What is a TENOR guitar? (and why it’s so important) 

Thanks for watching everyone! If ya can't get enough, check out my new series over on my Patreon, Rare Radio. Rare Radio is a weekly deep-dive into my record collection, aimed to highlight overlooked songs and players from the folk tradition.⬇⬇⬇ www.patreon.com/kostringworks

Having the 4 strings as GDBE is called Chicago tuning. I used to play 4 string Banjo like that, very useful for us lazy guitar players :) It could be Clayton Carson written/scratched on the body.

I've loved the tenor guitar for years! I'm a big Kingston Trio fan and general folk music fanatic. Nick Reynolds and Rick Dougherty have played tenor guitar in DGBE tuning in the band it adds so much to the Trio's sound. Guitar, banjo and tenor guitar are the instuments they used and I made a point of owning and playing all three. I have a pretty nice, if old, tenor guitar and I love it to pieces. It has such a lovely voice.

CGDA tuning gives you achingly beautiful minor chord voicings on the tenor. I have 3 of them now and am building 2 right now (an acoustic and an electric). I also keep a concert uke in CGDA tuning.

I've tuned my tenor guitar to the same notes as a mandolin, an octave away, which is called the Irish tenor guitar. I’ve turned my tenor banjo the same way, making it an Irish tenor banjo. I’ve done this because I play mandolin and don't want to learn different fingerings, like other Irish mandolin players who play guitar and banjo do.

I wish Eastwood would start making the Astrojet tenor electric guitar again.I want another one so badly.

This little Guitar deserves more credit these days....

I've played Jazz on the Harmony H929TG at Mandarin High School (I'm going to College soon) which I've strung for GDAE Octave Mandolin Tuning using John Pearse #450 strings (It belonged to Mrs Oglesby) & it creates a much mellower sound that's appropriate for that music. I added a Pickup & this Tuning allowed me to get a method book called "Mandolin Chordology" so her son could learn to play it.

Kyle, this is seriously good stuff. Great editing and great explanation of the instrument. Thanks for all of your research and hard work making this!

I've been loving my tenor guitar for over twenty years. For anyone reading this who doesn't play the guitar, you make different notes by pressing down on the strings with your fingers. I don't have enough fingers for a six-string. I also play a five-string banjo, but that's really all I can manage.

I've always thought a four string guitar would be great fun to play around on. Limitation is the mother of creativity (probably).

My first tenor guitar was my grandfather's Harmony Monterey, made in 1959 just before I was born. Few years ago bought a Blueridge, got a cheap tenor banjo, and more recently converted a horrible Yamaha classical into a tenor. The tenor is MUCH easier than a 6-string for noodling, playing and singing the songs you like from the radio, and whatnot. My Blueridge is my go to for inspiration. I was never good at other instruments, so I use CGDA for all but my Yamaha, which is still fifths but tuned in E. Rockabilly artist Neko Case has a giant collection of electric tenors.

I found an old Encore tenor guitar in a pawn shop years ago. Having already played around with mandolins and mandolas, I tuned it to CGDA and left it there. I'm still a rank amateur (just never found the time to dive in the way I wanted), but I love the symmetry and voicings of fifths tuning. Never did learn how to play a six-string in standard tuning!

(4:20) LOL, you gotta love that old banjo man's style! He was spinning his instrument well before ZZ Top did.

Nice presentation. I have a Gibson TG 25N Tenor from the late ‘60s with original case. Great condition, varnish is showing it’s old age checking...haha; but still plays & sounds good. BTW... I have it tuned in open G.

I included a Pick w/ the Tenor Guitar so that Mrs Oglesby's son can learn to play (as well as a Strap & a Pickup to allow the instrument to plug into a Fender Jazz King amp). From what I've read online, a Tenor Guitar is actually a Hybrid insturment, it's a Tenor Banjo neck on a Guitar Body. It's tuned & played like a Tenor Banjo but it has a Guitar sound. These were made back in the early 1900s when Banjoists had to switch to Guitar because as recording technology advanced, they found out that the Banjo sound wasn't really a good match for the newer styles of music.

The Kingston Trio had a 4 string in for years and years!

Tenor guitar is an amazing accompaniment instrument for fiddles and mandolins.

I own a 1960's Kim Gar parlor tenor acoustic. I tune to EADG. Just as my basses. Love this little gitfiddle. Like Irish tone sound. Added equalizer to it. Now has amplified sounds also. Has had neck reset. Great intonation. Got from Ebay auction. Has Washburn rare parlor guitar hard shell case. Neat fact. Fret dot not on 9th fret but 10th fret instead something different. Added upper and lower thumbrest/tug bar for that fingering style I have. Love that fact both bass EADG tuning or lead DGBe. So helps works on both Bass and guitar riff. Small neck also helps. Lightest gitfiddle I owe. Like almost nothing. Small and easy to play anywhere. Always wanted that Fender electric Telecaster Tenor but price went out of hand. This... Mr. Zimmer... It's name is great addition to my music.

The Tenor Guitar can be tuned like a Mandolin but an Octave Lower w/ John Pearse #450 Strings, lots of Tenor Guitars made today have a slightly deeper body to help those low notes resonate better.

Super interesting. didn't know anything about tenor Guitars, I mean I 've always saw them on the internet, I would love to try one.

Interesting video ! I believe present, jazz guitar great Frank Vignola was a champion banjo player as a kid..

