The guitar pictured is the guitar you receive! It comes with ready to play set-up from our in-house luthier. For custom set-up with your guitar purchase please contact us.

We work hard to accurately describe all our gear. Please be advised that all new guitars are taken out of the box, photographed, played, set-up and inspected by our luthier for quality control. Due to this process, it is possible that blemishes may have occurred that are not pictured. 

Your guitar will ship via UPS Ground, fully insured with signature required. If you would like to have your guitar shipped by any other method, we ask you to request this before completing your purchase.

Tanglewood’s Sundance Performance Pro Series is the culmination of decades of guitar building expertise and research. Swedish master luthier Michael Sanden has designed Tanglewood’s new flagship models, boasting all solid wood combinations and sumptuous features on some of the most popular and iconic acoustic body shapes in guitar history.

Grand Master luthier Michael Sanden designed a new special bracing pattern for the TW15 SDTE, which features traditional quarter sawn spruce in a tapered style, using a combination of X bracing and fan bracing. This arrangement recovers an outstanding flexibility and tonality from the AAA grade kiln aged solid spruce top, creating a much more stable top than standard bracing. The evenness of tone and sustained harmonics are testament to Michaels bracing system for sure.

The solid spruce was hand selected by Michael Sanden as it has a tone that makes it a very good ‘all-rounder’. Using a new kiln drying technique called Torrefaction, the TW15 SDTE has been created with unique sound characteristics that replicate a well loved vintage instrument that has been played in for over 30 years!

First, the wood is kiln-dried conventionally to a moisture level of 6 to 10 percent. The wood is then “cooked” in a torrefaction kiln at a high temperature while controlling atmospheric moisture and oxygen levels. After the moisture level is taken to zero percent, the wood is placed in a conditioning chamber where the level of moisture is raised to 3 to 6 percent. The resulting wood boasts greater stability—especially beneficial as it’s exposed to atmospheric moisture during the life of an instrument—due to the closure of the cells when the water and sap is released from the wood.

“The wood is heat-treated in an oxygen-free kiln, making it highly resonant and extremely stable, it’s as if the wood is pre-aged.” Says Master designer Michael Sanden, “The process  makes the guitar feel like a favourite old model that’s been played in daily for the last 20 years… it really does open up the spruce to that degree.”

The solid mahogany used for the back and sides is a dense wood, with a dark finish, and tight grain. The mahogany’s density can add great projection to the guitar, adding warmth, but with definition. The combination of spruce and mahogany is one of the most popular, because it offers a tone that is very balanced, but versatile, lending itself very well to any musical style. Besides serving to form the enclosure of the soundbox, the back and sides of the guitar also act as a sympathetic resonator whose oscillations contribute greatly to the harmonic mix.

The Mahogany necks are constructed with a traditional dove tail join and the Mahogany itself provides excellent longitudinal strength. They are C-shaped in a smooth comfortable oval profile that works well for most playing styles. The chrome Grover buttons were chosen as Grover are recognised worldwide as industry leaders for high-quality machine heads.

Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze 12-53 Light E16052 Acoustic Guitar Strings were selected for the Sundance Performance Pro range. Phosphor bronze strings offer the most sensitive, expressive tone that brings out the very best in guitars—virtually taking them to a higher level of play. However, that tone can be short-lived. Elixir Strings has solved this classic conundrum by applying an ultra-thin layer of NANOWEB Coating to protect the string’s windings hence preserving the coveted phosphor bronze tone. Many players prefer the rich, textured tone of phosphor bronze strings. These Elixir Strings capture the sweet spot of that unique phosphor bronze tone and extend it 3-5x longer than conventional strings.

The guitar is finished in a high gloss, violin sunburst, polyurethane finish, which gives it a vintage, classic look and feel.

X15 SDTE

SHAPE: Sloped Shoulder Dreadnought
TOP: Torrefied Solid Spruce
BACK: Solid Mahogany
SIDES: Solid Mahogany
NECK (MATERIAL): Mahogany
FINGERBOARD: Sonokelin
BRIDGE: Sonokelin
BINDING: ABS White
SADDLE (WIDTH): Bone, Compensating (72mm)
NUT (WIDTH): Bone (43mm)
SCALE LENGTH: 650mm
MACHINE HEADS: Chrome Grover
FINISH: Vintage Burst Gloss
EQ: Fishman Presys+
STRINGS: Elixir 16052 Phosphor Bronze
SKU: X15SDTE
RANGE: Sundance Performance Pro
UPC: 810944019897

Dimensions

UPPER BOUT WIDTH: 293mm
LOWER BOUT WIDTH: 397mm
WAIST WIDTH: 228mm
BODY DEPTH (TOP): 96mm
BODY DEPTH (BOTTOM): 122mm
BODY LENGTH: 508mm
TOTAL LENGTH: 1047mm