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TANGLEWOOD GUITARS I BY JEFF CAGLE
TANGLEWOOD’S SPLASH
To break into the North
American market,
Tanglewood has capitalized
on the value
of a backstory.
In the case of the 24-year-old
British guitar company, this includes
a pedigree as a top brand
in the United Kingdom, Australia
and France.
“We’re not just a Johnnycome-lately
startup that nobody’s
ever heard of that’s not been in
the business,” said John Kelley,
general manager of Musiquip,
Tanglewood’s North American
distributor. “We’ve been in business
for more than 20 years and
are one of the top five up-andcoming
brands in Europe.”
NEW OPTIONS
After growing its dealer
base by about 25 percent
in 2011, Tanglewood recently
expanded beyond acoustics
in the United States with the
introduction of its Signature
by Tanglewood electric guitar
series and Overwater basses at
The NAMM Show 2012. With
these new lines, the company
now offers a range of products
from $199 entry-level models to
$2,000 hand-built MasterDesign
instruments.
Still, acoustics are Tanglewood’s
bread and butter, ac-
24 I MUSIC INC. I MARCH/APRIL 2012
The British
guitar company
makes a pitch
to the U.S.
market
cording to Kelley. He noted that
Tanglewood’s acoustic product
line is broad enough that he can
offer six or seven SKUs that
don’t create any redundancies
for dealers on even the most
mature guitar walls.
“Tanglewood offers a vari-
ety of shapes, sizes and material
configurations that aren’t
available on the market from
other brands,” Kelley said. “So
no matter what you have hanging
on your wall, there’s always
four or five things I can point
to [for different options]. And if
you’re willing to give it a shot,
we can start there.”
TERMS & DATING
John Kelley
Kelley added that with distribution
through Musiquip, he’s
able to alleviate worries dealers
might have about high buy-in
requirements, especially when it
comes to taking on a new brand.
“I am a small distributor,” he
said. “I’m much more interested
in what I can do for them than
what I’m requiring them to do
for me.”
Though Kelley said he takes
pride in Musiquip’s size, he
added that he has the additional
resources of SF Marketing, a
leading pro audio and lighting
distributor in Canada, behind
him.
“For a small distributor, I
have extraordinary resources
that allow me to offer terms and
dating,” Kelley said. “They allow
me to offer freight and discount
programs that many other small
distributors simply can’t afford
to offer.”
With Tanglewood’s expanding
dealer base, product range
and distribution network, the
brand is poised to make a splash
in the United States.
“Tanglewood really strives to
be the best instrument at every
price point,” Kelley said. “The
sell-through rate has been the
single most important factor in
my dealer retention and growth
in the U.S. A little sell-through
on the wall goes a long, long
way in building dealer confidence
with a brand. And when you
hang Tanglewood guitars, they
sell.” MI