweet guitar. If you're looking for an instrument that is easier to wield than a much larger guitar the Kala is made to order. For a shorter person or child it could be a godsend as a first instrument.

Been playing for over 60 yrs. It is wonderful guitar and worth every penny. Well built, very nice materials. I would bet it will age very well if taken care of.

I really didn't have a lot of expectations for this guitar. It caught my eye because it was on sales and it had a cedar top. The sound this guitar generates is truly remarkable. I have other parlor guitars, more expensive, and from companies like PRS, Fender, Guild, and Seagull. This remarkable little Kala went straight to the top of the pile. This may be one of my greatest guitar purchases to date.

In reviewing this guitar I kept in mind that this guitar is just over $. That is why I was pleasantly surprised after receiving and going over it. First the construction of the guitar is solid, to include good bracing. The walnut binding and ebony bridge / fret board was a bonus, usually reserved for much higher costing guitars. The herringbone purfling was a decal and not actual inlay, still looks nice (keep in mind the cost). The cedar top has tight gain and appears to be of a good quality. The mahogany back and neck also seemed to be of good quality. however they were a bit grainy and not smooth. The guitar come with D'Addario .12 strings, plastic bridge pins, pearloid head stock inlays and fretboard dots, and no name open tuners. I upgraded the strings to D'Addario XS .10 for better blues bending, replaced the bridge pins with TUSQ black pins with 4mm paua dot, rounded off the frets ends and conditioned the fret board with lizard lick conditioner, sanded the neck with a 2000 grit eraser to smooth out the surface. Applied lizard lick satin finish polish to the neck and body to moisturize the wood and help smooth out the roughness a bit, and lastly polished the bone nut and saddle. Now this little Parlor Guitar can really the sing the blues or any other music, plays and sounds fantastic, and for old hands the short scale is great. I bought this guitar as a traveling guitar that could take the bumps and bruises of the road, and it can surely do that, but I find myself playing it allot all other times, really a fun little guitar to play and play and play!