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I'm gonna be buying a new Lefty Butterscotch Tanglewood Tele next week for £85, but I was wondering what you folks thought of Tanglewoods?

I've played some of their acoustics and they've seemed very good for the money. Apparently their electrics have got good pickups (Entwhistle pickups?) and they look like they're built pretty nicely.

This is really just an experiment to see how I get on with Teles, and I was never gonna get this good a deal on a lefty in a cool colour so I've decided to go for it. For this price there's not much to lose.

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Opinions?

played a tanglewood les paul a while ago, it was ok heavy as fook (Concrete wood?)but well balanced and it sounder all right

They were quite good at one point, then they changed manufacturer and went downhill a little (according to my local shop). The late 90s models seem to get bidded up on ebay.
Still, at £85 you can't go wrong right? Its string-thru which is a good sign for a budget Tele, any idea what thickness the body is and what timber it is made from?

Fran wrote: any idea what thickness the body is and what timber it is made from?

No idea at all. It's pretty hard to find stuff on the 'net about it. I'll find out of course when I get it.

As you say though, string thru has got to be a good sign. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

Fran wrote:They were quite good at one point, then they changed manufacturer and went downhill a little (according to my local shop). The late 90s models seem to get bidded up on ebay.
Still, at £85 you can't go wrong right? Its string-thru which is a good sign for a budget Tele, any idea what thickness the body is and what timber it is made from?

Sounds about right to me. A girlfriend bought one back in 2002 and it was dogshit. Brand new from what I could tell, but the tuners were shoddy crap, the individual bits of wood making up the body could be seen through the finish (five, if you must know) and it just had general quality issues anywhere you might look. Most of the Tanglewood electrics I played from this period were similar, bar a few "higher end" models, ie ones that cost a little more than £150, particularly an offset strat-type in purple sparkle with a bigsby (or I might have just liked the way it looked). Anyway, I tried a few out in a guitar shop a few months ago, and while the range appears to have reverted to average copies instead of the more adventurous stuff from earlier, they were much, much better guitars.

Looks like it's basically THIS model, so it'll be basswood.

I'm not really expecting it to be incredible, it's mostly just to gimme a chance with a Tele.

headstock isn't hideous, it's got taht going for it.

My first electric guitar was a Tanglewood strat copy. I got it christmas 2000 i think for around £100. It sucked.
I remember going round to a friends house and playing his dads Squier standard strat, it felt amazing. I thought I was playing a £1000 guitar. That's how much the Tanglewood thing sucked. I didn't know anything about setting up guitars though and never got it set up, so it probably could have been made to play better. It didn't sound great though either. I would say just get a Squier tele.

DanHeron wrote: I would say just get a Squier tele.

Therein lies a problem though. I'm lefty. Squier only do lefty Strats (and a bass or two I think). I had planned on just going for a Squier Tele of some kind and flipping it, but realised it would just be a bit illogical. Most fendery shapes will look and play OK upside down, but not a Tele.

I was still just gonna go for a Squier, but then this came up and I thought I had to give it a go. For that price it's worth a shot, and most comments I've heard haven't been at all damning.

Ah ok. For the price it's probably alright, especially if you can set it up properly.

From my experience theyre pretty decent guitars for the money, I played a strat copy a few years ago that someone had at my high school.

Also I've never really came across a guitar that cant play well after being properly set-up, good luck with it

I have a Tanglewood bass I got for my 11th birthday in 2004. It plays and sounds fine, nothing special but fine. And my friend got a Strat copy for Christmas 2006 which I've played a few times recently. It sounds lovely, on a par with another friends Mexican Strat, my only complaint would be that the neck is a bit er... rough? I don't really know how to describe it, the neck just isn't that smooth.

I'm suspecting the tuners and the neck are gonna be the only parts that are really below par on the guitar. Too early to judge obviously, but I can see it being those that I'll consider changing.

Freddy V-C wrote:I have a Tanglewood bass I got for my 11th birthday in 2004. It plays and sounds fine, nothing special but fine. And my friend got a Strat copy for Christmas 2006 which I've played a few times recently. It sounds lovely, on a par with another friends Mexican Strat, my only complaint would be that the neck is a bit er... rough? I don't really know how to describe it, the neck just isn't that smooth.

A little bit of fine wire wool would help make things smoother? As long as its a matt finish, otherwise I'd just polish the crap out of it until it was smooth?

mrperson wrote:

Freddy V-C wrote:I have a Tanglewood bass I got for my 11th birthday in 2004. It plays and sounds fine, nothing special but fine. And my friend got a Strat copy for Christmas 2006 which I've played a few times recently. It sounds lovely, on a par with another friends Mexican Strat, my only complaint would be that the neck is a bit er... rough? I don't really know how to describe it, the neck just isn't that smooth.

A little bit of fine wire wool would help make things smoother? As long as its a matt finish, otherwise I'd just polish the crap out of it until it was smooth?

Not my guitar and he's happy with it as it is. But yeah, I'll suggest that to him.