pcrecord, post: 458881, member: 46460 wrote: Hi gang,
I bought a Tanglewood guitar from a friend a few years back and I always wanted to upgrade but since I'm a drummer and I hope I can say an audio engineer. I had a lot on my budget plate.

Funny enough the guy that sold me the guitar called to buy it back last week because he missed it.
When it fits like a glove, there is no argue there.
So I took the money and added it to a well earned long day live mixing job and went in stores to hunt for a new guitar. I went with no preconception, only a budget of around 1K CAD and some ideal warm and balanced tone in mind so I can record a few things in my studio.
I tried anythings and everything. I ended up with a choice between a Taylor 214 and a Norman ST-68 CW
The Taylor was a bit over my budget but not that much. I played them back and forth and went with the Norman. It's made in Quebec Canada with a solid wood and had a warmer tone without missing any presence.

After the fact, I realised that I bought the highest model of norman instead of some lower level Taylor ones... Got to mean something, right ?

Here's what it looks like and a first recording test, SM81 and KSM44 in spaced pair, to the ISA preamps of course... NO mixing just levels and panning. What do you think ? .... a bit boomy in the low mid but easy to fix at mix time !

[MEDIA=audio]https://recording.o…

Congrats man! Sounds nice. Similar to a Taylor but not exactly, maybe a touch more mid-bass? I can see where this would be a versatile guitar that could hold it's own solo, and cut their rock or pop mix too. Seems like you scored. You bring up an interesting point about getting highest model of one company vs the lowest model of another. Even if designed to a price point you've got to think a company puts the most effort into it's flagship model. Not that the 214 is a bad guitar, but there's a certain namesake there that your undoubtedly paying for. I enjoy hearing about your steady improvements and additons to your arsenal. Cheers man!

Sounds good to me (on cheap cellphone earbuds).

Thanks K and B ;)
Just a reminder that my sample is a RAW recording, no mixing done...
I hope to get time to put it in a full mix soon ..

Not sure what the tanglewood sounded like, most I've seen and heard are cheap trash. However that Norman sounds acceptable :). Listened on my laptop, grats.

Tony