Parkwood PW510

Solid sitka spruce top. Solid rosewood back and solid rosewood sides. All gloss body with a satin finished neck. Dreadnought body style, Grover tuners, 1 11/16" nut width, 14 frets to the body, 20 frets total. Made in China (the older ones were made in Korea). Herringbone purfling around the guitar top. Bound body (both sides) neck, and headstock. Bone nut, bone saddle, and ebony bridge pins. It also came with 2 strap pins for you to install, an allen wrench for the truss rod, some shims, an extra bridge pin, and an extra tusq saddle. It came with a deluxe gigbag. I prefer a hard shell case, but the gigbag is as good as it gets as far as gigbags go. It is a bigger better version of the Baby Taylor or Martin LXM gigbag. Heavily padded with backpack straps.

It would have been nice if the strap pin was pre-installed and if there was a clear pickguard. It's a clean looking guitar with some nice visual touches to it.

The sound is what you would expect out of a rosewood back & side guitar. Deep bass with clean crisp highs. It is both dark from the rosewood and bright at the same time. Single note runs are clear and strummed chords are beautifully blended together. While higher end guitars sound a little deeper & smoother, there is a good fundamental sound to the Parkwood and it has some nice overtones to it (although the overtones aren't very prominent). For comparison sake, I've owned a Breedlove AD20/SR+ (solid back/laminate sides), an Alvarez PD90S (solid back/laminate sides), and tried an Alvarez MD90C (all solid rosewood). In terms of sound, I prefer them in this order: Parkwood, Alvarez MD90C, Alvarez PD90S, and then the Breedlove AD20/SR+. Of these guitars, the Parkwood is the loudest. While the Breedlove was nice, it sounded too muffled like someone turned down the volume on it. The Alvarez's were nice and maybe a little nicer when fingerpicked (due to the Englemann spruce top), it was a little lacking when strummed hard. I've owned some higher end rosewood guitars, but in terms of price, it wouldn't be fair to include them. I've also tried a Chinese made Guild with solid rosewood back and sides and was not very impressed. The thick finish seemed to deaden the sound. I would rank the Parkwood ahead of that one as well. NOTE: all guitars except for the Guild had fresh Elixir Nanoweb Lights on them.

Not everyone likes the sound of a rosewood guitar, but if you you do and want one with all solid rosewood back AND sides, then this guitar is hard to beat for the price. While some rosewood guitars can be boomy, this one falls on the brighter end of the spectrum.

For the price... I give it a 10.

The action was slightly high at the bridge and at the nut. Nothing major, but I like my action nice and low.

The craftsmanship for a Chinese guitar is surprisingly nice. Compared the guitars I've mentioned, the Alvarez PD90S was better (made in Korea), but the Parkwood is better than the Breedlove. The Breedlove had rough unsanded braces inside. No biggie, but that is what I saw.

Being a rosewood guitar, it is noticeably heavier than a mahogany guitar will be.

I've seen better fit and finish so I give it a 9.

The guitar feels solid and is well built. I would trust it to hold up wherever I would feel comfortable enough to take it.

The only part of the guitar that may not last the test of time are the bridge pins. They're made of ebony and I've had one break on a Parkwood PW310M. The bridge pins on this guitar are different and better made, but seeing the old one fall apart makes me more careful with them.

Parkwood's customer service is great. I called them to buy extra bridge pins for my old PW310M. They asked me for my address and sent me a full set for free.

It wasn't just that they did that, but HOW they did it. I bought the guitar used and wasn't trying to pretend it was under warranty. They treated my like a person and not a serial number. They were pleasant on the phone and took care of it. As long as the same people run Parkwood, there is nothing to worry about here.

With Parkwoods, I've only seen great or terrible reviews on them. I've tried many Parkwoods and the ones with old strings were duds. The ones with relatively fresh strings have always impressed me for the price.

I bought my PW510 used and it sounded like a dud, but for the price I paid, I was willing to take a chance that fresh strings would the guitar shine and it did.

There are certainly better guitars out there, but if you like the sound of rosewood and want an all solid spruce/rosewood guitar, I've found this one hard to beat. This rating is for the price I paid.