Less Expensive Tenors (Part 1) - Some Photos

[LifelongPlunker]

My path to tenor guitar took me from six-string acoustics, through ukuleles to baritone ukes, and thence to tenors (perhaps sadly) tuned Chicago style DGBE. Traditional tenor tunings and their chords sound beautiful to me, but I have not yet committed to learning more than a few chords. Another thing to know about me is that, while I have owned a couple of really fine guitars along the way, I tend to accumulate rather low end guitars, often via Craigslist, and then try to maximize their potential by doing setup work and choosing strings that suit the instrument. You might ask (and I have asked myself) why not get one really nice instrument instead of many fairly modestly conceived ones? This is partly what I am allowed by my "hobby budget" which makes it much easier to spend $200 each on five than to spend $1,000 on one. I know...but that's the way it is.

At the moment I have three relatively inexpensive tenors that can be easily purchased as I write in May 2017. I may or may not get into trying to do a review of each, but just seeing the three together in a photo may be helpful to a number of readers. Picture below from left to right are the Kala KA-GTR, the Ibanez PFT2-NT, and the Gold Tone TG-10. (Note: the Ibanez PFT2-NT and more expensive Ibanez AVT2E-NT are the same size and shape. Likewise, the Gold Tone TG-10 and more expensive TG-18 are the same size and shape.)

In my Chrome browser, I can right click on the enlarged image, select open in new tab, and see the photo in full size. YMMV.

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[fox]

Great & welcome to the forum!
You seem to be missing the Blueridge though :)

[LifelongPlunker]

Too rich for my budget. "Less" means less. ;-) I am very surprised at how nice the TG-10 is since it has such uninspiring specifications (bolt-on neck, all laminate, nato wood, rather plain appearance). It will be my keeper.

[Granger]

Your path to tenors is similar to mine. I still play in DGBe. No shame in that, they is such a huge amount of music out there for that tuning and some of the chord shapes are as nice sounding as in traditional tuning. IMHO. Miss a little of the range, but easier to play without some of the stretches required in 5ths tuning.
Grammy winning guitar player, Ed Gerhard, made a CD called House of Guitars, in which he took a collection of beater guitars of relatively humble origins and plays them beautifully. A good setup, a straight neck, good strings and then the rest is really up to you and the technique you have mastered. There are many reasons to own a high end instrument, but not all of those reasons have to do with how well they sound or how well they play. It is of course a matter of money and personal preference, and often a dash of ego. The main thing is playing them, a lot, and advancing your technique.
I have the Kayla KA GTR and it will be a keeper. This particular one has a wonderful piece of spruce on the top and to my ear sounds good and a wonderful action and perfect neck. Don't need much more than that really. I have a Pono UL4-20, a few times more expensive than the Kala. Doesn't play any better, sounds a little fuller, a bit better sustain, prettier to look at. Sometimes I wonder which instrument represents the best value.... and find there is no right answer.

[bruce.b]

I had a Kala and liked it a lot. It sounded great in CGDA, but I only play in GDAE. It struggles a bit in GDAE, IMO. I bet it sounds great in DGBE too.

[fox]

I think it is perfectly acceptable to tune your guitar any which way you choose.... I don't see any tenor guitar police around here & anyway I play DGBE virtually every day it just that I have A & E as well :)

[Granger]

Bruce I think you are right about the Kayla and the GDAE tunning. That tuning may benefit from a little bigger body and a little longer scale length than the Kayla has. It does sound pretty good in the DGBE!

Fox, you comments are appreciated. I have found the folks here are very helpful and just want tenors to be enjoyed in all of their incarnations, you exemplify that helpful spirit.

[Granger]

lifelong plucker.

I think there is a pretty good justification for having a collection of instruments rather than just one really high end one (particularly since you know how to do your own setup:). I have 3 tenors and 2 bari ukes, all tuned DGBE. They all have different voices. One is great for picking the blues, but doesn't seem to articulate well when strumming hard. Another is a pretty good one for strumming, and so on. Two of them I made, so there is a lot of me in them. Every instrument I have ever played seems to have it's own personality and it takes time to get to know it. To me this is an aspect of musicianship that is very appealing to me and I would miss it if I sunk all my money into a single high end instrument. I buy and sell a few instruments every couple years. After using them for a year I can almost always recover most of my cost, any money lost I look at as cheap rent for a fun experience. I have only held onto a couple that I really like. This is great fun to me.

You have taken the time to learn how to do your own setups. Bravo! That is one of the best things a musician can do. , As you obviously appreciate, getting a really good action, replacing cheap plastic nuts and saddles with bone or other finer materials and being able to adjust them, understanding string tensions and string selection, truss rod adjustments and so on is time well spent and can take an otherwise humble instrument up several levels.
music and musicianship has many layers and many nuances. It is beautiful in all its facets, providing a lifetime of challenging and rewarding experiences.