1950 Martin 018-T tenor guitar - tempted...

[Bob DeVellis]

I've had a 1945 0-17T for a number of years and have gone through a variety of configurations with it. It never worked well for me, with my limited abilities, as a GDAE-tuned instrument. For the stuff I play, the scale length was just too long. What has worked, however, is tuning it DGBE (top 4 guitar strings) and flatpicking Irish tunes on it. A surprising number of Irish tunes don't go below D and the shorter scale makes for easy playing. True, you can play them -- even the ones that go below D -- on a standard guitar but the tenor tone is distinctive (perhaps because mine is all mahogany) and the instrument is lighter and more compact than a standard 6-string. Not surprisingly for a guitar built in 1945, mine needed a neck reset and a new saddle slot for better intonation. I had it set up for DGBE tuning and it's a lot of fun to play. I've largely migrated from mandolin to guitar and that Martin tenor was the "gateway drug" that sparked that migration.

Tenors have inherent limitations but they're also a lot of fun. A nice old one in good shape (happily, my Martin is in exceptional shape, especially after the neck reset) can be a real treat.

[Fred G]

The clip on your blog of the Fletcher is really nice. Sounds great! Great now I have TGAS...

[John Kelly]

Bob, any chance of posting some sound clips here? I don't know how to access your blog - it's probably glaringly obvious - but would love to hear the sound of a tenor tuned in "standard" guitar tuning as compared with my own GDAE tuning. The shorter scale seems a good idea for picking tunes, though they are equally pickable in the mandolin/octave/bouzouki/tenor banjo GDAE I use - great not having to learn new fingerings when changing instruments!

[bruce.b]

As far as the GDAE, CGDA and DGBE I've found them all to sound very different, really different instruments to me. I had played fiddle tunes on concertina for quite a few years before I switched over to a beautiful baritone uke tuned DGBE. It's a nice tuning, mellow and pretty, but if I went back I'd get a 6 string guitar to have the bass. Once I tried 5ths tuning I knew I was home. I started on a cheap GDAE tuned tenor banjo until my Fletcher tenor guitar arrived. When I got a second tenor guitar I tuned the Fletcher CGDA. CGDA sounded excellent but I just switched it back to GDAE. I really miss the bass when tuned CGDA and while it sounded fine and sweet it lacked the growl and power of the lower tuning. Probably because I started GDAE (unlike some people who started CGDA and tried the lower tuning) I find chords sound better in the low tuning. Again, for chords, the lack of a low end bothered me with CGDA.

As far as Bob's comment that tenor guitars have inherent limitations, I believe that's only if you use DGBE 4ths tuning..... perhaps. With GDAE you get the range of a 6 stringer minus two notes, not much of a difference. I don't feel like there are any inherent limitations with this tuning beyond what any instrument has. 5ths tuning feels so natural and logical for me.

Interestingly, english concertina, the instrument I've played the most is also very logical and tuned in 5ths (if you go up and down the vertically oriented keyboard and in thirds when you move diagonally (a scale alternates between the hands, one note left, the next scale tone the right hand).

The other change I've made is I've found I prefer the 23 inch scale of my Newton over the 21 inch scaled Fletcher. So much so that I'm pretty sure I'm going to sell my Fletcher.
bruce b.