Any New Action in Tenor Guitars?

PhilUSAFRet

PhilUSAFRet

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Haven't seen much new re: tenor guitars lately. A few of us talking about getting one, possibly tuning to GCEA or gCEA. Anyone get one this year? If so, how's it going? Meet your expectations? Any tips to getting the deepest tones it can give? Tips of any kind?
 
I got one and tuned it to GCEA, but I've barely touched it.
 
I got an electric Warren Ellis, tuned it like a bari and it's a hoot. I basically split my time between my kinnard and that now. I know that electric tenor is different but it does allow you to control the tone and such with pedals and effects so you can get pretty much whatever sound you like.
 
I purchased a Kala KA-GTR about 3 weeks ago and absolutely love it! Well made, nice finish, and a beautiful tone for a very reasonable price. However, I decided to change tuning to DGBE (same as baritone uke) after learning just how little material is in print or video to help me learn to play it as a tenor guitar. I also found the fingering for tenor guitar chords downright difficult for me (short, fat fingers). I've had little trouble transitioning from tenor uke re-entrant tuning to the baritone uke chords. The downside is that I like it so much that I have to force myself to not neglect my tenor ukulele!

The KA-GTR comes with D'Addario J66 Tenor Guitar Strings. I put a set of D'Addario EJ24 strings on it and it sounds great. These seem to be reasonably close to size/tension specs of the J66 strings. However, I just received a recommendation from D'Addario to try their EJ10 strings. The EJ10 strings have nearly identical diameter specs and slightly less tension than the EJ24. D'Addario has mailed me a set to try out.

In time I may string it up with the J66 strings and give it another chance as a tenor guitar as I'm interested in some of the things that can be done with tunings in fifths. For now, I'm thoroughly enjoying it as a steel-stringed baritone ukulele.
 
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I want one so bad!! Blaahh lol i dont have any money to spend on it right now (an impromptu canadian fishing trip just fell in my lap and i couldnt pass it up) so im trying to get someone to trade me for my pono pro classic, about to make the post now.
 
katysax said:
I got one and tuned it to GCEA, but I've barely touched it.
Click to expand...

With all the instruments you have, you probably can't find it, :rotfl:

The standard nut width seems to around 1 1/8" with a few being 1 1/4" I thought someone did one with a 1 3/8" nut width. I'm concerned that with those narrow nut width models, when tuning to GCEA, one might run into the same problems with certain chords as when you tune a mandolin to GCEA.

Yes? No?
 
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Recently got a Blueridge BR-60T and enjoy it a lot. Well made, nice tone (EBGD tuning....not sure why anyone would use anything else), good action. I would recomend giving the Blueridge a look, at least when checking out low priced tenors.
 
I'm thinking of tenors (guitar and banjo) but it'll be awhile before finances allow. (Sooner if I get off my lazy butt and sell some stuff on eBay.) I'm sort of working my way in that direction, what with my 19-inch-scale mandola tuned 'Irish' CGDG with a C3 on the bottom and my 21-inch-scale fretted Cümbüş strung CGDAEG with a C2 like a mandobass. I think of the latter as a banjo-cittern. :cool: And of course there's the 21-inch-scale Puerto Rican cuatro strung bB-eE-AA-dd-gg. All these require some stretching to chord. Yes, the Kala and Blueridge look tempting. How can I sneak another instrument into the house? [/me looks around furtively]
 
PhilUSAFRet said:
From your signature, I can't see how anyone would notice, LOL!
Click to expand...
Oh, my wife would notice if I didn't buy it from petty cash and didn't hide it in a closet. I don't have a lot of room left for stashing instruments. A half-dozen electrics hang in my office. The 28 acoustics all lean on the barrister cabinets lining our morning room. I might get away with replacing the baritone 'uke and F-type mando I don't love but adding a tenor guitar would be a little obvious.
 
