As an aside to a related thread currently running:
Anyone play ITM on Tenor Guitar? How does that work out in sessions? Are you playing an archtop or flattop tenor.
Also, what other music do you (personally) play on Tenor Guitar?
Finally, what would you say the pros and cons are to owning/playing a TG? I might have the opportunity to pick up an archtop TG for cheap in the near future, so I’m curious about them.
Loren
I have two friends that use them in sessions. They tune them GDAE like a bouzouki or Irish tenor banjo though. In that tuning they aren’t much for chording, which is the more typical role of the guitar sound, but they work fine for melodic stuff. Personally, I don’t like how they play when tuned down that far, but the other guys like them.
The TG is a cool instrument in its own right, and if you have a chance to make a good deal on something nice, you may as well go for it. I would think an archtop would have a little more punch for sessions too.
Thanks Tim, that pretty much confirms my thoughts: I was thinking melody a la tenor banjo and I had the same thought that the Arch Top would work better at sessions than a flat top.
Thanks again,
Loren
If you can find an archtop with a floating bridge, it’s a relatively simple retrofit to install mandolin tuners and swap or refit the tailpiece and the bridge to accept 8 strings, thereby creating an instant octave mandolin or bouzouki.
That might be an interesting idea, although I have to say that you and I have very different definitions of ‘simple retro-fit’ 
The four holes in the headstock are almost certain to not line up with any of the mandolin tuners, and so would have to be filled. Assuming there is enough space on the head to accomodate the four-on-a-side mandolin tuners (and there probably isn’t), eight new holes would have to be drilled. The nut would have to be re-cut or replaced entirely. Depending on the width of the fretboard (which might be too narrow), you might get away with a mandolin bridge, but a mandola bridge is more likely. They’re available, but harder to find. In any case, it would have to be fit to the top, which is no mean feat in itself. The majority of archtop guitars I’ve ever seen (including tenors) have had trapeze tailpieces. Refitting a mandolin tailpiece might be possible, but there would probably still be some filling and re-drilling required.
Of course, the final result ultimately depends on whether the neck, bracing, and arching can hold up to the stress of doubling the strings. They likely would, but they also might collapse under the force.
Those are the problems that come to mind without thinking about it too hard. Maybe some of them don’t apply, but at least a few of them likely would. At any rate, a good luthier might be able to do a nice job of it, but I can’t imagine it being too cheap, and certrainly not something the average player could easily tackle alone.
In my book, all that equates to major surgery that would, even if successful, ruin any value the instrument had as a tenor guitar and at very least result in an imitation of a different musical instrument. My recommendation is that if you want a bouzouki, go buy a bouzouki.
That’s the major one; somewhere there’s a lovely photo-essay online of exactly this operation. In that case, the holes for the banjo-style tuners were perfectly lined up to match the 1 and 4 holes of the mando tuners. No idea how common that would be. I certainly can’t think why any luthier or factory would go to the trouble of creating a whole new hole-drilling template for the occasional tenor; using a guitar or mando template and skipping holes seems easier, at least for later tenors; the earliest ones were modified banjos.
Somewhere else (frets.com?) there’s an article of an old Martin tenor flattop being retrofitted, which involved a whole lot of rebracing, etc, because of the pin bridge, and in that case the holes were filled, and new piece of veneer glued to the peghead, ans 8 new holes drilled.
The latter’s a major job. The former, I’d be willing to have a shot at.
I don’t own one, but I’ve played a few and I love 'em. A guy I used to play with had an old Regal flattop that was really sweet. I want one.
I have an old regal, but it doesn’t have a stiff enough neck to take gdae strings; it needs light banjo strings in cgda or it’ll bow. Maybe it’s really a baritone uke.
John Carty plays the hell out of the tenor guitar -there a bit on one of his albums, can’t remember which one a the moment…I’d check him out.
Hi Loren. I looked for a tenor guitar for a while and finally just got a baritone ukulele after I couldn’t find a good deal on a tenor guitar. I’ve got it tuned GDAE and play Irish tunes on it. Sounds really nice, but probably not loud enough for playing with more than a couple of people.
You can get a nice bari uke for $200 or so (or $400-$600 for a really nice one). I used 4 strings from a classical guitar set to get the GDAE tuning…
I find the scale on most tenor banjos a bit too much of a stretch (I have smallish hands for a guy), but a bari uke is ‘just right’ .
-Brett
I concur with the previous post. We have a couple of tenor guitars in the instrument collections of the local San Diego players. They sound wonderful for melody in a house session, but they are too quiet for the pub sessions.
Thanks all. The guitar ended up being too far away for me to go have a look at, and I was unwilling to buy sight unseen. Might have missed out on a great deal, but so be it.
No biggie really as I’m happy enough playing my Larrivee parlor guitar at the moment anyway. Not being able to buy the tenor is a good excuse to work on learning some DADGAD instead, which happens to sound surprisingly good on this particular parlor.
Loren
Not cheap, but then, not cheap. … Intermountain lists a couple Martin Tenors in the 1800 - 2000 dollar range. They are verrrrry nice guitars, and unless you do something to damage them, not likely to shrink in value. http://www.guitarandbanjo.com/inventory/used-martin.html