Views on tanglewood guitars

decies

At the moment have a freshman beginners type guitar, looking to upgrade to around 800 to 1000 semi acoustic . Was thinking of getting something from the tanglewood range any thoughts??

glashanator

Tanglewood's are fine guitars but you wouldn't need to spend that kind of money to get a good one. 400 would be plenty to pick up a good 2nd hand Tanglewood or even a new one. If you were intent on spending up to a 1000. You would pick up a high end Takamine for that money. Or a decent Taylor or Martin acoustic.The reason I'd get The Tak Taylor or Martin is they will hold their value much better, when you may invariably end up selling it on..........But remember this,Don't buy a guitar cos of whats written on the headstock. Go to your instrument shops and play many guitars.You'll eventually come across the one for you......... And may only be a few hundred quid,so why pay more.......If you're a player, get the guitar you wanna pick up every day,or find yourself gravitating towards often, and you don't even know why.........Just my Fitty cent....

fret_wimp2

Back when Musician Inc existed I was in the market for a guitar. I had a budget of 800 euros(ish)
I tried a bunch of guitars in there, and had decided to buy a martin ( i think) that was 850. just before i paid, i asked to try one more guitar, a tanglewood up on the wall.

It felt, to me much nicer than any other guitar in the shop. 5 seconds strumming confirmed it was my guitar.

When i asked the price....375 euros! almost half of what i was going to spend. I forked out for a decent hard case and i still have the guitar. its still awesome!

Disregard price and brand. Play a bunch of guitars, you will quickly find that price and brand dont mean a whole lot and the feel of the guitar will determine it for you.

decies

Am trying out a tsr2 over the weekend

Da GOAT

My 2c,

I started with a Tanglewood TD 8 II, great guitar for 240e about 2 years ago (selling ftw). Found it a great guitar but after playing other guitars in xmusic I wanted a change.

Last week I was in similiar boat as yourself with similiar money. At xmusic there was a couple martins c. 750-900 or so, Taylor 110 & 114 719-955e, Tanglewood c. 800e and a Craftine for 599e.

Martin, Taylor, Craftine played beautifully but martin was dullish. Craftine was on par with the Taylor but i felt taylors tad too bright so I ended up purchasing the craftine which I had never thought about when entering the shop. The tanglewood i wasnt a fan of, found playability abit stiffer than i like, design wise the tanglewood looked amazing but lacked playability.

anyway my 2c, dont go for brands.

Keyzer

My nephew got a beautiful epiphone acoustic on Thomann for 400 recently - really surprised with the quality of both the build and finish and the sound of the instrument...

MattKid

I play a custom made Bourgeois Slope D. around €4K's worth of guitar.

I'm not saying that to boast, just to give some indication of where I'm coming from when i say, I've been shocked and surprised at the sound, playability, and quality of the Tanglewood guitars I have played when helping others find a guitar.

I've played ones for sale from €300 - €700 range and they were great guitars, I don't know what the electronics are like with the ones with pickups though.

decies

Settled on a tsr 2 c http://www.tanglewoodguitars.co.uk/products/acoustic/masterdesign.html

quicklickpaddy

+1 on the first two posts. Especially with acoustic guitars you're much better off strumming around on a few and picking your favourite without regarding price. You've got a healthy enough budget that whatever you think sounds/feels best will more than likely be within what you're willing to pay

Hayte

Da GOAT wrote: »

Last week I was in similiar boat as yourself with similiar money. At xmusic there was a couple martins c. 750-900 or so, Taylor 110 & 114 719-955e, Tanglewood c. 800e and a Craftine for 599e.

Martin, Taylor, Craftine played beautifully but martin was dullish. Craftine was on par with the Taylor but i felt taylors tad too bright so I ended up purchasing the craftine which I had never thought about when entering the shop. The tanglewood i wasnt a fan of, found playability abit stiffer than i like, design wise the tanglewood looked amazing but lacked playability.

anyway my 2c, dont go for brands.

Don't go on the sound too much. The last time I was in x music I noticed alot of the guitars in the high end room had old strings on them, some heavily tarnished. You can make any guitar sound dull if it has worn strings on it.

With that said, I did play a Tanglewood TW47E out on the main floor in X-Music some time ago. That guitar was better than half the guitars in the high end room I reckon. It played great, held tuning and intonated properly, straight off the rack. Wasn't keen on the garish gold tuners and the funky wood grain but the guitar was well built and had a good hard finish. I knew it was a cracker after about 10 seconds of playing it.

