Small-bodied acoustic for £200?

thermionic

A friend asked me about getting a guitar for his daughter - she’s 15 and not tall so I was thinking anything smaller than a dreadnought. Tanglewood springs to mind - my partner’s son has TWR sort-of-OM size guitar that’s impressed me. All solid wood (although a composite fingerboard), sounds good and easy to play. Yamaha and Washburn seem to have their take on the GS Mini, although they seem to be 3/4 size bodies which might be too much of a compromise. 

Tannin

In that price range, you really have to play them individually. With a £2000 or even a £600 guitar, you can take a punt on a given model, it will usually be pretty close to spec, but the cheaper they get, the more they vary one to another. 

thermionic

Yes I am going to suggest they go in to PMT to try a few. They won’t be able to tell much about the quality, it’s really for seeing if she’s comfortable with the size.

There was another thread along similar lines recently, I’ll look for that.

ICBM

Vintage V300 - small-bodied (somewhere between a typical 00 and 000 size) and with a slim neck, but standard full scale length. I prefer the V300M mahogany-top one as it has a bit more character, but it's a little more specialist and less 'refined' than the spruce one. Not a huge amount in it though, if she prefers the look of one or the other I'd go with that.

Exorcist

your spot on with tanglewood, TW133, all solid mahogany, parlour/small body, 12 fret join, 1 11/16 nut, sound like it would be perfect. Punches way above its weight, my go to sofa guitar.

munckee

My daughter is 15 and 5'5, I took her to PMT a couple of years ago and she was absolutely fine with a dreadnought.  The Washburn Harvester was the best sounding for the money.

guitarjack66

I was pretty uncomfortable with my Squier Jumbo for a while until a tip I read on here about tuning down a step and putting a capo on the 2nd fret turned my playing comfort around. I use this method on my daily player these days.

thermionic

^^^ This is effectively what the Taylor GS Mini achieves. 

WindmillGuitars

Vintage v300 is a great option - we sell a lot of them to customers in this scenario..

thermionic

I have suggested my friend take his daughter to PMT to try a few in different sizes, with a recommendation for anything by Tanglewood. I have also recommended the Vintage V300 if they don’t mind buying sight unseen.