1928 Martin 2-18T tenor guitar

There is a room where you can strum some new guitars but there are no tenor guitars to be seen, not even in the museum. When I asked about tenor guitars, the tour guide looked puzzled.

That does not surprise me. As a derivative of the tenor banjo, the tenor guitar is a niche instrument.

Marcy Marxer turned me onto the tenor guitar, and for a while, I played a Martin tenor guitar commissioned by Elderly Music. It was fantastic, and the one for sale in this thread sounds even better.

For an idea of the instrument's current outer limits, check out John Lawlor. Then come back to this thread and drool (I know I am!) as you get out your checkbook. ;)
 
Tenor guitars are kind of a like a bastard in the guitar family. In the late 1920's, the tenor banjo was falling out of favor while the guitar was becoming popular. Tenor banjo players wanted to switch to guitar but were having trouble learning how to play 6 string instruments. The tenor guitar was built to sell to them.
They had a small resurgence when the Kingston Trio's Nick Reynolds became a star during the folk scare.

I completely forgot that Nick Reynolds played the tenor guitar. I may have thought it was just a scaled (no pun intended) down guitar to fit with his "little guy" shtick that they played (ditto) up.
 
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