Re: Tenor Guitar Question: Convert an old guitar or pull the pick
I'm no tenor expert but, having messed w/ lots of electric guitars, my first thought is "what's the worst that can happen?" Sort of meaning: try small steps at a time before making each bigger decision.
First question: Do the electronics work AT ALL?
- If the switches & pots are bad, then pulling the pickups off is not a bad decision.
- If ALL pickups are bad, you're dead in the water.
- If SOME pickups are bad, pulling the good one(s) off is still okay.
If pickups & electronics are okay, then you could re-string the four middle ones to tenor tuning (take off the outside strings), and just see how it sounds.
Having gotten that far, the next decision is to either slim down the neck to 4 strings (plus maybe modify the headstock), being a moderate change, -VS- commmit to moving the pickups to a new, or newly modified, instrument, which is a major change w/ no ensured success.
Keep in mind that IF the pickups were to be pulled, the rest of the instrument would be trash anyway, so modifying the neck is of relatively minor risk. (I make no claims as to the safety of running fret-ends thru a router! You might need to pull them & re-fret after narrowing.) On the negative side, I note that the current bridge has no compensation built in; further discussion of that is for the tenor afficionados.
There have been photos here from others who have slimmed down the neck just beyond where it attaches to the body. Might look a bit hokey, but entirely functional.
- Ed
"Then one day we weren't as young as before
Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
- Ian Tyson
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