Tanglewood Mahogany MasterDesign by Michael Sanden Jumbo Electro Acoustic TSM3

An all solid acoustic from Tanglewood's MasterDesign range. Designed by Michael Sanden, the TSM3 is a huge leap in quality and tone from Tanglewood. Top is solid spruce and back and sides are solid mahogany. A common wood combination there, but the MasterDesign acoustics are far from common. Balanced even tone all the way down the neck and absolutely bang on intonation. The accuracy of this intonation is helped by the zero fret, not a common site these days. Because the vibration of the string starts at the very accurately set zero fret, the accuracy of the cut on the nut's slots is less important.

Pickup here comes in the form of a B-Band A1. B-Band and Tanglewoods have always worked well together since Tanglewood started fitting them on their entire range a few years back. They seem to do the pure acoustic tone from the MasterDesign TSM-3 justice and the tone can be tweaked from the small dial fitted inside the sound hole of the guitar. No wood is taken away from the sides to house controls meaning no tone is compromised.

The TSM-3 is has a larger body than the TSM-1 and TSM2, not quite super jumbo but big enough to hear a large bass response while retaining an overall tightness of sound.

The neck construction of the MasterDesign guitars features two seperate pieces of high grade mahogany which are bound together to make an incredibly strong neck. The headstock is sandwiched with two thick pieces of rosewood for even extra strength and stunning looks.

The TSM-3 is an amazing piece of engineering and a stunning guitar to play and hear.