View Full Version : New to tenors and need help finding or building one.
RickManpants
Aug-23-2014, 5:18pm
I just picked up an 80s Encore tenor for a new project I'm working on but it's not really what I want for the stage.
My ideal would be an older model archtop but the majority of those that I've found are far out of my budget.
Are there any archtop tenors that I should be looking for that have a value in the $150-300 range or are there any good places to look for a project guitar that I can have repaired. Also, what is the viability of finding an old archtop body and fitting it with a tenor neck if I can't find an instrument I want to purchase.
Seonachan
Aug-23-2014, 8:14pm
The only archtop tenor I've seen in that price range is Harmony. They come up for sale on the usual venues with some frequency.
I guess a lot depends on what you want to do with the guitar, what your overall budget is or if you can work on a project yourself?
You might find a better sounding archtop than a Harmony but for $300 you would be very lucky to find one in good working order!
I have a 1962 Harmony archtop that I bought for about $200, it is a solid wood model not the laminated version.
I had to put a lot of work into the guitar to get it playing nicely, is was not a good sound at all when I first bought it & from what I have read non of the budget Harmony's are good players in standard form!
I have bid on lots of vintage archtops but anything half decent goes for a lot more than $300.
If I was to compare my Harmony to my modern Blueridge , I would have to say the sound quality is huge but the archtop looks fantastic & works very well for old time jazz type playing...
Here is my Harmony as it was & now...
http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu261/foxfish_photo/imagejpg1-8.jpg (http://s654.photobucket.com/user/foxfish_photo/media/imagejpg1-8.jpg.html)
http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu261/foxfish_photo/imagejpg1-16.jpg (http://s654.photobucket.com/user/foxfish_photo/media/imagejpg1-16.jpg.html)
RickManpants
Aug-24-2014, 1:29pm
I'm using the instrument for non traditional purposes. I'm a songwriter who began playing guitar by learning travis picking and delta blues so most of my writing is pretty traditional folk merging into indie rock kind of stuff. I've starting working on some music that I intend to be a little more experimental and my aim for buying a tenor is that I realized I was only using the first four strings of my guitar to write this new music with and with no one else in town playing a tenor it would definitely add to the stage presence when people try to figure out what I'm playing.
I want an old archtop for that same reason. Looks good, sounds kind of course and plucky, and I can jerry rig a piezo to the outside for the rough look without knowing that I did it to a vintage instrument of real worth.
Ah interesting!
Look on Ebay to check what are the going prices for vintage tenors, you might find something?
just bear in mind that for around $350 you can buy a fantastic sounding, new, tenor guitar!
RickManpants
Aug-24-2014, 1:53pm
Where might I find a new one for that price? Will it still be an archtop model?
I don't think there are any mass produced archtop tenors out there but something like the Blueridge BR-40T Tenor will amaze you with its beautiful sound (CGDA tuning).
There are other slightly cheaper but, still great tenor guitars too... here are my blueridge & my Ozark - 23" & 21" scale length.
http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu261/foxfish_photo/b75ea97736175c95a24123957e5f4a0a.jpg (http://s654.photobucket.com/user/foxfish_photo/media/b75ea97736175c95a24123957e5f4a0a.jpg.html)