Any fans of tenor guitars in this group... besides me? I ordered a Gibson L-00 copy from David Sundberg last year (one of Swedens top luthiers, very capable, even used to work for Bill Collings)... and I've played it everyday since I received it in april. The way I see it, it's the perfect cross-bread between the a guitar and a mandolin. It's tuned GDAE, with quite high string pressure. I can play it almost as a mandolin, but it sounds like a regular guitar (almost...tenors do have a certain sound with regard to the tuning in fifths, and of course it doesn't have the same bass response).
Well, I do love playing regular guitars and mandolin (and mandola) too, but sometimes my tenor just seems to suit the tune better. In a recent interview at the Mandolin Cafe, Lowell Lovinger said the folIowing about tenor guitars: "I promote it everywhere, but so far it seems that I'm the only one actually playing one on gigs and records. I just don't understand why everybody doesn't jump on the bandwagon. I guess there's just no accounting for taste." Hence I started thinking, why doesn't more people play the tenor guitar? People seem to consider it an oddball instrument, way down in the hierarchy... more like an instrument to goof around with than to play with ambition. What do y'all think? The most interesting thing about my own fascination for tenor guitars is that Mr. Compton himself started it. I saw a video clip of him playing a tenor guitar (he was playing with a bunch of great folks, John Hartford, Norman Blake, Tut Taylor, Vassar... can't remember the occasion), and his bluesy licks just struck a chord inside of me. The video could be found on Taters old website. So Mike... do you have a tenor guitar? If so, do you play it a lot? If not, why? BTW, I'll upload a picture of my Sundberg tenor guitar. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en.
