New Tenor Guitar (or steel string baritone ukulele?) Day

mds725

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Last week I received my first ever custom tenor guitar, the first ever tenor guitar built by Beau Hannam. (Because it's tuned DGBE, it's arguably a steel string baritone ukulele! For that reason, I'm posting in "uke Talk" rather than in the guitar forum. Also, nobody looks at the Guitar forum.) It has Tasmanian Blackwood back and sides, a Sinker redwood top, custom headstock with a translucent moon, an African Ebony fingerboard, and a Brazilian Rosewood bridge It has a 23" scale length and "ukulele string spacing."

It has wonderful tone and sustain and is a dream to play. I will try to post a sound sample beau posted on Facebook.

Here are some photos.


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Holy mother of.......

That is so beautiful. You have just shown me my next instrument. I have been wanting something with steel strings, like a tenor guitar but more of a uke size. Congratulations on such a wonderful instrument. It must resonate and sustain for days.
 
I'm not a big fan of volutes so how does the volute feel when you play? The overall uke looks awesome!!
 
Oh that rascal is SO pretty!! I wouldn't mind having a standard 6-string guitar version of it!! I love small body guitars . . .

bobinde
 
:iwant:...........................
 
I've been watching this build on his FB page drooling over every pic! Absolutely beautiful!!
 
I love it! Definitely looking forward to that sound clip!
 
I'm not a big fan of volutes so how does the volute feel when you play? The overall uke looks awesome!!

What is a volute?

I didn't know either. It turns out that a volute is, according to the Sweetwater Music website, a "carved heel to the back of the neck just below the point where it becomes the headstock – a sort of triangular thickening that theoretically reinforces a notorious weak spot." I performed a Google search for "volute guitar" and discovered that the volutes is occasionally a hot topic of discussion on acoustic guitar forums. I didn't know that this guitar was being built with one, and I didn't expect it, but the volute doesn't get in my way when I play.
 
I've been watching this build on his FB page drooling over every pic! Absolutely beautiful!!

I was virtually sitting next to you watching and drooling, too!
 
This is absolutely lovely. I am definitely getting a tenor guitar next, hmmmm or maybe a good bari, or hmmmm, rats i though i had UAS beat.

Dave, you gotta check out the Kinnard tenor. It's a huge WOW!

Holy mother of.......

That is so beautiful. You have just shown me my next instrument. I have been wanting something with steel strings, like a tenor guitar but more of a uke size. Congratulations on such a wonderful instrument. It must resonate and sustain for days.
 
Last week I received my first ever custom tenor guitar, the first ever tenor guitar built by Beau Hannam. (Because it's tuned DGBE, it's arguably a steel string baritone ukulele! For that reason, I'm posting in "uke Talk" rather than in the guitar forum. Also, nobody looks at the Guitar forum.)

I beg to differ, "Chicago" (DGBE) tuning is a quite popular alternate tuning on the tenor guitar. I have mine tuned DGBE. Maybe if those who already have, or will now be purchasing a tenor guitar because of this thread, would post in the "guitar" section, it would be a bit more popular. Unless Beau is going to call this a baritone Nui like Pono did, than it's a tenor guitar. The tuning doesn't change that. ;)

Awesome guitar by the way. You will love it, I love mine. They seem to be enjoying a resurgence lately, several brands out there now. Martin just added another one, I posted in the guitar section about it.

There is a Tenor guitar section over at the Mandolin cafe, they would love this one over there, if you want to post it there as well.

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/
 
I beg to differ, "Chicago" (DGBE) tuning is a quite popular alternate tuning on the tenor guitar. I have mine tuned DGBE. Maybe if those who already have, or will now be purchasing a tenor guitar because of this thread, would post in the "guitar" section, it would be a bit more popular. Unless Beau is going to call this a baritone Nui like Pono did, than it's a tenor guitar. The tuning doesn't change that. ;)

