Tanglewood

Hello to all fans of this wonder called Tanglewood TW-145 SC. Personally, I have one and I actually chose it because its sound is similar to the sound of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant on the wonderful House of the Holly album. But also for its design, since I don't want a guitar that looks like the ones used in church on Sunday, especially not in a light brown color. I love the brown of the TW-145. My selection came down to six models and this one was my pick. This is only my opinion and I think you should always compare it to other guitars before buying it because, at the end of the day, the sound you are looking for determines your final choice. What's more, I just replaced the original string set (Dadario 12/53) with an Elixir Light 12/53, which is more expensive, but it is really worth it. Now it's acoustic Led Zep full on. The neck is almost as wide as my Fender Strat, the upper frets are easily accessible and it has a remarkable lightness. Plugged into the acoustic guitar amp of a friend, it gave me the vibrations I was expecting. The preamp has all necessary controls to mark your territory (Bass - Mid - Hight - Presence - Vol) It has a rather linear resonance curve, the lows aren't exaggerated and its response to mid and higher frequencies is very crystalline and pure. I think it has personality. I compare it to a unique piece within a collection, because its value for money is unbeatable, +/- $600 to have virtually a high-end instrument. The only drawback is that it doesn't have a fixing point for a strap. Alain Valentour.... UTILIZATION It has everything to become a standard SOUNDS It offers a very wide sound palette, depending on the settings of the preamp. OVERALL OPINION Exceptional value for money. I don't regret my investment at all.

(Originally written by ebouvet/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Conceived by English luthiers, made in China. Massive selected spruce top Mahogany back and sides One-piece massive neck Dot abalone inlays Grover mechanics Satin finish Equipped with a B-Band A3TY preamp (and an integrated tuner) You'll find all technical specs on the Tanglewood website: http://www.tanglewoodguitars.co.uk/products/default.asp?cID=26463189&sID=26465122 UTILIZATION Extremely comfortable neck. The Cutaway allows an easy access to the upper frets (but who wants to play those notes anyway?) Very ergonomic in spite of the jumbo size It sounds good right away. SOUNDS Wide and well-balanced tone. Perfect for rhythm guitar. The BBand system faithfully reproduces the tone of the guitar. OVERALL OPINION I've been using it for 3 months. It perfectly fits my purpose: own compositions in my home studio. What I like the most are its looks, the conception, the finish. What I like least is that it doesn't include a gig bag nor a strap pin... Exceptional value for money! I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again. Since the model has changed over the years, I would appreciate reviews about previous versions.

i came accross this buityfull bass guitar in a small shop in swindon for 235 smackeroons, which is a small price to pay for such a quality sounding bass. i was brousing around the shop looking for a heavy sounding bass so i was looking for some phatty pickups and there she was with the mahogany neck and the mahogany gloss body. The thing i love most about this bass is the price and the playing quality, it a bass to be used for the heavyer playing due to the phatty humbucker pickups and it sounds much better if you wack the heavyest strings you can fined on it. The shear design of this bass is not like many others, the mahogany neck have got to be my faverate point. I havent found anything to complane about yet. wow go buy one i did. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Aquired via Ebay for under £200. Nice looking full sized jazz guitar. Single round cutaway. Twin humbuckers. Cosmetically about 98% perfect, just a couple of minor blemishes. Very heavy guitar. Depth approx 90mm. Solid Chinese construction. Some confusion regarding this guitar, appears Tanglewood have two guitars with the same model number. Mine is the ES175 Gibson copy, the other is the ES335 copy.(Chuck Berry guitar) Guitar very suitable for jazz players on a tight budget. Sound can be made to sound acceptable for jazz if you get the EQ right on your amp. I use a Marshall 50Watt acoustic amp. Works well with this type of guitar. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

