Tanglewood TJ3E Java Series Orchestra Electro-Acoustic Guitar

A mid-sized Java with a solid top and a striped mango back

The Tanglewood TJ3E is an orchestra guitar with a solid spruce top, an eye-catching three-piece back and Fishman electronics built in. It suits the player who wants one mid-sized acoustic for fingerpicking at home and for plugging in at an open mic night.

Woods and the sound they make

Solid spruce sits on top, so the guitar answers your picking hand quickly and the tone opens up as the wood is played in. The back comes in three pieces: amara on the outer wings with a centre strip of spalted mango, whose dark streaks mean no two guitars look quite alike. Amara also forms the sides. Expect a warm, even voice with enough detail in the treble to keep chord shapes clear and separate.

The orchestra shape

The orchestra or folk body sits between a small parlour and a big dreadnought. It rests comfortably on your leg when you're seated and doesn't feel bulky under your strumming arm. There is no cutaway here, so you keep the full upper bout and a classic outline. The fingerboard is Techwood, and the natural gloss finish lets the grain of every wood show through.

• Fishman Presys preamp with onboard EQ
• Phase switch to help tame feedback on louder stages
• Built-in tuner, so there's no clip-on to forget
• Natural gloss finish over spruce, amara and mango

Plugging in

The Fishman Presys system makes this a capable electro acoustic guitar. Shape the tone with the EQ controls to suit the room, flip the phase switch if the low end starts to boom through the PA, and check your tuning between songs without leaving the stage. It's a simple, proven setup that most sound engineers will know.

Within the Tanglewood Java series, the TJ3E is the pick if you like a balanced body without a cutaway. If you spend a lot of time above the 12th fret, look at the TJ4CE super folk cutaway instead, or try the TJ5CE if you want the extra volume of a dreadnought. At £649 with free UK delivery, this is a solid top electro acoustic guitar that looks as distinctive as it sounds.