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/

I was being a little tongue-in-cheek about the tuning making it a baritone ukulele. A few years ago, Rick Turner built me two jumbo shaped Compass Rose baritone-sized ukuleles, one strung GCEA but an octave lower than tenor uke GCEA (Rick's name for it is an "Octave Ukulele"), and a steel string baritone tuned DGBE. Here's the NUD thread for those instruments. http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?91213-New-Ukes-Day!-Twin-Compass-Roses I mentioned in the thread that a steel string baritone tuned DGBE was, in essence, a tenor guitar with Chicago tuning. This is what Rick posted: "Mark's steel string baritone is tuned like the top four strings of a normal guitar; D, G, B, E. That is normal baritone uke tuning. That is NOT how a tenor guitar is supposed to be tuned, though some folks do. Normal tenor guitar tuning is as with a tenor banjo: C, G, D, A." I can't find it now, but at around the same time, another thread popped up was a discussion of whether an instrument is designated by the way it is strung and tuned or by its scale and related physical attributes (i.e., is a steel string baritone tuned DGBE a tenor guitar tuned to Chicago tuning or a baritone ukulele?). Rick argued in that thread that as a builder he designates instruments by how they're tuned (which is why he calls the other jumbo CR he built for me an "Octave Ukulele" instead of a baritone that happens not to be tuned like a baritone), and I think it's a builder's prerogative to call his or her instruments what he wants. My Beau Hannam tenor guitar is clearly a guitar (partly because that's what Beau calls it), even though it has uke string spacing instead of typical tenor guitar spacing (where the strings are closer together). I think instruments like this and my CR steel string baritone ukulele blur the lines a bit.

That is so beautiful. You have just shown me my next instrument. I have been wanting something with steel strings, like a tenor guitar but more of a uke size. Congratulations on such a wonderful instrument. It must resonate and sustain for days.

The aforementioned Compass Rose steel string baritone has a 20 inch scale, so it's the size of a baritone ukulele, but it sounds similar to a tenor guitar. In addition, I have the second steel string tenor ukulele built by Bruce Sexauer, a luthier in the North Bay. Here's a thread he started about his third steel string tenor ukulele. http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?94309-JB-Uke-follow-up The first post in that thread has a link to a video of a friend of mine playing my Sexauer steel string tenor uke.
 
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I was being a little tongue-in-cheek about the tuning making it a baritone ukulele. A few years ago, Rick Turner built me two jumbo shaped Compass Rose baritone-sized ukuleles, one strung GCEA but an octave lower than tenor uke GCEA (Rick's name for it is an "Octave Ukulele"), and a steel string baritone tuned DGBE. Here's the NUD thread for those instruments. http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?91213-New-Ukes-Day!-Twin-Compass-Roses I mentioned in the thread that a steel string baritone tuned DGBE was, in essence, a tenor guitar with Chicago tuning. This is what Rick posted: "Mark's steel string baritone is tuned like the top four strings of a normal guitar; D, G, B, E. That is normal baritone uke tuning. That is NOT how a tenor guitar is supposed to be tuned, though some folks do. Normal tenor guitar tuning is as with a tenor banjo: C, G, D, A." I can't find it now, but at around the same time, another thread popped up was a discussion of whether an instrument is designated by the way it is strung and tuned or by its scale and related physical attributes (i.e., is a steel string baritone tuned DGBE a tenor guitar tuned to Chicago tuning or a baritone ukulele?). Rick argued in that thread that as a builder he designates instruments by how they're tuned (which is why he calls the other jumbo CR he built for me an "Octave Ukulele" instead of a baritone that happens not to be tuned like a baritone), and I think it's a builder's prerogative to call his or her instruments what he wants. My Beau Hannam tenor guitar is clearly a guitar (partly because that's what Beau calls it), even though it has uke string spacing instead of typical tenor guitar spacing (where the strings are closer together). I think instruments like this and my CR steel string baritone ukulele blur the lines a bit.

No worries, I was having some fun with it as well. Doesn't always come across in print though.😀 Whatever Beau, or you, calls it, it sure is a beauty either way!

You should post it over at the cafe forum in the tenor section, I bet they would love to see it over there.
 
That's gorgeous but, a tenor ukulele is a much larger version of a ukulele, so why is a tenor guitar a smaller version of a guitar, jus' wondering...:shaka:

Not that this is the only thing in the world that doesn't make sense to my much too logical mind.
 
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