What do you think of a tenor guitar?

dirk.li

dirk.li

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Hi, I'm interested in getting a tenor guitar, because I want more projection when playing unplugged outdoors and steel strings definitely help. (Sadly amps are not allowed for busking in my city.)

Since a vintage instrument is too expensive, I was looking at this one here which I found at a shop in England:
An Ozark electro acoustic cutaway tenor guitar.

I like the idea of having the electric option, too. Unfortunately I haven't found any sound samples online yet... so I thought it would be a nice idea just to ask around here. Please let me know what you think!

My question about tuning
It comes with "Standard" C tuning - C G D A. But I would like to restring it for "Chicago" baritone uke tuning - D G B E so that I can use the uke chord shapes on it. Do you think the saddle has to be modified for D G B E tuning? And what about slide guitar tunings? Do they require a modified saddle, too?
 
There is a forum for Tenor guitars. tenorguitarforum.com, that might be of help. Also, on the mandolincafe.com forum there is a section dedicated to Tenor guitars. I know that there was discussion of the Ozark tenor guitars a while back. Both have good info on the subject and would be able to answer your question easily enough.

I think they sound great and about a year or so ago I took a six string guitar and restrung it as a tenor 4 string just to see what it was all about, and I can say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great sound. I tuned it in fifths instead of Chicago tuning. Good luck.
 
A couple of months ago, I tried a Blueridge tenor that was tuned to Chicago tuning it was a blast to play. I wasn't to thrilled about the neck shape. Personally I think it could be a better option, in some ways, than a baritone ukulele because you have the size of the body to really project the sound.

I came to ukuleles from guitar, so for me a tenor guitar is an easier to play guitar. I like what icuker did to convert a six string to four except I would like to find a classical guitar with a narrow neck to convert over. Only issue may be neck relief with less tension and no truss rod on a classical to adjust it.

John
 
That's a coincidence. Freedy Johnston just mentioned that he wrote a few songs on the tenor guitar, but that it only produced sombre music for him. Said it was the tuning.
 
My understanding is that the traditional tenor guitar tuning is the same as a 4 string banjo. But it seems that there are a number of alternate tunings, including the same as a baritone ukulele, which is the same as the top 4 strings on a guitar.

John
 
icuker said:
There is a forum for Tenor guitars. tenorguitarforum.com, that might be of help. Also, on the mandolincafe.com forum there is a section dedicated to Tenor guitars. I know that there was discussion of the Ozark tenor guitars a while back. Both have good info on the subject and would be able to answer your question easily enough.

I think they sound great and about a year or so ago I took a six string guitar and restrung it as a tenor 4 string just to see what it was all about, and I can say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great sound. I tuned it in fifths instead of Chicago tuning. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's very helpful information! I'll take a look at tenorguitarforum.com!
 
70sSanO said:
My understanding is that the traditional tenor guitar tuning is the same as a 4 string banjo. But it seems that there are a number of alternate tunings, including the same as a baritone ukulele, which is the same as the top 4 strings on a guitar.

John
Click to expand...

That's right. I just wonder if you have to change the saddle with the tuning. (It's clear to me that you have to change the strings.)
 
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Carrie Rodriguez

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Neko Case
 
Crazy thought but, could it be possible to change the standard strings around and tune the D string higher to make to make it GCEA?
BTW when I said standard, I meant Tenor Guitar tuning CGDA
 
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Even though you couldn't tune it up to GCEA, you could still tune it re-entrant ... dGBe. Just get an extra B-string and replace the D-string, and tune it up to D. (You could also use an E-string for this.) I've done it on a six-string, EAdGBe, and it sounds cool.
 
Can't see why not. You might have to swap the D string for one of a different gauge, to try and keep the tension equal across the strings. I imagine it would work.
 
When I said standard, I meant Tenor Guitar tuning of CDGA
 
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