That is most useful thankyou. I am currently building an electric 'banjo' and debating on the number of strings. Debate now closed: it will be a 4 string tenor guitar which, as a mandolin player, I can play already! Irish trad tunes plus bluegrass. Easier to do than the bouzouki I already made and the short neck is great for my damaged hands. So glad I watched this. Will subscribe.

Awesome video.

I second the Regal origin. And yes, these are really fun!

Another educational video, thanks Kyle! I have an old (1970) Harmony tenor that I'll keep till they put me in a box. I either tune it CGda, or open tuning GGcg. Tenors aren't for everyone but they're really cool guitars! I also have a newer Alvarez tenor and an Eastwood Warren Ellis electric tenor.

Thanks for spotlighting this! I'm a novice mandolin player and love all instruments tuned in 5ths. I have an old Harmony tenor banjo. I'd love to get a tenor guitar, but Gold Tone is my only real option, due to being a lefty

Love tenors. Nice video!

Tuning in 5ths is magical. Ask a violinist, violist, or cellist (and some bassists). Chords become more spread out and resonant and, better sill, melodies with or without double/triple stops are easily accessible.

WOW - very pro video on an interesting instrument. DANKE fröm 🇩🇪

Fifth-based tuning opens up a vast repertoire from the violin/viola/cello family, as well as mandolin family

No cred from me till I decided to try a Kala tenor guitar (not their uke). It is a small one. Since playing with that a while I got a Recording King tenor (a little larger). Mine are inexpensive instruments, but they are great fun to play and those two missing strings don’t hinder your chord choices. I now use the DGBE because chording in the traditional tenor banjo (like a mandolin) is a long stretch. I also like DGBE because of how easy it is to change to other tunings: open G, minor, and other banjo like tunings.

Love the banjo neck and tuners on a guitar body.

Thank you for this interesting and informative video. I find that the tuning in fifths is good for instruments with short scales where you mostly play single note lines. With the short scale, you don't have to jump so far for distant notes and you have the advantage of the increased range with respect to a tuning in fourths. It's really nice to have a smaller, higher pitched instrument for solos or doubling the melody an octave above. For anyone who isn't familiar with the Trio Los Panchos (later just Los Panchos), I highly recommend the requinto playing of Alfredo Gil. I find that I like the chords better with an instrument tuned in fourths + one third, like a guitar or a ukelele, but that may just be because I haven't gotten used to them on my instruments that are tuned in fifths yet. I've also found I prefer having fewer strings (or courses) on smaller instruments. For example, I have a six-string guitalele, which is a nice instrument, but I find that the strings are a little too close together to make it easily playable. With all due respect to Pete Seeger, I like the C-G-B-D tuning on 5-string banjo. I like having the low C. But I think the best thing to do is try out lots of tunings: it's not as hard as it seems at first.

It’s interesting to see how this was developed from the Tenor Banjo. As a banjo player it seems so strange to me that at one point the Tenor Banjo had almost completely displaced the 5 string banjo to the point that guitars with tenor banjo necks were being built. Personally I much prefer the sound of a 5 string banjo to a tenor but I have to say that the Tenor Guitar really is a joy to play and listen to.

That sounds exquisite for the Irish folk bit at the end

I play cello, and the tenor guitar generally has the same tuning as a cello (CGDA). This would be super nice since I already know where all the notes are!

Love the headstock like a tenor lute. Are you using the same strings for standard, chicago and g tuning?

I could tell that this Guitar is a Regal based on the Tailpiece.

Just read about Jacob Collier story on his 5 string strandberg. It led me to here. Never knew there's an obscure types of guitar other than extended range guitars and baritone.

I just heard about these tenor guitars. I gave up regular ones because my finger pads/tips are too thick and I constantly muted the strings. Are these strings spaced further apart than regular guitars? I've tried searching for the answer but can't find one. Thanks

Also the Kingston trio used this guitar

Dude your tool box is like the creepy toy fixer guys from toy story.

Just found you-can you analyze Tampa Red's The Jitter Jump?

Hi do you have links for any good tenor guitar performances? Even in RU-vid hard to find

I wonder if the non-reentrant concert uke tuning would sound good on it (Gcea)?

Tony Hawk's younger brother!😊

The famous Mills Brothers in the early 30s played a tenor guitar just like this one.

Wait what. You tape off fretboards using electrical tape? Which works best?

A really obscure guitar would be the plectrum guitar, which was a larger than a tenor and in banjo tuning rather than the mandola tuning of a normal tenor guitar. Trying to play CGBd tuning at that scale length would require heavier strings, although it might sound good in banjeaurine tuning (Gceg).

You forgot jazz great Tiny Grimes, even though it was electric.

Would the Venezuelan A D F# B cuatro tuning work?

5:03 This Tuning is the same as a Mandola. It's also the same tuning as the Cello so even Cellists can start strumming away from Day 1:ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OBtOBDzj0bE.html

Originally coming out of the orchestral world, tenor guitar in fifths is the only thing that makes sense to me. The whole fourths and a third thing on guitar or Chicago tuning is never quite natural.

Please tell me the name of the Peabody video.

To be clear, not all tenors are small-bodied. Some of them have a fairly regular accoustic steel-stringed guitar body size and shape.

The writing looks like “C PAYTON In 1950” Or maybe “CLAYTON SLASO” (Imagine if it was C PATTON)! 😂 Did you ever figure it out?

Very interesting and informative video. The guitar looks lovely but really doesn't sound good.

Tom

Video is all talking. Barely get to hear it at all. Lame