New Gold Tone TG10

[micall5]

Well... got a new Tenor for Christmas this morning and of course... I break the E string while tuning it to GDAE and there are no music shops open on the holiday. I guess my impatience will have to wait until tomorrow for new strings.

My question is about the string bit near the bridge. How do you remove the small white bit that holds the string in place? I don't want to try and wrench/scratch up the thing on day 1.

Thanks
Happy Christmas

[Larry S Sherman]

There's a few ways to get the pin out. Basically, you either push it out from underneath or pry it out from above.

Here's some really helpful instructions from Frets.com

They show at least 3 ways to do it, including this safe trick:



Enjoy your new tenor!

Larry

[allenhopkins]

If your tenor guitar came with strings designed for "normal" CGDA tuning, you'll not get to GDAE tuning by tuning higher! You'll need to get heavier (octave mandolin strings, or their gauge equivalents in ball-end guitar strings), and tune down.

Regarding the bridge pin: do you have a string winder (like this one)? You'll note a notch in the end of the part that fits over the tuning peg. That notch is for lifting out bridge pins; just work it under the little knob on the end of the pin, and rock the winder back and forth a bit until the pin works its way out.

[micall5]

Thanks for all the advice. I will get a string winder and use a "tool" for now. I'll also get some heavier gauge strings, as the TG-10 is set up for standard tuning.
Thanks again, Happy Christmas.

[micall5]

Tenor Trouble.
I just bought individual strings at a local music shop, the closest they had for a tenor, .042-.032-.024-.014.
Another issue with the E string (GDAE) came up. It wouldn't tune past a Cmajor/C#. Then I tuned the rest of the strings went back to re tune the E and it pulled out of the bridge pin and snapped. Any ideas why I can't get the E string to tune? The first time it broke it was in a different spot, so I believe it is not an issue with the instrument.
I hope.
Thanks.

[Mandobar]

try a .012 for the e. get some extras. better yet, take the tenor to the music shop and let them string it and tune up.

[allenhopkins]

Standard tenor banjo 1st string (for CGDA tuning) is .09 or .10. The Cafe's article on different mandolin family instruments (link here) shows a .012 for "short scale tenor banjo" GDAE tuning, which would probably be close to tenor guitar scale.

I'd guess .014's a bit heavy. Proof of the pudding is that you keep breaking it. My question is: are you going up from CGDA tuning, that is to tuning the tenor guitar like a mandolin, rather than down, to tuning it like an octave mandolin?

Mandolin scale length's 14 inches, give or take. Tenor guitar's 23 inches, give or take. You can't tune a tenor guitar to mandolin tuning using any gauge of strings of which I can conceive. You can tune it to octave mandolin tuning using strings similar to those of a short-scale tenor or octave mandolin.

As you've deduced, if the string's breaking at a different point, it's probably not a rough spot on the bridge saddle, or a too-tight nut slot that won't let tension distribute evenly over the length of the string. You need a lighter string, or you need to re-think what octave you're tuning it to.

[Martin Jonas]

I've had 0.014" as an E-string on my tenor without problems, although I have since dropped down to 0.013" as the tone was a bit strangled at the heavier gauge. Mine is 21.25" scale, though, so a bit shorter and thus less tension at the same pitch. I would be surprised if 0.014" is so high in tension that it'll break the string, so I suspect that you're either tuning an octave too high or that the string wasn't inserted properly in the bridge. Bridge pins take a bit of getting used to for mando players and when I got my first pin bridged, I found this page at frets.com useful for getting the ball properly lodged under the soundboard -- my first try had been to push the ball in with the pin, which would always push the pin out when tuning up to pitch, which sounds a bit like what you're experiencing.

Martin

[micall5]

Thanks for all the advice. Yesterday I was able to get a .012 E string on without any problems. It's completely possible that I put the ball in the bridge pin incorrectly and the string snapped. As for now, I read the article above and followed their directions. So far no problems and it sounds great! Thanks for all the help.
For the price of this Tenor, it really sounds great!