A reel on my new to me Kala tenor guitar!

[Jill McAuley]

Housebound by the relentless rain today so got some recording done - just picked up this wee Kala tenor from a Cafe member local to me the other day, very impressed with it indeed, great wee instrument for the money! Here's a Paddy O'Brien reel called New Year's Eve, tuning is GDAE and I'm using the same pick that I use for tenor banjo, a Clayton Acetyl .50mm:

[Jim Garber]

Very nice, Jill. What is the scale on that tenor and what string gauges are you using?

[fox]

That's great Jill, I got my first tenor guitar three years ago and played it just like my tenor banjo but, over the last few years my picking hand has evolved more forward, the pick I use has a round edge & I make use the sustain a bit more than triplets!
I also use more chords shapes now, in fact I hardly play my banjos anymore!

[Jill McAuley]

Very nice, Jill. What is the scale on that tenor and what string gauges are you using?

It's a 21.5 scale length - the strings that came on it are: 11/14/22/32 I think. I have read of folks using heavier gauges and may try that, though I have also seen mention that the Kala might not be robust enough for heavy gauges? There is a shop that sells them "hot rodded", set up for GDAE (rather than the factory CGDA, and that shop is sending them out with a 44 for the G string, so maybe a heavier set will be just fine.

[Fergus Lester]

Very nicely played.

[fox]

You have got a CGDA set there, you would want 13p 20w 30w 45w for GDAE I use 13p 20w 32w 48w on my 21" scale.

[Jill McAuley]

You have got a CGDA set there, you would want 13p 20w 30w 45w for GDAE I use 13p 20w 32w 48w on my 21" scale.

Aye, I reckoned they were on the light side for GDAE. Will get some heavier strings tomorrow for definite!

[fox]

You will be blown away with the difference, I can tell your playing is fantastic but it did not sound right to me, tenors should really ring out and sustain for ever....

[JeffD]

Great playing of a great tune.

Couple of questions. It looks like you are sticking with the two frets one fingerings we all do on mandolin. And you are doing fine with it. I have been trying to make the stretch on my tenor, and am about to try the one fret one finger that guitarists use and that some tenor players recommend. The trouble with that is that it re-engineers my brain.

You inspire me to forego learning everything over again one finger one fret, and just put in the work to get the fingers stretched and the hand movement accurate.


Second, if I am not mistaken the ninth fret is marked instead of the tenth? That would bother me as I am mandocentric in my dot interpretation.

[Charles E.]

Great playing as always Jill! I had a chance to play one of those a while back and liked it a lot more then the Blue Ridge tenors. The short scale makes a big difference when playing fiddle tunes.

[liestman]

Mighty fine, Jill!!!

[crisscross]

Nice playing, and the Kala is a fine guitar. I keep mine in CGDA, but you make yours sound very good in GDAE!

[Shelagh Moore]

Nice playing Jill! By a coincidence I have been using my tenor (CGDA-tuned) more recently as well.

[Granger]

well done!!

[Jill McAuley]

Great playing of a great tune.

Couple of questions. It looks like you are sticking with the two frets one fingerings we all do on mandolin. And you are doing fine with it. I have been trying to make the stretch on my tenor, and am about to try the one fret one finger that guitarists use and that some tenor players recommend. The trouble with that is that it re-engineers my brain.

You inspire me to forego learning everything over again one finger one fret, and just put in the work to get the fingers stretched and the hand movement accurate.


Second, if I am not mistaken the ninth fret is marked instead of the tenth? That would bother me as I am mandocentric in my dot interpretation.

Yes, I do use mandolin fingering on it, as I also do on my 19 fret tenor. I used to switch between one fret one finger on the tenor and then mandolin fingering (obviously!) on my mandolin but I found it clumsy to switch back and forth and ultimately easier to keep the same fingering and just play tunes slower on the tenor banjo initially to work on getting that stretch nice and clean. Feels very natural now and I don't even notice the difference really!

It does have the ninth fret marked, though I've only noticed that now since you mentioned it!