Talking Farida Guitars The Farida M-26 is a great-looking parlour guitar and sounds really great for Mississippi or Delta blues and slide playing as you can hear from this video. Farida has a range of models which replicate the parlor guitars of the early 1920's.
They are smaller in size than your usual dreadnought or Grand Auditorium. Good for finger-picking, too.
The H-67 is the top model and comes with a price tag of nearly RM5,000. For that price it features a solid Engelmann spruce top and solid rosewood back and sides. It's a beautiful guitar with a one-piece mahogany neck with a green abalone "Tree of Life" inlay, and an ebony fingerboard and bridge. It's a work of art for that price.
And yet it's still so much cheaper than some Taylors and CF Martins. With good projection of sound and great playability, the China-made parlor guitar can be considered great value for money against those expensive American-made models.
However, having tried all three models, I settled for the H-16E not only because it has the Fishman Isys T EQ system for amplified performance but, according to my ears, the twang was fantastic.
I have owned a Seagull Mahogany Folk made in Canada for more than 10 years and it still gives good service. Now I find the H-16E has got that unique twang so different from the Seagull but that's not belittling the Canadian guitar. This parlor guitar features a solid spruce top with rosewood back and sides. Of course, it's plainer than the H-67 but for a price tag of less than RM2,000 it's definitely great value for money for the sound coming out of it.
I have also tried out some Takamine, Yamaha, Epiphone, Ibanez, Taylor and CF Martin and this well-built Farida really stood out and beat the hell out of them. - AcousticTwang
UPDATE - Aug 1 2011: The Farida M-26 model is now available at The Guitar Store in Damanasara Perdana, Malaysia, and probably their other outlets will carry it, too.
