Down the Tenor Rabbit Hole... (Help)

[Explorer]

@pheffernan. Thanks for posting that video! It was cool to see those in action.
From my experience playing OM's, I definitely prefer the single course tenor guitars, probably just because I feel that the TG lends itself more to some of the things that interested me (I imagine fingerstyle would be quite hard an on OM). Still, I do love to play octave mandolins when I get the chance, just probably not what I'm in the market for at the moment.

Just as an observation, I do fingerstyle and chord melody on my two Flatiron mandolas and on a few of my mandolins. They're strung and set up pretty lightly. My J Bouvier Army Navy mandolin is likely similar to your Poe Scout, and works well with the GHS A240 Ultra Light mandolin set (.009 - .032), so you can experiment and see if something similar might work for you.

I understand that the 17" mandola scale length is a bit shorter than 21", but you might consider it if a restringing experiment on mandolin works as proof of concept for fingerstyle on a double-strung 4-course instrument. Mandola, being tuned to CGDA, also taps into the wealth of learning material available for tenor guitar and tenor banjo. I use mine in all the ways you list as goals, as well as others.

Whatever path you choose to follow or blaze, good luck!

[MoreThanQuinn]

Hey I just wanted to post again to thank everyone for their help and advice. Everytime I ask for advice here, I'm reminded that this is a positive, communal forum and that's why I keep coming back.

I ordered a tenor today that I'm really excited about! I'll hold off on saying what I ended up with for now, but I promise a video and details once I receive it

[gretschbigsby]

This is the Epiphone tenor I mentioned previously. It's a 1938 Blackstone archtop.
It's currently living at Guitar Works Ltd in Evanston IL (NFI)
As you can see, someone played it a lot, and vigorously. That bare wood makes me cringe every time I see it, but it sounds great and plays well.

Picked it up last week.... price was way low. You right about playing/sounding great. The bare wood... yes, but you don't see it when you are playing it!