Faith Naked Mercury Parlour Guitar

This second hand acoustic guitar is in great condition , Includes Faith gig bag.

The Faith Naked Mercury is a compact, short-scale parlour guitar with a solid Engelmann spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides, and a deliberately understated satin finish. (

Design and Build

The Mercury is built around Faith's traditional parlour body shape, measuring around 340mm across the lower bout. Despite its relatively small footprint, the body is fairly deep, which helps give the guitar considerably more acoustic presence than its size initially suggests. 

There is no body binding, the finish is a simple two-stage satin, and the decoration is kept to a minimum. What you do get is an all-solid construction: solid Engelmann spruce on top and solid Indonesian mahogany for the back and sides. The fingerboard and bridge are Indonesian ebony. 

It's an attractive guitar in a very understated way. The natural wood grain does most of the visual work, while the small abalone rosette and mother-of-pearl 'F' at the 12th fret provide just enough decoration.

Playability

Compared with a conventional 14-fret acoustic, the shorter scale and design of the the Mercury's 12th-fret neck joint give the guitar a slightly more relaxed feel, with lower string tension and a comfortable response under the fingers. 

The 43mm nut width provides enough room for fingerstyle playing without making the neck feel excessively wide. The 16-inch fingerboard radius is also a relatively modern touch for a parlour guitar.

The satin-finished mahogany neck  feels smooth rather than sticky, making position changes easy and giving the guitar an immediately playable character.

Sound

A small parlour guitar can sometimes sound thin or boxy, but the Mercury has a surprisingly big, focused and projecting voice. The combination of Engelmann spruce and mahogany produces a warm fundamental with enough brightness and definition to keep individual notes clear.

It is particularly effective when played gently. Fingerpicking brings out a sweet, intimate quality, while blues, folk, ragtime and singer-songwriter styles suit the guitar extremely well.

Versatility

The Mercury is especially good for players who enjoy:

• Fingerstyle
• Folk
• Blues
• Ragtime
• Country
• Singer-songwriter accompaniment
• Home recording
• Casual playing and songwriting

It also makes an excellent second guitar. Its small body makes it comfortable to pick up for short playing sessions, while the solid construction means you're not making a significant tonal compromise for the sake of portability.

Build Quality

The quality-to-price ratio is arguably the Mercury's biggest strength.

You're getting an all-solid guitar rather than a laminate-bodied instrument, along with a Patrick James Eggle X-brace design, hand-scalloped quarter-sawn spruce bracing, an ebony bridge and fingerboard, NuBone nut and saddle, and a two-way truss rod. 

Faith's use of a thin satin finish also makes sense acoustically. It keeps the guitar looking understated while allowing the solid woods to vibrate freely.

Pros

• Excellent all-solid construction
• Beautiful solid Engelmann spruce top
• Solid mahogany back and sides
• Surprisingly powerful sound for a parlour guitar
• Warm, focused and articulate tone
• Excellent for fingerstyle and blues
• Comfortable 12-fret, short-scale design
• Smooth satin neck
• Very good build quality
• Understated, natural appearance
• Gigbag included

The Faith Naked Mercury is a superb example of a small-bodied acoustic guitar done properly.

Its greatest achievement is that it doesn't sound like a compromise. The compact parlour body makes it comfortable and portable, while the solid spruce-and-mahogany construction gives it enough volume, warmth and projection to remain genuinely satisfying to play.

It is particularly impressive for fingerstyle, blues and folk, where its quick response and focused midrange can really shine. 

Best for: fingerstyle players, folk and blues musicians, singer-songwriters, smaller-handed players and anyone looking for a compact acoustic with a surprisingly mature voice.

The Faith Naked Mercury proves that a guitar doesn't need elaborate decoration to be impressive. Strip away the cosmetics, leave the solid woods and careful design in place, and what remains is a wonderfully responsive little parlour guitar with far more character and projection than its modest dimensions suggest.

Guitar Dimensions 

Upper Bout: 240mm
Lower Bout: 340mm
Depth at Neck: 96mm
Depth at Base: 110mm
Body Length: 500mm
Soundhole Diameter: 100mm
Fingerboard Radius: 16"