Rainer Tausch is the guitar maker and mastermind of Tausch Guitars from Bavaria, Germany. Rainer has been a highly skilled guitar maker for 25 years, drawing on the tradition of classic S, T and LP style designs that have been enhanced with its contemporary features.
In December, Rainer sent us his brand new Montreux model for a demo.
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Check out the demo from Henrik & Nicolai from V&R below. The guitar is also sold by Rainer Tausch through his V&R shop here
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The Montreux model is best described as an oversized T-style, equipped with humbucking pickups from Häussel Pickups and with a two-tone sunburst finish reminiscent of the late 50s and early 60s sunburst Gibson finish. We think the choice of two-tone tobacco finish looks beautiful on this guitar. Enlarging the classic telephoto shape is a great idea and we found it worked great ergonomically as well.
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The hardware is of the highest quality, the pickups sound great, and the overall feel is wonderful. The little details make a big difference. For example, the Häussel pickups screw through the top of the pickup like a P-90, eliminating the need for tabs on either side of the humbuckers and making the guitar look cleaner overall than traditional humbucker mounting methods. The headstock is slightly oversized together with the body, which gives you that certain extra mass for more string energy transfer and sustain. The Montreux has trim locomotive tuners, another concession to modern standards.
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From a gamer’s point of view, we found it to be a very inspiring guitar to play, and “play” is the key word here. It immediately gave us confidence to play freely, both with a pick and with our fingers in our right hand, and in both cases we found it to be a very responsive instrument with great sustain and sound. The swapbuckers are a calibrated ‘Slightly Hotter than Vintage’ set, in which the bridge pickup is only a hair stronger than the neck and each has asymmetrical coils. (If you’re unfamiliar with this term, it’s the case when a humbucking pickup is made with two different coils instead of two identical ones, and the result is usually a more nuanced sound, often with more focus on specific frequencies than the characteristics each coil contribute to the overall sound).
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The 12-inch fingerboard radius is shallower than a traditional Telecaster, which gives you more freedom to bend strings and dance across the fingerboard, while the neck has a comfortable C-profile.
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The Montreux feels smooth, and the body, although larger than a normal Telecaster, feels comfortable due to its thinner profile and ergonomic contours.
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It’s a blues machine, it’s a fusion player, it’s a rock and roll devil, and maybe even a heavy monster. In other words, it is a very versatile guitar that was built with a focus on great quality and fascinating looks.
We will no doubt recommend this to anyone looking for a telephoto guitar with a significant twist.
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Montreux specifications
Neck: maple | Fingerboard: plum woodNut: bone | Radius: “12”. | Tuner: Sperzel Trim Lok | The shape of the neck: C-profile | Neck width: nut 42mm / 12.51.5mm | Neck Thickness: 1. 21.6mm; 12.23.6 mm frets: 22 medium jumbo (Wagner No. 9684) | Scale: 648 mm / 25.5 in | Core: chestnut | Finish: Tobacco Burst / Polyurethane | Pickup: Set Häussel “Tauschbucker” Neck 9K ohm (5.54k ohm + 3.46k ohm) / bridge 10.7k ohm (6.43k ohm + 4.27k ohm) Controls: 2x volume, 2x tone (push-pull), 3-way toggle switch | Bridge: T-Tune bridge / short version with string-compensated brass saddles Hardware: Nickel / aged | Weight: 3.9 kg | Left-handed option: Yes | Price: € 4000, – including VAT. German VAT 19%.
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The Montreux was also used in a recent video for a demo of Carl Martin’s PlexiRanger pedal.
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Written by our buddy Peter Hodgson from Iheartguitar and Nicolai & Henrik from V&R
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