PRODUCT REVIEW
tramontane t400DCE
lâg
By GAylA DRAkE PAUl
“Tramontane” has long been a word for
the north wind in many European countries.
In Iowa, we have some pithier, less mythic
names for the north wind, most of which
are not fit to print in a magazine that young
impressionable people might be reading. I’m
guessing what the team at Lâg in France was
going for when they made it the name of
their steel-string line, however, was a sense
of refreshment and optimism—like a northern
breeze after a summer storm. The Tramontane
line is just one of Lâg’s offerings that will be
widely available in the US in coming months,
and our review guitar has us anxiously awaiting the arrival of the rest of the Lâg family.
which features simple marquetry with an Occitan
cross in maple. The Venetian cutaway is pleasingly curvy and deep enough to give you some
usable additional room, especially when playing
with a capo. The back and sides are
Indonesian rosewood, which
has a less purple-ish, more
“shades of chocolate”
look than Indian rosewood. All bindings and
purflings on this baby
are wood as well.
Our first introduction to the line is the
T400DCE acoustic/electric, and the northern
breeze metaphor seems pretty appropriate
for the guitar. It’s cool looking and has a
fresh, lively sound—and the fact that it was a
Winter NAMM Best in Show winner this year
certainly adds some gusto, too.
Minimalist Elegance
The T400DCE’s aesthetics are very attractive.
Teutonic, simple, and understated. The fretboard is bare rosewood, with a black graphite nut and saddle. The nut is 1 11/16” wide,
and the strings are 2 1/4” inches from E to
E at the saddle. The action could go lower
just out of the box, but it plays clean and
intonates true as is. We have a string-through
bridge here instead of a pin bridge, which
adds to the clean, minimalist look.
The top is solid Sitka spruce, and it’s complement-
ed nicely by the rosewood saddle and rosette,
The T400DCE’s acous-
tic sounds are very
good. It’s warm in the
lows and bright in the
highs, and the midrange
is just right, with none
of the nasally unpleas-
antness that many
guitars in this price
range exhibit.
The tones are
clear enough
to work in an
ensemble,
but warm
enough to
be useful
to a solo
player too.
The neck is
comfortable,
though it’s nar-
rower than has
become fashionable
in the States lately.