i came across this little gem, on a spur of the moment type thing. i was looking for a house guitar as i was getting sick of people always picking up my other guitar(fender).so i was on my way to pick a totally diffrent guitar when i came across this one and also its bigger bro the st28asm(which is a solid mahogany guitar)i'll rewiew that later as i brought it as well.i got the tw28st-usa for $270 and the st28asm for$380 bargain (aussie dollar) well the first thing i liked was the feel of it it feel and looked sweet then once i hit a few chords on it and the way it belted out the sound. it was there and then i thought i've just saved my self 500 bucks .dont get me wrong im not sayng this guitar is anything on the top range guitars but for the money it is a great sounding well finished product. i know i will be looking at them in the future when i go to upgrade,oh and i dont know about the rest of this tw28 range but i dont think i have every and i mean ever seen a top as thick as this one .not even on a higher ranged guitar not really much i can say bad about this one for the money i know alot of other better known brands are not turning out a product of this quallity action was a bit hight for my liking at first but a bit of mods on the bridge and it was sweet this unit is a great piece of guitat for the money solid spruce top ,mahogany neck sides and back rosewood fretboard and bridge. chrome tuners once i give the strings a good bashing in this guitar stays in tune for ages top finish for the money no digrutes here the bottom line is .if you are just starting out and looking for something to grow with and into this guitar is for you..forget the brand names as in years to gome this name in my opinion will be up there with them. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I myself own a Tanglewood TW22 Sundance guitar and have been playing and recording for several years. I recently bought the TWS8SNQ for £130 in a shop in Guildford, Surrey. I bought it for my brother for Christmas and quite frankly am already looking for another present as I'm reluctant to give this bargain away. I can't quite believe how good this guitar is for the money. The finish is good but I'm sure you could find faults. However if you like guitars then you will know its all about how good it sounds and how easy it is to play. The action is suitably low and the sound is fantastic. Quite simply I ran out of the shop expecting the guy to collar me and demand more cash. I was virtually laughing hysterically when I handed over the cash. Looking all the time for the hidden camera. This is an excellent buy. If I had to pick a fault its simply that it doesn't make the tea in the morning. This is a solid bit of kit. The weight makes it feel like good quality. Its very basic in appearance with a plain spruce top and natural satin finish. The Tuning pegs look a little out of place with a fancy sort of flare shape. I may be getting over excited but seriously this is a very very nice guitar for the money. I picked my own Tanglewood simply on sound and feel ignoring the brand. However that cost £330 more than this and apart from the look I'm struggling to really tell the difference. You could play this guitar for many years I'm sure without the need to upgrade as we all so often want to. I just hope my brother appreciates what he is getting and even if he doesn't it won't matter because I will have a guitar at his house to play now anyway. £130 Could buy you aprox 50 pints of lager or a game console with no game. Maybe 6 rounds of golf if your lucky. It could also buy you a Tanglewood TW28SNQ which you will enjoy for the rest of your hopefully long life. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Aquired from Deakin Guitars in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. I was originally going to buy either a Fender Telecaster (around £400) or a Squire Telecaster (around £250). After trying both, to be quite honest - I wasn't that impressed with the Fender Tele, not enough 'twang' on the bridge unit pick-up. The Squire was ok but until I tried the Quomaster I was blown away with the sound straight away. I know it's not an exact replica of the Francis Rossi (too deep a green and his are now fitted with 3 Lace Sensor pick-ups and G&L bridge units) but in the end surely it's all about the sound rather than look. I paid a measly £129.00 in a sale (very lucky - only one left) and it's exactly the sound i was looking for. The scale of the tone is incredible from really twangy trebles to muffly bass - and everything in-between. Definately try this guitar if your a fan of the Telecaster sound. There is nothing I do not like although I may replace the mother-of-pearl scratchplate for a plain white one... It's not as heavy or as solid feeling as the Fender and the squire but apart fom that i am overall impressed with everything about this guitar. I know the Fender 'purists' will disagree with me but in the end it's all about personal preferance - otherwise we would all be playing Fender Strats (what a boring world that would be eh?) An excellent guitar, GREAT price - everything you could want from a Telecaster (and more) This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

This is a British guitar, made by Tanglewood. They've claimed to be the best guitar manufacturer in the UK, but as Northern Ireland is in the UK, and Lowden is based in Northern Ireland, that's a dubious claim. They are, however, quite spectacular in their own right. This guitar is acoustic-electric. It has a volume and tone control on the top part of the guitar. The body is made from mahagony, including the neck. The top however is made of spruce. There's an ebony fretboard as well. UTILIZATION There are 14 frets before the body of the guitar crosses the threshold, and six after. That's not really too much of a problem, though, as this guitar is not cut out for leads in the higher registers anyway, though they do sound great lower on the fretboard. This guitar is easy to make sound good, both plugged in and acoustic. It's not too heavy at all, in fact it's rather light. Everything about playing this guitar is easy. SOUNDS This guitar has a fantastic sound to it. It's got a rich and deep sound but it's also quite bright. I'd say that really heavy, sloppy strumming is probably not the way to go with this guy, but light picking, light strumming, and fingerpicking would sound good with it. It has a great balance of dark and light tones, with a great amount of midrange. When plugged in, it doesn't retain quite the warmth that it projects when played acoustic, however this is a common complaint with acoustic-electrics. I'd say that I'd honestly prefer to leave it unplugged if I can, that way I can enjoy the superior sound. It suits my music pretty well, I tend to play a hybrid of flatpicking and strumming, as well as the occasional finger-picking tune, and overall this guitar tends to work for me. Somebody who strums harder than me, however, will not probably dig it as much. OVERALL OPINION This is a seriously awesome guitar. As it's not that expensive, I'd say it's a pretty great deal overall. For a guitar that sounds this good in general, it's not really a bad purchase at all, and on top of that, it's acoustic-electric, so you have the benefit of using it live too. It'll sound good enough for most gigs, honestly. I highly recommend checking them out, they're tougher to find in the US but they're pretty getting pretty big in the UK and the rest of Europe!

(Originally written by Hatecrew/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Conceived in England, made in China. 20 frets, FISHMAN Classic 4 EQ-System preamp, Fishman Sonicore pickup Engleman massive top Mahogany back and sides Die-Cast Grover-style machine heads Rosewood fingerboard UTILIZATION Very pleasant neck and very easy access up to the last fret. Excellent ergonomics. SOUNDS Now let's talk about the sound!!! It's just huge. Warm and round with enough brilliance, it's the perfect sound!! I discovered this guitar in a shop that inspired no confidence in me so I went to a real music store and tested about 10 guitars. I couldn't find a better one (not even a rather expensive Takamine). I don't use my amp a lot because the acoustic sound is extremely good But I've noticed that the sound through an amp is also good. The preamp quality is quite amazing too I made great recordings with the guitar plugged directly to the input of my PC sound card!! I have no complaints about this guitar except that I had to take it twice to a guitar tech, the first time because of a noisy fret that a luthier had to file down (covered by the warranty), and the second time because of a rattling string. OVERALL OPINION You understood well, this guitar is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!! Everybody who has ever played it envies me!! It can easily compete with guitars twice as expensive!! If I seem like a guy only praising his guitar, you're totally right! It's just incredible. If you ever have the chance to play this guitar DO IT!!!! Of course I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again!! (I'm thinking about testing electric guitars from this same manufacturer but they currently make lots of copies and have no models of their own)