[martinedwards]

tenor guitar, as wikipedia so clearly puts it, is a 4 string short (around 22") scale instrument tuned in 5ths (7th fret)

two main tunings, CGDA like you fine folk tune your tenor banjos, or GDAE just like us Irish folk tune OUR tenor banjos......

I have a build well under way and I'll post pics and sound clips when I'm done.....

but to whet your appetite......

fanned frets,
double cutaway a la SG
4 sound ports on the top edge and no soundhole on the front.
mahogany neck, back & sides, spruce top and ebony fretboard and bridge.....

[martinedwards]

[Sean.thomson]

Hamanahamanahamana...

:drool:

-Sent using CGR Forum Mobile!

[BillSPrestonEsq]

Originally Posted by martinedwards

Point of question:

Is it the single courses that would distinguish a tenor guitar and octave mandolin? Or are their major bracing differences? (Most tenor guitars I have seen are of the cigar box style which generally are not too properly constructed)

[CheshireCat]

Originally Posted by thesteve

Fender VI? Fender Bass VI - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The classic four stringed Precision Bass or Jazz Bass were both collectively known as "the Fender Bass" - as stark contrast to an upright bass - and allowed pickers who worked regular sessons playing guitar to add bass to their list of services. It's a lot easier to go from a guitar to a "Fender Bass" than it is to an upright bass.

Interestingly enough, Leo originally intended the P-Bass as to sound like a better amplified upright, and designed it as such, with flatwound strings, a string mute, and so on. The sound we normally associate now with the P-Bass came about when players started taking off the mutes and changing it up.

Chesh

[martinedwards]

Originally Posted by BillSPrestonEsq

Point of question:

Is it the single courses that would distinguish a tenor guitar and octave mandolin? Or are their major bracing differences? (Most tenor guitars I have seen are of the cigar box style which generally are not too properly constructed)

YEEEEES...........

as has been said ablove, they were originally a interim instrument between tenor (or plectrum) banjo and guitar with the same tuning. as a stopgap in strument, many were cheaply and badly made, but a lot of the serious manufacturers like Gibson and Martin made quality instruments.

GENERALLY, tenore guitars are guitar shaped while Octave mandos are GENERALLY mando shaped, but out here in the dark murky waters on the edge of the folk world, demarkation gets very blurry!!!

[CheshireCat]

Originally Posted by martinedwards

YEEEEES...........

Now you know my pain.

[martinedwards]

the headscratching over string gauges continues.

my regular acoustic has a scale length of 645mm like a martin dread.....

I have a supply of D'Addario strings that I got bulk a while back for pennies, with the gauges:

13 / 17 / 26w / 35w / 45w / 56w

the tuning is standard E A D G B E........

now, the tenor has a scale of (lets average it) 550mm

tuned GDAE

so.......

the G string is just about right at 56 as the open G on the tenor is almost exactly the same as an E on a regular guitar fretted at the 3rd fret (a G!!)

the top E is 100 mm or so shorter than on a regular guitar, so it SHOULD go thicker.....at the minute I have the 13 on there, but I MIGHT just try the 17 ........

and in the middle?

well. I put the 45 on as the D. its 100mm shorter than it would be on a regular, but its tuned two semitones higher than the 3rd fret...... it'll do......

first attempt had the 17 on the A position but that meant it was loose.... regular guitar on a 3rd fret it'd be a C, but here its only an A..... it was loose, floppy and just not as nice as it should have been......

but with the 26 on there its a lot nicer on a regular guitar, that string would be playing at Ab on the 3rd fret so it's only a semitone away.......

so, all in all I THINK I'm sorted... at least I will be tomorrow when I swop the top E for the 17 just to see.....

I'll play it in for a day or two and then decide for certain, and sort the intonation and fit the pup

[martinedwards]

Sorry for my bad playing, I haven't had a tenor guitar for very long!!!

tenor guitar #80.wmv - YouTube

[martinedwards]

so last night Ian (who has a mando and and octave mando of mine) was in my house.

he looked at the tenor

he played the tenor

be asked for it

I said NO!!!

he begged me for it

I said I'll make you one

I told him a nice low "mates rates" price

ah go on says he and added 25%.... let me have this one......

oh all right then........

had the thing home for a week and it's gone!!!

ah well, just have to make another one!

[CheshireCat]

Originally Posted by martinedwards

ah well, just have to make another one!

But isn't that the whole point of it?

[martinedwards]

you betcha!!

the replacement is started, same design as the last one that I liked so much only now I'm doing the body in East Indian Rosewood as I had a set lurking at the back of the stash.

everything else SHOULD be pretty much the same as the last one.

unless I get distracted by a butterfly and do something even MORE bizzarre!

[CheshireCat]

Originally Posted by martinedwards

unless I get distracted by a butterfly and do something even MORE bizzarre!

Like these?

[martinedwards]

yup!!

[BaconRocks]

You should make somthing like this: