Thomann Tres Cubano Standard CCW

This is a great playing and sounding instrument for the price, especially considering the free postage and you get a good padded gig bag too. However it is not finished as well as an expensive instrument.

The sound is warm and clear and the instrument is very playable. No need to lower the string height and no buzzing or unwanted resonances. I am just starting out so I don't need the pickup yet but the inbuilt tuner is really handy. The frets are even but they could do with some dressing as they catch my fingers a little. This is a simple enough task to carry out yourself. The strings are good but I would recommend getting some additional strings too just to save on postage. Also, you may want to change the low octave E for a high octave to get unison E strings. This seems to be a popular thing to do. The sound is good and the Tres is loud, but I cannot compare to a high priced instrument. The Tres looks good but I would have liked to seen the higher priced Tres just to see if it has a better nut and bridge and if the finish is better. That may have convinced me to spend the extra. But where do you go to play on a few Cuban Tres'? That is where Thomann comes in handy. However, I wanted a playable and good sound Tres to learn on and I wanted it as cheap as possible. This instrument fits the bill perfectly. It was well packaged, turned up within a few days, plus, Thomann's customer service is excellent.

Bought the Tres having visited Cuba and been very impressed with the music over there.

The instrument has a great sound with good volume and tone.

I changed the low octave on the top E string to have a unison e as most Cuban players do these days.

The instrument lends itself to melody and 2 note partial chords.

My only criticism is the bridge saddle, which is cheep nylon/plastic and strings tend to stick a little when tuning. Have cured this by installing a bone saddle (15 minute job). It is also worth putting a little graphite in the nut and saddle slots.

All in all really good value and tremendous fun.