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TANGLEWOOD "NATURAL 28" MATURE MID-1990s SOLID CEDAR TOP/MAHOGANY DREADNOUGHT GUITAR - EXCEPTIONAL CONDITION, MAPLE BINDINGS/MARQUETRY WOOD BODY INLAYS, GOOD ACTION, MARTIN STRINGS, TRADITIONAL BIG DREADNOUGHT SOUND.

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Stock Number: VTG1499.

*** No indication of the exact age, but previous owner's recollection was that he bought it new between 1992 & 1995, and it did appear in the Tanglewood 1996 catalogue....image included in the embedded photos, and original description extract from the Tanglewood Catalogue is included in the description in my Vintage & Traditional Guitars website (Reverb does not allow me to include the direct link, but you should have no trouble locating it).

*** "Natural" (Model on left of Catalogue illustration) from the Tanglewood "Performer" Range * Solid Cedar Top * Mahogany Back and Sides * Maple Body Bindings * Detailed Wood Body Inlays" listed in Catalogue, but they don't really mention the Marquetry purfling to the Maple edged bindings....nor the Body is single Maple bound to the back with matching marquetry centre stripe to the book matched Mahogany back & matching end stripe....nor the unusual and very distinctive inlaid marquetry Soundhole ring, or the quality enclosed Grover-style kidney bean tuners!.........Real Quality Appointments!

*** Nice Rosewood Fingerboard, black binding and dot inlay position markers, very attractively Rosewood faced headstock, really smart, Martin style Rosewood bridge, intonated saddle, fitted cream/black dot end pin, and black front strap button mounted on the Maple heal-capping.

*** The whole guitar has a superbly preserved semi-matt/silk finish - a couple of very small indent marks on the top are just abut all you can find - really quite remarkable for a 20 year old guitar, and as near mint as you could reasonably expect for a guitar this age, that has not been in it's case the whole time. The fact that, on the contrary, the guitar has been played, is evidenced by typical mild play wear scratches on the scratchplate.

*** Only slight play wear can be seen to the frets and nice Rosewood fingerboard. The individual chrome machine heads with distinctive kidney bean buttons look like new, remaining bright and working very smoothly.

*** It plays beautifully, with approx. 42.5mm. nut width, slim feeling, fairly shallow "C" profile neck, and a big strong Dreadnought sound from the maturing of the guitar. Final set-up is yet to be completed but action already fine....expecting to be around 2.5mm./3mm. when small trussrod adjustment completed. Scale length is a Martin "D" style 25.4"/642mm. It will be strung with a set of Martin Bronze Light 12-54s.

*** I haven't been able to locate a YouTube clip of a '90s "Natural" Series guitar,  so on the VTG website page for this guitar the YouTube clip I have embedded is a clip of what appears to be the nearest equivalent, in terms of general vibe, from the current Tanglewood range, a TW40-D-AN-E Electro Acoustic, demoed by DV247 TV, although the electro is plugged in, it is also recorded acoustically through a mic. There are also additional links there to other clips..."She Moved Through the Fair" by gamanil and "Guitar Groove on Tanglewood TW900" by Christopher Freedom.