Tanglewood TW115 AS

This guitar was (handcrafted) built in China, year 2006 I think.

TW115 AS (all solid) is by far the best guitar in the pricerange 300-500. This guitar features solid spruce top, solid mahogany back and solid sides. However, the Tanglewood websites tells me it has bonded mahogany sides. Everywhere else I read that AS in TW115 AS stands for all solid. Maybe someone else can figure that out.

For the rest: One piece neck, maple bound body and fingerboard, rosewood fingerboard and bridge, abalone inlaid positon markers, grover machine heads, satin finish.

It has all the features that are needed to make a great sounding and looking acoustic guitar.

The sound of this guitar is definitely 10. It's warm, thick, divers and has much of bass in it. This is where other acoustics in this pricerange fail. I also tried the TW170 AS, this one is i think a dreadnought and has a brighter and louder sound. Not suitable for me but also really nice sounding. I use the TW115 AS for chords as well for fingerpicking. Both techniques sound outstanding and will sound even better as years go by (because of its all solid construction).

Got this guitar from a music store and I'm assuming they haven't changed the set-up. Never changed anything about the set-up because I have no idea how it can become an even better guitar. The guitar was set up with D'addario 012 strings. The action is great all over the fretboard (absolutely not hight but also no fretbuzz).

When you have this guitar in your hands you can tell that Tanglewood has paid much attention to it's design. It's a little vintage looking, has remarkable abalone inlaid positon markers and the used colors just match perfectly together.

Now, this guitar did fall a couple of times & had beer over it. After two years it's only got a few markers on the headstock and body. The only problem this guitar brought me was the nut that has broken. Can't really tell if this was my fault by letting it fall on the floor (noticed it later).

Soundwise this guitar doesn't loose it's vibe. I've changed the strings recently and I think the guitar sounds even better now.

My nut broke after two year. Tried to contact Tanglewood by e-mail but got no reply. The nut is now glued together and works fine. Still looking for replacement nuts though.

I've been playing guitar for about 10 years. Many guitars have felt my hands, about 4 of them were acoustic guitars. This guitar has the looks, sounds en is amazingly affordable. This guitar is a very good choice for advanced players and a dream coming true for beginning players. Best buy under 500 euro's!

However, if you like the bright and harder sound of a dreadnought, you should try out the TW170 AS.