Quote Originally Posted by jjoyce View Post
Wow, I can't believe a tenor guitar forum. I have a Martin tenor, mohogany, nothing fancy, that I've got tuned GDAE. I have a difficult time getting it to sound bright, and it's likely the strings are not right. I should try some of the combo's some of you are mentioning. I can't even remember what's on it now. It's such a mellow dulcit sound, nice for practicing Bach cello suites or something, but not so alive with my favorite celtic/choro favs. I admit, part of it is also that my hands just aren't accustomed to the fret spacing of a real guitar neck. Capoed up it's decent. I almost want to get the right strings put on it so I can capo at the fifth fret and it be GDAE, then maybe I could really play it. That would sound decent for some of the latin tunes I do.
For a brighter sound, I would check out the silver-plated strings normally sold for gypsy style guitars, from John Pearse and some other makers. You can order them as individual strings. LaBella makes a set for standard tuning (CGDA) but they are way too light (9-13-20-27) for Irish tuning (GDAE). For your 23" scale Martin in GDAE, you will need to order gauges of at least 13-20-30-42 or higher if you want more tension. I would guess that phosphor bronze are next-most bright strings after silver-plated steel.