Not really new, might be more than a year, but I have the Ibanez AVT1 and am very happy with it. It has exceeded my expectations in quality of build, quality of sound and fun. I did change the tuning to DGBE for the deeper sound and ease of already knowing the chord shapes. The neck at the nut is a little thin at 30mm but did not take much to adapt to it. I loved the vintage parlor design, that is what sold me over the well received Blueridge.

http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/u_...15&cat_id=3&series_id=83&data_id=9&color=CL01
 
Thanks, that sound clip is better than the one I listened to on Youtube. I'm wondering if GCEA or gCEA tuning would work as well for this guitar as it does on shorter scale tenor guitars like the 17 fret models.
 
I recently received the first tenor guitar built by Beau Hannam. It's tuned DGBE.

Here's a link to my New Tenor Guitar Day post in the Uke Talk forum.
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?109645-New-Tenor-Guitar-(or-steel-string-baritone-ukulele-)-Day

And here's a link to Beau's tenor guitar page on his website.
http://www.beauhannamguitars.com/Tenor-Guitar.html

A few notes about this guitar: Redwood Sinker soundboard, Tasmanian Blackwood back and sides. The tone is warm and it has great sustain. It has ukulele string spacing and a wider nut than "typical" tenor guitars (i.e., Blueridge, the old Martins, etc.) My decision to get this spacing was sort of arbitrary. I'm comfortable with both this spacing and the smaller spacing of most tenor guitars. Also, Beau is mostly responsible for the body shape (which I love, by the way). When we first talked about the build, I mentioned to Beau that I had a Blueridge but I told him that I wanted him to design the body, for both sound (he knows way more than me about that!) and aesthetic reasons. He consulted with me and picked the final design. Beau was great to work with. While I had a hand in the design of the headstock, it was Beau's idea to use a translucent stone for the moon, which glows when the headstock is backlit.
 
Did your EJ24 strings fit the slots on the nut ok?Mine look as though I might have to widen them a bit.I've put an 11 and 15 22 and 32 on mine and tune it DGBE.
 
Well thanks for asking, Phil !

In fact I got one in the post last week ; a Pono BN 30 DA.

https://vimeo.com/139674814

I play a tenor uke and I saw a great review of a couple of tenor guitars by Rainer in Switzerland and after a couple of most helpful pm's from him, I went for a spruce topped tenor.
Thanks Rainer !
It was strung DGBE and I love it..........like an earlier poster it's starting to take over my practices!
Thus far, I think with the large hands I have, I find the tenor guitar a more natural fit for me. That said, the sound difference between a tenor guitar and a tenor uke is so different, they are complementary instruments.
It's very early days; I have two tenor ukes, one re-entrant and one linear. I suspect the tenor guitar may supplant the linear uke. I don't know yet.
One question .....on another thread someone asked about re-stringing it in GCEA and this I would like to try for the sake of consistency through my instruments.
Mine is braced ( I believe) for nylon classical strings so steel strings are not suitable.
SteveZ in another post gave some pertinent information about how to do this for steel strings.
Can anyone guide me to where I can buy classical guitar strings specifically for a tenor guitar or a full set ( of which I have to ditch 2) I've tried a local store but they look at me like I'm speaking Russian.
Has anyone any comments on the merits/sounds of tenor guitar strung in DGBE versus GCEA ? Can't find any GCEA sound clips on YouTube or elsewhere.
Any help very much appreciated.............Robin
 
This information was misleading so I've deleted it.
The info the D'addario rep. gave did not work so better to remove it.
Nice guy though.........tried to help and is sending me some different strings gratis
 
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Robin, glad to hear that you like your Baritone Nui. I'm sure Dirk at Southcoast Ukes could help you with strings. However, when tuning an instrument of this size up to GCEA, I think you'd be sacrificing the very essence of it: that deep low end a "regular" Uke just won't give.
 
Phil, I'm very happy with my old Harmony tenor guitar. They are not too hard to find and can be had fairly in expensively. The older ones are all solid wood (mines a '71). The action is good, tuners work perfectly fine and I like the neck. It's slender, but the string spacing is not that close. I find it comfortable to play. I use the tenor especially when I'm playing guitary stuff and when I need more volume. I find it especially useful on tunes where you need a chord to ring out for a dramatic phrase. There are tunes, say like Lee Brice's "Love like crazy", where you need the sustain of the steel strings to carry the piece. I could not be happier with my tenor.
 
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