Tanglewood Parlour

[petrus81]

Hi all, first time poster and inexperienced player at the start of my journey here. 

I'm trying to do a bit of detective work on a Tanglewood acoustic and I saw that someone else had done this with some success on here a few years back.

I picked up a secondhand mahogany tw133 parlour from my local guitar shop recently and it's got me intrigued... It plays well and has a lovely warm tone that I wouldn't expect from a £200 instrument, even with the amount of mahogany it supposedly has, almost like it has a good bit of age to it. It shows significant scuffs and scratches to the front and sides, quite heavy yellowing on the nut and saddle and a good bit of wear on the back of the neck. A friend took a look at the serial number and suggested it was from the '90s and now I've got a bee in my bonnet to find out if that's true (probably not). Wondering if anyone on here could help throw a little light on it, I've reached out to Tanglewood but nothing from them so far. 

 

[Dad3353]

26 minutes ago, petrus81 said:

... A friend took a look at the serial number and suggested it was from the '90s...

 

Yes, the serial number first two digits give the year, so 1990 would be correct. Tanglewood exist since 1989, and their guitars were first made in Korea by Cort, for about ten years. 

[EdwardMarlowe]

Early days. I gather there's a bit of a collector's market for those early pieces. Still have (though it's at my folks' house back in the old country, got to be sold in the Spring) my old Tanglewood bowlback, which I believe was Cort-made in Korea. Paid £189 back in 1994 for that one. Bought a TW15NS (the dreadnought model, all-solid) back in 2002/3. Hanging on to that one - nice guitar. I think that was after they'd switch to Chinese manufacture, and the buzz around them started to grow. Their early electric could be quite nice, too, though afaik they've all but given up with the electrics as it's as an acoustic brand that they really hit.