Tanglewood Canyon III Electric Bass Guitar in Spalted Maple
Advantages – Light, affordable, easy to play, varied and easily adjustable tone. Looks awesome. Nice tone.
Disadvantages – Not as much sustain as a larger bass such as a p-bass, tone not amazing but still very good for price. Hard to find one. Awkward to play when sitting down.
I spent months looking for a suitable bass guitar primarily for use in my function band ‘The Beat Collective’ as well as many other ventures such as recording and depping. I was originally aiming for a 5 string yamaha bass but I struggled to find a suitable instrument anywhere without resorting to importing one from the states. But then, by sheer fluke, I was browsing through Gumtree Leeds and decided to take a quick look at the Manchester Gumtree when I quickly found this beautiful looking, naturally finished, thru-neck 4 string bass. The Tanglewood Canyon III!
The Tanglewood Canyon 3 is the top end of the Tanglewood bass guitar range, it’s very nice to play and does all I need it to for a player in my situation. It is a long scale active bass with 24 frets and East River pickups which sound great for Rock and Soul and even slap and pop can sound good with the right settings. The Canyon 3’s four controls for volume, bass, middle and treble are nicely set into the body in small circular recesses and the three tone controls are all centre indented which is handy for reliable on stage adjustment. I considered replacing the pick-ups when I first got it, but after putting it through a decent amp, (Markbass Little Mark Tube) I decided to leave them be. The high end of the tone is quite woody and the low end has a nice kick to it which is easily adjusted using the tone controls. When I got the guitar I was surprised to see flat wound strings (essentially fretless bass strings) on it which were nice to play on a first, but I quickly got tired of their dull, characterless tone. I got these replaced with Rotosound strings along with a set up to lower the actions slightly, and it came back to life, especially in the slap and pop department.
All in all the Tanglewood Canyon III is a nice sounding, easy to play, light and affordable bass guitar that looks fantastic. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a bass guitar for under £800.