What Is a Tenor Guitar?
Resembling a steel string acoustic guitar with a very narrow neck and four tuning keys, this mysterious instrument, which at first might seem like an optical illusion, is the tenor guitar. Although similar in appearance, the instrument should not be confused with the longer-necked plectrum guitar or the shorter-necked baritone ukulele.
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Features
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Tenor guitars normally have a scale length (string speaking length from bridge to nut) of between 21 and 23 inches. The tenor guitar was is intended to be tuned in intervals of fifths, C-D-G-A. The low C is one octave below middle C on a piano.
Early History
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The tenor guitar's genesis can be traced to the latter half of the first decade of the 20th century, based on existent, published playing methods dating from this era. Also used in the heyday of the swing era in the 1930s and 1940s, the four stringed instruments were often used to play fast rhythm and solo parts.
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Development
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Companies such as Martin and Gibson in the 1920s introduced four stringed guitars that resembled a normal sized acoustic guitar body with a narrower neck and four strings. Some other companies' catalogs that listed tenor guitars in either flat-topped, arch-topped or resonator bodied acoustic or electric models included Dobro, Epiphone, Gretsch, Harmony, Kay, National, Paramount, Regal, Rickenbacker, Stella, Vega and Washburn.
Significance
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The four strings, note range and tuning arrangement would seem to have been an encouragement for tenor banjo players to move from that instrument to the guitar. Modern incarnations of the tenor guitar range from high-end, boutique instruments to beginner models. The instrument still lends its voice to folk and some ethnic genres.
Famous Ties
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The tenor guitar has shown up in the hands of artists among a number of styles. These include the Ink Spots, the Kingston Trio and in the "mockumentary" movie "A Mighty Wind" (2003), as played by John Michael Higgins' character Terry Bohner, the leader of The New Main Street Singers.
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References
- The Bass Book. Bacon, Tony. Backbeat Books. 2008
- Guitars and Other Acoustic Instruments - A Photographic History. Gruhn, G. and Walter Carter. GPI Books/Miller Freeman.1993
- Martin Guitars: An Illustrated Celebration of America's Premier Guitar. Washburn, J. and Richard Johnston. Rodale Press, Inc. 1997
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Comments
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I am trying to find a value estimate for my Gibson tenor guitar (with case). The number on the back of the neck is 172464. My sister gave it to me about 20 years ago and said she paid about $300 for it. I am no longer able to play and would like to sell it. Can you help me?
