ACOUSTIC GUITARS SECTOR SPOTLIGHT
Low strummers
The sub-£500 acoustic guitar sector is among the MI trade’s most virulent, with the greatest volume of sales and is often customers’ introduction to the world of music shops. Build quality is excellent, with good use of the more expensive woods and materials, while the variety of styles and sizes is huge. Ronnie Dungan picked his way through what’s new…..
“
You look at anyone who's any good, who plays an acoustic guitar, right! Neil Young, Steven Stills, Van fuckin'
Morrison! What do they play? Yeah, that's right. The Big fuckin' Wood. What you need is The Big Wood!" So said, the late Joe Strummer to an acquaintance who favoured what Joe sneeringly referred to as the more ‘thwacky thwacky’ plastic-backed acoustics. And it’s hard to disagree with the sentiment isn’t it? You can spend too much time talking about woods and finishes, but at the end of the day, £500 will certainly secure an extremely playable instrument with plenty of tone and volume. And the choice is vast in what is the trade’s most competitive sector. Take Tanglewood,
which has experienced huge growth in exports in Australia and South Africa and has mirrored the success in the UK and Ireland, which is still its core market.
The sub-£500 market “
WWW.MI-PRO.CO.UK
and styles. Every model in the series features a solid A grade sitka spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides, Canadian rock maple binding, B-Band and dedicated T35 EQ systems on electro models completed by gold Kluson style vintage butterbean machine heads for precision tuning. Every instrument is finished with a unique Tanglewood 7mm genuine Indian Rosewood inlaid sound hole Rosette as a premium and distinctive design signature. Evolution dreadnoughts feature genuine Canadian red cedar, in luxury satin finishes and begins at £179 retail. Every popular Tanglewood body style is
You can spend too much time talking about woods and finishes, but £500 will certainly secure an extremely
is still where the real volume is (so to speak) and the firm offers a mass of models across eight different ranges with a variety of features and finishes, including a range for southpaws. The Tanglewood Premier series is a
totally Solid Top model range and some even feature all solid timber construction. Model shapes include Dreadnought, Super Folk, Orchestra, Super Jumbo and Parlour. These guitars feature traditional Japanese Herringbone binding, ‘Aged’ Canadian cedar and spruce solid tops, Kluson-style vintage machine heads and select mahogany single piece necks. Premier Historic is a range of Matt
satin, solid mahogany acoustics in a 1930s style with a nod to the Delta Blues. It includes Super Folk Electro versions, a Slope Shoulder Acoustic, Dreadnought single cut, 000 acoustic and Parlour shapes, all with distinctively authentic vintage peghead headstocks and BBand T35 preamps where applicable. Rosewood Reserve models offer 23 different options, in various body shapes
playable instrument.
available, including Auditorium and Dreadnought acoustics in laminated red cedar and solid top variants, with Englemann Spruce as options, Super Jumbo, Super Folk Electros in six colours, 12 strings, acoustic basses in various types of natural satin and high gloss and transparent colour options. For the more
demanding customer, Evolution offers the Evo Exotic series in various Luxury timbers. XM models feature Flame Maple body materials, XB series offer exotic Bubinga and the new TVC KOA series offers Hawaiian KOA, starting at £429 retail. Solid AA grade North American spruce and solid Canadian red cedar top models of Koa Exotic will start shipping from June. Roadster began life as a Travel range in laminate acoustic and solid top electro versions, but the sound was so full, with the stripped down, satin natural timbers really resonating when played, that the range was expanded to include a full 000 Folk version, 000 Electro and a Super Folk Electro model. “These guitars are astounding dealers with their volume and classically understated look, and are destined to be a new Tanglewood legend. Retailers are reporting complete shipments of Roadsters selling out in a matter of days. The combination of outstanding tone and quality with the low retail prices and high
miPRO JUNE 2011 43
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84