I'm trying to get geared up for some cold-weather woodshedding in the hopes of hitting bluegrass jams in the fall. I have a nice stack of DVDs on bluegrass rhythm guitar, and I think I can boom-chuck on a 6 string without embarrassing myself too badly.
About a year back, I got a pretty incredible 1933 single-cone National tenor, which I've kept in CGDA tuning. I'm no great picker, but simply open-chord 1st position strumming really has a nice sense of authority coming out of that steel body. On the few fiddle tunes I've messed around with, being heard on leads is not a problem. I'm not shy about using the capo, so that helps.
So . . . I'm thinking about really committing myself to taking the tenor to all the jams next summer. Seems like there's a few different ways to come at the reso tenor as a bluegrass instrument. First, this open-chord strumming I've been doing, which probably gets the job done when I'm singing. Second, you can do an Irish tenor banjo thing, playing fiddle-type leads out of first position. Third, if I actually learn to work the whole neck, there's that Texas fiddle backup style.
Well, I have the instrument, and I have the plan, and now I just gotta do the work.
Bookmarks