Tenor guitar
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String instrument | |
---|---|
Other names | Four-string guitar |
Classification |
chordophone) |
Developed | c. 1927 |
Related instruments | |
The tenor guitar or four-string guitar is a slightly smaller, four-string relative of the
Construction
Tenor guitars are four-stringed instruments normally made in the shape of a guitar, or sometimes with a
History and development
The earliest origins of the tenor guitar are not clear, but it seems unlikely that a true four-stringed guitar-shaped tenor guitar appeared before the late 1920s. Gibson built the tenor lute TL-4 in 1924, which had a lute-like pear-shaped body, four strings and a tenor banjo neck. It is possible that similar instruments were made by other makers such as Lyon and Healy and banjo makers, such as Bacon. In the same period, banjo makers, such as Paramount, built transitional round banjo-like wood-bodied instruments with four strings and tenor banjo necks called tenor harps. From 1927 onwards, the very first true wood-bodied acoustic tenor guitars appeared as production instruments made by both Gibson and Martin.
Almost all the major guitar makers, including Epiphone, Kay, Gretsch, Guild and National Reso-Phonic, have manufactured tenor (and plectrum) guitars as production instruments at various times. Budget tenor guitars by makers such as Harmony, Regal and Stella, were produced in large numbers in the 1950s and 1960s. National, formed by the Dopyera Brothers, also made significant numbers of resonator tenor and plectrum guitars between the 1920s and 1940s. Dobro, another company associated with the Dopyera Brothers, as well as National, also built various resonator tenor guitar models.
In 1934, Gibson introduced an acoustic archtop tenor guitar, the TG-50, based on the acoustic archtop six-string model, the L-50, with its production run lasting until 1958. In 1936 Gibson introduced the world's first commercially successful electric Spanish-style guitar, the ES-150. In early 1937 Gibson also began shipping two other versions of the ES-150: a tenor guitar (the EST-150, with four strings and a 23" scale, renamed the ETG-150 in 1940) and a plectrum version (the EPG-150, with a 27" scale). The ETG-150, was in continuous production until 1972.
In the mid-1950s electric
Tuning
Tenor guitars are normally tuned in fifths, C3−G3−D4−A4, using the same tuning as the tenor banjo, mandola, or viola. Also common are tuning one octave below standard violin tuning, G2−D3−A3−E4, which is typical of the tenor banjo in Irish folk music or "octave mandolin," and the so-called "Chicago tuning", D3−G3−B3−E4, the same as the top four strings of a standard guitar, or the "baritone ukulele," a slightly smaller instrument usually strung with nylon strings.
Plectrum guitar
The "plectrum guitar" is a four-stringed guitar with a scale length of 26 to 27 inches (66 to 69 cm) and tunings usually based on the plectrum banjo, C3−G3−B3−D4 or D3−G3−B3−D4. They are also commonly tuned like a mandocello, C2−G2−D3−A3, one octave down from the tenor guitar, much as the relationship between a viola and cello. Plectrum guitars have not been made in as large numbers as tenor guitars and are rarer. One of the best known plectrum guitarists from the Jazz Age was Eddie Condon, who started out on banjo in the 1920s and then switched to a Gibson L7 plectrum guitar in the 1930s.
Use and performers
Tenor guitars initially came to significant commercial prominence in the late 1920s and early 1930s as tenor banjos were slowly being replaced by six-string guitars in jazz bands and dance orchestras. Tenor banjo players could double on tenor guitars to get a guitar sound without having to learn the six-string guitar. Two of the McKendrick brothers, both named Mike – "Big" Mike and "Little" Mike – doubled on tenor banjo and tenor guitar in jazz bands dating from the 1920s. "Big" Mike McKendrick both managed and played with Louis Armstrong's bands while "Little" Mike McKendrick played with various bands, including Tony Parenti.
The
In the early 1930s
As the six-string guitar eventually became more popular in bands in the 1930s and 1940s, tenor guitars became less frequently played, although some tenor guitar models had been made in very large numbers throughout this period and are now still common.
Tenor guitars came to prominence again in the 1950s and 1960s amid the
A major player of the electric tenor as a lead guitarist in the bebop and rhythm and blues styles from the 1940s to the 1970s was the jazz guitarist Tiny Grimes, who recorded with Cats and the Fiddle, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and others. Grimes used DGBE "Chicago" tuning on his tenor guitars, rather than traditional CGDA tuning.
Current use
Since 2001, there has been an increased interest in the tenor guitar, as evidenced by an increasing number of manufacturers, such as Eastwood Guitars, Blueridge, Gold Tone, Artist Guitars, Canora, Thomann, Harley Benton, and Ibanez, offering tenor guitar models, and a greater number of specialist luthiers now building custom tenor guitar models or offering to modify existing instruments into tenor guitars.
Contemporary players of the tenor guitar include
Prominent U.K. users of the tenor guitar include the Lakeman brothers, Seth Lakeman and Sean Lakeman, and John McCusker and Ian Carr, who both play with the Kate Rusby Band. Irish folk artist Yawning Chasm primarily uses the tenor guitar.[7]
Since 2010, Astoria, Oregon, has hosted an annual Tenor Guitar Gathering, on the basis of which some call it the "unofficial Tenor Guitar Capital of the World."[8]
Warren Ellis plays a tenor guitar on the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Push the Sky Away, and has custom tenor guitars built by Eastwood Guitars,[9] with a shape modeled after a Fender Mustang but with a wider than usual neck to accommodate his fingerstyle playing.[10] Eastwood currently offers several models of electric tenor guitar including the aforementioned Warren Ellis signature model, the semi-hollow Classic 4 Tenor,[11] and the Tenorcaster.[12]
See also
References
- ^ Tenor guitar on Gold Tone, 31 October 2019
- ^ "The Stringed Instrument Database: Index". Stringedinstrumentdatabase.aornis.com. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
- ^ Alternate Reality Tele Tenor. 14 November 2019. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
- ^ Live and on recordings Gnade plays a four-string guitar he rebuilt and modified to play in the tuning of F−A♯−D−F.
- ^ Master Guitars. "Semi-hollow". Master Guitars. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ Horsley, Jonathan (14 April 2022). "PRS has made Wes Borland a custom four-string guitar-bass hybrid – and he says it is "probably the most amazing instrument" he's ever played". Guitar World.
- ^ Andrews, Kernan (7 January 2021). "Yawning Chasm - songs for tenor guitar". advertiser.ie. Galway Advertiser.
- ^ "Annual tenor guitar gathering". Tenor Guitar Gathering. Astoria, Oregon.
- ^ "Eastwood Warren Ellis signature tenor". Eastwood Guitars.
- ^ Saufley, Charles (2011). "Eastwood Guitars Warren Ellis signature tenor guitar". Premier Guitar (review). Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- ^ "Classic Tenor - Walnut". Eastwood Guitars. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
- ^ "Tenorcaster". Eastwood Guitars. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
Bibliography
- Gruhn, George with Carter, Walter (1999). Gruhn's Guide to Vintage Guitars - 2nd Edition - Updated and Expanded. United States: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-422-7.) — An Identification Guide for American Fretted Instruments.
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- Richards, Tobe A. (2007). The Tenor Guitar Chord Bible: Standard & Irish Tuning 2,880 Chords. United Kingdom: Cabot Books. ISBN 978-1-906207-05-2. — A comprehensive chord dictionary instructional guide featuring both standard and Irish tuning.
- Dean, Bruce. Tenor Guitar Chord Genius. Northern Musician Services. Tenor Guitar Chord Genius books in most tunings