Blueridge Tenor Guitars

[mjb128wv]

I know this guitar has been talked about here before but wanted to reiterate what a great deal these are. I got a used one for $300 and put .48, .036, .024, .015(GDAE) strings on it. Great tone, sustain, great fun and a great stretch for us fiddle/mandolin players.

[SGraham]

Hey mjb, I feel the same way about my Blueridge tenor. I just got back from playing a gig with mine, and I have to add "great volume" to your list.

[Jim Gallaher]

I'll add my plaudits for the Blueridge BR 40T (http://www.elderly.com/new_instruments/items/BR40T.htm) which I took delivery on just a few weeks ago. It sounded very mellow and loud with the original CGDA string gauges (.010, .014, .022W, .032W). I struggled with transposing for a while, then gave in to practicality and converted it to GDAE (John Pearse 450L's, .013, .020, .030, .042) with a little filing of the nut grooves.

At first, I thought its sound suffered a little from lowering the pitch, but as my ears have become more accustomed to the sound I've come to enjoy the deeper voice.

I bought this guitar to increase my exposure to the swing tunes I had been learning on the mandolin and recover some of the "reach" I had lost over the last 12 years as my 6-string guitars languished in their cases and the mando took over. The first time I worked out an arrangement of "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" I knew it was all good. I'm having to re-think my solo's, though, since the stretch for notes is harder.

As a bonus, I can play the same arrangement on my mandolin (and improvise much easier) and the tenor chords have expanded my chord work on the mando. Everybody wins!

[mjb128wv]

I just ordered a K&K Twin Spot internal for mine - gonna play it through a Zoom A2. Looking forward to it. I too have found tenor a great "cross training" tool for mandolin - which seems much easier after a good set of fiddle tunes on the tenor.