Tanglewood Quomaster 52

I dont know what year my Tanglewood Quomaster 52 were made but I aquired it brand new from a shop in Croydon in December 2002. Soon as I saw it it was love at first sight. It was a fine Telecaster copy,Blonde body which is very light weight,not sure what the wood is, with maple neck, thin d shape fully flamed with 21 medium frets, a single laminated black scratch plate with eight fixings, silver Kluson type tuning keys, two single coil pick-ups,all controls were made of chrome plated metal and not plastic chrome plated.It was fitted with I beleive 10 gauge nickel plated strings wired through the body and strung over 3 nickel plated bridge pieces, and 2 string restraints between the 5th and 4th tuning keys on the headstock.

Now the really oustanding test was the sound albeit in the shop played through a Vox AC 30 and later at home through my Marshall 40w Valvestate amp blew me away, and the most suprising to me was the fact it was in tune all the way up the neck, the intonation was faultless unlike the standard early 1970s USA Telecaster I once had, which drove me mad, never could I get the intonation right even after having it set up by Andy.This Tanglewood Quomaster has the chinky sound of a Telecaster on the lead pick-up and a soft mellow bluesey sound on the neck pick, and the out of phase sound using both pick-ups is awesome.I like playing Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones, and of course Status Quo material and its perfect for this.I was told at the time of purchase that this was the only one left and no more were to be imported, I did check to see if this were true by trying different outlets with the same outcome, no more stocks of this guitar, I was a bit nervous to say the least, but its sound playablilty for the price were the reasons why I wanted it!

Everything regarding the action, which I would like to point out was very low, and I like to bend strings as far as I can, and there was no muting or buzzing. The factory set up was exceptional, and its not been adjusted in the six years that I have had it. The Quomaster 52 is very robust workhorse. My only reservation must be the original pick-ups that were fitted were fine being played indoors at home at fairly high volume, but on stage when playing lead riffs,I could not hear some notes very important to the music, and it was decided by me that these pick-ups had to be replaced, and to buy Fender USA standard single coil pick-ups and fit, this cured my problem, the original pick-ups were stripped down by me to find that the pole pieces were steel pegs adhered to a bar magnet, this to me was the reason of the missing edge to the sound reproduction.For personal reasons I changed the two subminiature volume and tone pots to the original one inch pot and supplied and fitted a 0.5 mfd capacitor to the tone control which were fitted to my USA counterpart.

My Quomaster 52 has had its fair share of knocks and bangs and apart from a small crack in the polyester or what ever the material is,its not showing any fatigue or pieces falling off or furniture becoming loose

The shop gave me the statutary one years cover, there were no reason to take it back for any reason.

I did compare with other guitars, the Fender Squire Telecaster and the Fender Affinity Telecaster,did also try a USA Fender Telecaster, but the finish and playability and sound for the money, the Tanglewood Quomaster to my mind was a better buy.
If I had to replace it I think that this would have to be the Quomaster, but I think that it would be almost impossible to replace as I think the one I have is one of a few.