I am interested to hear of your thoughts FF. That sounds like an incredible bargain. That Yam is out of my league too right now.
Hello !
After 2- 3 days of setting up and playing in, I can without a doubt recommend a Tanglewood TH502 or ( insert name of a Gibson / copy of your choice ) and a pair of Stormy Mondays as a match made in heaven.
I will detail my thoughts here, as opposed to starting another ' Stormy Mondays are great' thread.
The Truss rod I at first thought was " loose but fully functional " - was me having impatiently slackened it off to cure a minor fret buzz at the 7th fret, when all it need was the action a tiny fraction higher on the bass side. ( I usually have my bass strings hardly much higher than 1/32" at the 12th fret) . A touch more height - hardly measurable with a steel ruler, enabled me to turn the truss rod a bit tighter - and in doing so I realised that it then engaged / gripped and acted just like a Gibson / Fender would. ( The predudice started I suppose when I lifted the truss rod cover and found a deeply recessed small allen key adjuster, instead of the expected Gibson 'nut' ) . The fact that the neck was so close to straight without firm truss rod tension seemed like a good sign too.
The Grover 'kidney' machine heads that at I at first did not like the shorter shaft on, did however have proper tightening screws - and tuned to a fine ratio - then held their tuning without problems.
As I have already said, I would leave the smooth, full size , 'Alpha' brand 500k pots and thoroughly screened exisiting electrics ( long job to replace ) - and just lift enough wiring out to affix your B.K.P to the volume pots. You might want to fit orange drops whilst the tone pots are out too, but certainly not essential with this model.
Beware the temptation to fit a switchcraft toggle. The one already fitted is of good quality, and any Switchcraft / Gibson type requires that you take the Dremel to the guitar body and then hide the result, however nicely you do it.
The main thing was that I seemed to get a 'good' one with perfect neck angle, oiled fretboard - and level frets. The neck edges are not bound ( the body is ) - but the fret ends are beautifully finished from the factory.
My next concern was that it was a bit 'stiff' feeling. But like my Baja Telecaster, I just kept going back every day and re- assessing / adjusting the nut slots, bridge height, truss rod, intonation ( my bass saddles where initially on the wrong way round ) - and played those new D'addario 10 - 52 strings a lot to 'relax' them a bit. The percieved stiffness disappeared a bit more each day as I 'played it in' - plus I realised that it was the nice wide flat fingerboard that made barre chords at the 10th fret and above not curve into the palm / fingers as my 9.5 radius Telecaster did.
Ultimately it has set up better than my U.S.A Les Paul ( that was profesionally done ) - and closer to my 1976 S.G. - which has has been steadily tweaked and played in for 32 years !
The final ( and vital ) tonal clue came from forum member and 'You Tube' star 'ELAVD' - who influenced me to set the Stormys quite close to the pickup rings. Higher up at the 'usual' 2 - 3 mm mark, the Tanglewood / B.K.P combo sounded very nice, but more Chuck Berry than B.B. King. Keeping the gap really wide ( as I believe forum member 'SUSHI' does as well ) - it was instant B.B. King / Larry Carlton territory ( minus the talent of course :lol: ).
The stock pickups on the Tanglewood where nice enough to play as they where, not anywhere like B.K.P - but I can imagine that they would have given Epiphone and the Gibson 498R / 490T combo a run for thier money.
The nut is cheap, but hard enough to file accurately and not dampen strings ( I see the Gibson £2 K + Larry Carlton model has a nut that looks no better ! ) I therefore have left it in.
Had I been starting from fresh
and employed a professional luthier to perfect the fret board, it still would have been less than £200 for the guitar, less than £ 200 for the Stormy Mondays - and shall we say £ 50- £ 80 for a bespoke set up ? The whole lot perhaps coming in completely finshed at less than £450 quid, or - as an existing B.K.P owner and being willing to do the tweaking yourself ( as we usually do anyway ) - £ 200 for a very nicely playing and sweet sounding version of a £ 2,000 guitar.
Be warned though ( not meant to sound patronising there ) - I tried an 'Aria' 335 copy at under the £ 200 mark - and the neck was terrible. It can still be a minefield out there.
I would still be interested to hear from others, but there does seem to be something in the spiel that Tanglewood are a U.K. business overseeing a far east production plant. Perhaps, ( because I did not mind a couple of minor blemishes ) - I just happened to get a good one. I do suspect however, that too many things where pleasing about the construction and apparent quality control of this guitar for mine to be merely a 'fluke'.
Now I have tried my Stormys in a Les Paul, an S.G. and a 335 copy, I feel that ( although they performed great in then all ) - Stormy Mondays and 335 / 355 style Semi-acoustics are a match made in heaven. If starting again, I would only change one thing, I would use unpotted Stormys, instead of potted - as I can imagine that would be even more appropriate. My reasoning being that an un-potted pickup 'breathes' in unison with the way a semi - acoustic 'breathes'.
Cheers !
Happy hunting and modding folks :D
