Product: Thomsley Dreadnought
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
05/14/2004
at
07:55am
by
Dennis Thornes
Email: dthornes at cox<dot>net
Features
:
9
This is a handmade dreadnought guitar with a solid sitka spruce top & solid mahogany back, sides & neck. All of the binding & purfling is maple. It has a satin finish & is a 14 fret model. Gotoh tuners & measures 1 3/4" at the nut. It also has a really cool koa logo inlay on the head stock. This is a basic model aimed at the player on a budget. It doesn't have a lot of bells & whistles, but is a fantastic instrument & would have been a bargain at double the price!
Sound
:
10
It has a rich full sound & is quite loud (what you would expect from a dreadnought). It's sound is better than my Taylor 412, not just for loudness, but overall tone. You can feel the quality when you pick or strum this guitar. The tone is equal to what you might expect from a more well known builder. It compares well against my beautiful Sheppard GA-2 & Ryan guitars I have tried (but just can't afford)!
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
The guitar came set up perfectly. Low action... easy to play. The satin finish makes it look a little plain, but the all wood trim makes up for it in my book. This a a well built guitar, made by someone who knows what he's doing. I hope to commission a custom guitar from the builder Heath Thomsley Hales in the near future.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
I have only had the guitar for a short time, but just by seeing & feeling the quality, I can tell it will hold up over time.
Customer Support
:
10
I talked to the builder after winning this guitar on Ebay. I was at first skeptical about the purchase. It seemed too good to be true and if it seems that way it almost always IS too good to be true. However this was an excellent exception! It has a limited lifetime warranty & I have no doubt that the builder will stand behind his work.
Overall Rating
:
10
I have been playing fingerstyle guitar for 5 years. I have owned many acoustic guitars including: Taylors, Martins, Guilds, Takamines & Epiphones. I have sold all of those. My main guitar is a Sheppard GA-2 (spruce & beautiful koa) & this fine Thomsley guitar is a keeper as well. It was a steal! If this Thomsley guitar was lost or stolen I would order a replacement (although I would probably get a different style, because I prefer a smaller bodied guitar).
What I love most about this guitar is the playability & the great sound. The only thing I wish it had was a gloss finish, but that's not a big deal to me.
