Price paid: £ 500
Purchased from: Millington's Music
Features: This is a handcrafted all solid dreadnought guitar: very fine Englemann Spruce top, with solid Indian Rosewood back and sides, all given a very glossy finish. Mahogany neck with a wonderful ebony fretboard featuring mother of pearl inlays. The headstock features gold waverly tuners, and an abalone Tanglewood logo, and the soundhole has a beautiful abalone ring. The Herringbone binding is superb. Bone nut, ebony bridge, ivory bridge pins, basically, this is the very best that Tanglewood can throw at a guitar. // 10
Sound: The first thing to note is the sheer power of the sound, it is very impressive. Deep, powerful bass, with sweet trebles. It performs extremely well for fingerstyle playing, it is superbly responsive, but this is a dreadnought, and it's true strength lies with strumming. After a bit of finger picking, you can almost feel the guitar crying out to be played hard! Simply put, this is one of the most beautiful, rich sounding guitars I have ever heard. If I had any criticism, it would be that it doesn't seem to project percussion quite as well, but frankly I really don't care! // 10
Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar has an absolutely beautiful look and feel, I originally went to a guitar shop to try out as many acoustics as I could get my hands on, and the first one I picked up was one of these. My lunch break later, I realised I was still playing it, and had no desire to stop. I would've happily sat there all afternoon. I got mine pretty much directly from Tanglewood, so no middle man adjusting: pure factory settings. Frankly, they were spot on: the action was perfect, and it was even in tune. Unfortunately a few imperfections on the finish, and the pick guard leaves something to be desired, but nothing that'll detract from the playing experience. // 9
Reliability & Durability: I haven't had this long enough to comment properly, but the build quality is very good, and I have no reason to suspect that this won't last as long as I do. To be fair though, this isn't the sort of guitar I would want to take on the road with me, if it was I would've got the electro acoustic version, this is more for casual playing for my own pleasure. And frankly I plan to get many many years of playing out of this guitar! // 9
Impression: I play a variety of styles of music, and this guitar plays them all well, fingerstyle and strumming. If I play Newton Faulkner or Andy Mckee, it handles the various rediculous tunings very well, and does everything I ask of it. Alternatively, if I want to thrash out some Foo Fighters, it'll do that too, and give it every ounce of tone and volume you could ever want. // 10
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