guitar shopping...

[flaviomatani]

Guitar buying expedition successful, although tiring. Pupil has a new shiny and she's very happy with it. Unfeasibly, and against my long held prejudice against the make, it turned out to be a Tanglewood -and not a cheap-cheap one. I'd only played Tanglewoods at the cheaper end of the scale and never liked them but this one was very playable, very good tone and action. She liked the sound of one of the Epiphones we tried, a Dove something-or-other but she couldn't live with the cowboy decor.

That set me thinking. I too need a steel strung acoustic, for various things. At the moment I have a number of nylon strung classicals and a few electrics (of which the only one that's any good is my '65 Strat; would not part with it for the world) but haven't got a steel-strung acoustic. I'm afraid I cannot spend much on one and it is very unlikely that I'll play that sort of guitar onstage, so this budget guitar shopping expedition may have been useful in several ways, to know what there is out there that I can actually afford and justify.

Comments

[lsur.livejournal.com]

I always had Tanglewood steel-stringed acoustics and other people have remarked on the silvery tone. I think they can vary according to model but can be very good even at the cheaper end.

[flavius-m.livejournal.com]

I like my pupil's one quite a bit. I couldn't afford six hundred pounds for that, though! I myself needed a steel-strung acoustic for some little project and ended up getting an Epiphone Hummingbird. I'm aware that whilst the top is solid the sides and back are laminate, but I love the tone in it. My pupil's T is better, but I still didn't like the cheaper T'woods I tried (I only had a couple of hundred quid for this).