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Welcome

Welcome to the wonderful world of the mysterious and unusual Tenor Guitar. You have ventured upon the first independent website that is dedicated to providing answers to any questions you may have about this unique instrument.

 

Tenor guitars have been around for over a hundred years, and have been built in all shapes and styles. Likewise, the 5 guys behind this site come from all walks of life and from all 4 corners of the planet. Tenorguitar.com is a labor of love, put together in our spare time to gather up all we know and all we can find out about the tenor guitar. What you will find here is just a beginning. Like the tenor guitars we love so much, we hope this website will become richer and fuller with age, and take on a warm lustre from all the hands that have enjoyed it along the way. So sit back, click on the KTGR link up at the top of the page there to listen to some great tenor guitar tunes as you browse, and enjoy! And if you have any thoughts or comments, please get in touch by e-mail to info@tenorguitar.com.

Happy Strumming!
The Five Tenors

About

The story of The Five Tenors.

Tom Molyneaux, Mark Josephs, Steven Pyott, Patrick Reinhart and Tom Vincent are five tenor guitar enthusiasts who met in cyberspace in a club, founded by Mark Josephs, called "The Tenor Guitar Registry".

Mark, in LA, learned that Steve, in Brisbane, Australia, was a collector of tenor guitars. Steve learned that Tom, in Berkeley, California, owned the domain name tenorguitar.com. Tom, Mark and Steve learned that Patrick, in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, was interested in helping with the web site, and then Tom Vincent in Tokyo, Japan, also volunteered his skills.

Five tenor guitar players from all over cyberspace have managed to unite their efforts in the hope that...."if ye build it, they will come."

To learn more about "The Five Tenors" click on their names!

Mark Josephs
Tom Molyneaux
Steven Pyott
Patrick Reinhart
Tom Vincent

And feel free to e-mail any one of us with a question or comment

A tenor guitar is a fretted, four stringed instrument, most commonly shaped like a guitar.

scale length (approx):
23" (Gibson tenors are 22 3/4")
(6 string guitar = 25.5", plectrum guitar = 26")

standard tuning:
CGDA

standard string gauges:
.036 .024 .016 .010
(use bronze strings for acoustic, steel for electric)

alternative tunings:
Octave mandolin tuning: GDAE
"Guitar" tuning: DGBE

other possible tunings:
"Guitar" tuning, transposed up a fourth
(uke tuning, but G is 1 octave lower): GCEA
Slide: CGCG, or DADA

Instruction manuals and chord books for the tenor guitar are hard to come by, so beginners should find books for the tenor banjo, which is tuned in the same way.

Tenor Guitar
Tenor Guitar diagram

The Guitars

The links below will take you to detailed information and photographs of tenor guitars through the ages:

Epiphone
Gibson
Martin

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