Tanglewood Review: FST 32 Strat

History:

Purchase: I bought it as my first guitar around 1997 or 1997. It the equivalent of around 150 € at the time. At was cheaper than the Squier Starts aimed at the same markets.

What I Like About This Tanglewood FST 32 Strat: It is light. Nice to have handy in a corner to pick up for some finger practise while watching tv or something. It is an accurate(imho) Strat copy with working tremolo. The action is light with light strings. It has potential to be a good guitar if you change the pickups and set it up with care. It has the special chimey sound of the Strat that other guitars don't. It stays in tune very good. With drive boost on you can get a really good dirty blues grind from it. When playing clean you can get almost like an acoustic sound from it, not as thick though.

What I Do NOT Like About The Tanglewood FST 32 Strat: This is not a good first or allround guitar. The electronics are cheap quality. When strumming chords they sound like they are wavering strangely. The clarity and defintion of notes is bad. Not much sustain if not overdriven. But I guess this is what the trademark Strat sound is. Picks up electric disturbances easily and the sound when changing frets is loud. You can hear every mistake. You need a good amplifier to use this guitar. Otherwise it sounds horrible.

Tanglewood FST 32 Strat Quality Rating: The neck is straight and fret work is very good for the price. The factory set up was not good at all. You need to carefully set up the action and finetune it yourself. This guitar is rugged. The electronics made lots of noise but it was repairable with some electronics spray into the potentiometers. The overall finish and look of the guitar is ok.

Review Summary: Don't buy as first guitar. Get a good guitar to use first hand. If you occasionally need a mean and dirty sounding blues Strat this guitar is useful for that. Only after putting thick strings on it and fine tuning the action I was able to make this guitar useful. Don't get me wrong, I like this guitar very much, but it is not very versatile. It plays pretty much like an original Strat, not that light an action or easy to play that is. I think this guitar has a lot of potential if you put better electronics in it.

Rating of this Tanglewood product: 3

This Tanglewood FST 32 Strat Electric Guitars Review Submitted By: Hasse

Review Date: 2005-03-11