Are Tenors Taking Over?

Katz-in-Boots

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Is it my imagination? Are tenors taking over the ukulele world? Everywhere I look online, tenor seems to be the size if you want something sumptuous in terms of wood, a slotted head, and generally really nice.

Sure the sopranos are still the 'standard', but I'm seeing a lot more nice tenors than concert size (which of course is what I play).
 
I haven't played my tenors since buying two concerts in the last few weeks. I love the tone, and the size.

Jake et al play tenors, so if you want to sound like a ukulele hero, it's gotta be a tenor....maybe.
 
Most of the pros play a tenor, so there must be something about them!
 
Look at my signature.
 
Most of the pros play a tenor, so there must be something about them!

Seems to be true for the younger breed of pros. But John King played sopranos and concerts, Ohta-San usually plays a Martin concert, and tenors didn't even exist (as far as I know) when guys like Cliff Edwards and Johnny Marvin were professional ukulelists (but to confuse matters even more, the concert sized ukes they played were called tenors back then, I've been told).

I think there are two main reasons for the popularity of tenors today: guitarists who decide to pick up uke find tenors more comfortable, and the fact that people are just bigger now than during the last two waves of uke popularity, and bigger hands have an easier time on tenor necks.

I don't personally play tenors because my hands are too little, but if it was practical for me I'd have one since I play high up the neck a lot and to me, tenors sound much better than smaller ukes. When playing higher up the neck, they generally have better intonation, sustain, and tone quality than smaller sizes do - this probably accounts for why they seem to be the uke of choice for the pros today.
 
I'm running fast away from the tenor. I went hard on gobbling them up for the past few years, but I've been reverting back to the standard, slowly but surely. The tenors are just too unwieldy to unleash around my unruly school-aged children, haha

 
Eugene,
Your Covered Bridge YouTube videos sent me looking for a concert uke! I was looking for CB tenors, but saw your concert CB video. That's what got me interested in concerts.

Awesome Frank.hope you're as please with yours as I have been. Got a CB cherry concert on the way as we speak. Will let you know what it's like brother, cheers!
 
I attended a session at the uke camp I went to last week, a Q&A on uke building, given by the Canote brothers and Aaron Keim, of Mya-Moe, and I asked him about this. Most of what they make are tenors, least are sopranos. They are doing more super-sopranos these days.
 
Tenors have taken over for me after having one or two in each size and then getting rid of everything but the tenors. Although last month a very fine soprano made it back back into my collection.
 
I think that slotted headstocks can be a bit heavier than the ordinary headstock; they have to be thicker to accommodate the tuning machines. I suspect that the extra weight is why you generally don't see slotted headstocks on concert or soprano ukuleles.
 
i just play around the house so any size will do. a performing musician would be attracted to the tenor with its greater projection. i assume that's a large part of things for a lot of players. it doesn't take much volume to make a musical point in my living room.
 
As a newbie I can say all the video's online I liked the tenor sound better, that was the #1 reason I started with a tenor. Now sometimes when I switch back to my daughters soprano I think hrmm I might want to get myself a soprano I like the way you can tuck it under your arm, end of the day I still like the tenor sound better but I am learning to like the classic martin string kind of ukulele sound. My fingers out of the S, T and Bari, prefer the tenor the best. Just enough room for my fingers to learn and move around on vs being cramped so I think its easier to learn chords on the tenor!
 
When I travel around to local music stores here in North Carolina, I see more concerts than tenors or sopranos (by a good 3 to 1 margin). I agree that tenors are gaining popularity, however, locally concerts are still the most popular. Personally, I prefer sopranos and concert scales over tenors, but I do like a tenor for fingerstyle playing, as their tonal range is better.
 
I don't have the fretting hand flexibility yet to easily play a soprano. For instance, I have trouble with the "D" chord (2220) on a soprano, but it is no problem on a concert - I don't even think about it during a chord change, but it stalls me when changing chords on a soprano.

Overall, a concert just seems a good fit for my small hands. I play it with the upper bout resting on my left leg - ideally with my foot on a stool. The fretboard is upraised and slightly out to the front so my body does not muffle the vibration and I can barre better with it away from me. I don't see anybody else playing like that on videos, but it works for me.

I did an impulse buy on my first tenor with the Outdoor Ukulele preorder. I am a former guitar player, so I think it will work well and I want it for outdoors and around grandkids. I think if I like it and want a "good" tenor, I would look first at the Tiny Tenor.
 
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