Of the guitars in the high end room, the Taylor 214CE was my favourite by a long way. Of all things, a guitar with laminated back/sides. I rate that guitar as better than my solidwood 712 from 1997 in almost every way except I prefer Grand Concert size/shape/weight. The only thing I didn't like about the 214 was the weight distribution when played over one leg.

Oh, it also cost a little over a third of what I paid for a 712 in 1997. So yeah, TW47E and 214CE are two giantkillers in my humble opinion. I want to stress however that pretty much every guitar in that store was better than what I learned on by a mile. I think the standard has been getting higher over the past 10 years or so.

seanybiker

My first proper left handed electric was a tanglewood.
I was awkwardly playing a restrung right handed guitar before that.
Everything about the tanglewood was great. Perfect action, very well made , played in a teenage band with it, not proper gigs like, just for friends families etc cos I was still learning at the time.
I have an epiphone now and miss the tanglewood.

Hayte

I think its fair to say that Tanglewood is a well respected brand at this point. Alot of people have good things to say about them and I've personally found the Tanglewood guitars I've played to be quite impressive. As with all guitars, play it before you buy, but if a TW47 or TW45 is your first guitar then thats a helluva good way to start. The only problem is that if you don't get good quick, you can't blame your guitar like I could with the early 90s no name s**tboxes I used to play when I was a newbie.

johnROSS

my sisters tanglewood is a thing of pure beauty. the action is unbelievable, the finish is bright and the fishman tuner is quite precise. it has a really bright tone compared to my dads g series takamine. bought for half of what you're talkin about in savins in limerick

Trevor Kent

Da GOAT wrote: »

My 2c,

I started with a Tanglewood TD 8 II, great guitar for 240e about 2 years ago (selling ftw). Found it a great guitar but after playing other guitars in xmusic I wanted a change.

Last week I was in similiar boat as yourself with similiar money. At xmusic there was a couple martins c. 750-900 or so, Taylor 110 & 114 719-955e, Tanglewood c. 800e and a Craftine for 599e.

Martin, Taylor, Craftine played beautifully but martin was dullish. Craftine was on par with the Taylor but i felt taylors tad too bright so I ended up purchasing the craftine which I had never thought about when entering the shop. The tanglewood i wasnt a fan of, found playability abit stiffer than i like, design wise the tanglewood looked amazing but lacked playability.

anyway my 2c, dont go for brands.

Similar to that.

Went into Xmusic for an upgrade to My Tanglewood TW12 (which i have had now for 16 years and will never sell, great starter guitar for me).
Tried Martins, Taylors and Tanglewoods and came away with a Craftine CD22eq. They just seem to punch above their weight given the price, Lovely tone.

But id recommend Tanglewood, mine sounds great (think it cost me about 300 punts at the time) and has taken 16 years of abuse and eventually gigging. But try loads out, see what fits.
.

D1stant

Im also on the verge of a Tanglewood (TW15NSE). Its not pretty, the finish is average but it sounds better than every other guitar in the price range

I was after a Martin, but the lower end ones are just exploiting the name IMHO

Suggestions welcome!

decies

D1stant wrote: »

Im also on the verge of a Tanglewood (TW15NSE). Its not pretty, the finish is average but it sounds better than every other guitar in the price range

I was after a Martin, but the lower end ones are just exploiting the name IMHO

Suggestions welcome!

How much in euros are they looking for in the shop?

D1stant

695E which seems ok when I conpared with prices online

D1stant

If anyone is still on this thread...

Have settled on a Tanglewood TSR2. Anyone have an opinion on them versus the big name brands

TBH I cant see anything better than a Lowden but the on I want is about 9k :-(

topcatcbr

decies wrote: »

Settled on a tsr 2 c http://www.tanglewoodguitars.co.uk/products/acoustic/masterdesign.html

Sorry for dragging up an old thread.

How do you like the tanglewood. It looks like a very nice guitar. I am thinking about upgrading from my TW55 which I love to something a bit more upmarket. As I already like the tanglewood I have am thinking of staying with that brand. I think they're great value.

feylya

topcatcbr, please don't drag up old threads, and please don't delete and repost the same message to bump the thread