Tenor guitar vs. Plectrum guitar
Gary Flanigan
seem pretty much the same, so what is the difference?
Thanks
Joe Jordan
>I've seen both of these in models made by Martin. They
>seem pretty much the same, so what is the difference?
Scale length.
Joe
--
Joe D. Jordan
Mobile, AL
Greg Thomas
"Gary Flanigan" wrote in message
> I've seen both of these in models made by Martin. They
> seem pretty much the same, so what is the difference?
>
> Thanks
Basically it's scale length and tuning. I'm doing this from memory, so don't
hold me to this - tenor has a very short scale (about 22") and is tuned in
5ths, CGDA, like a mandola. Plectrum has a longer scale (I think it's about
normal guitar length, 25", maybe a little longer) and is tuned CGBD, the low
C an octave below the tenor. In other words, they're tuned like a tenor
banjo and a plectrum banjo, respectively.
I think . . .
Greg
Hojo2x
> tenor has a very short scale (about 22") and is tuned in >5ths, CGDA, like a
mandola.
Right.
>Plectrum has a longer scale (I think it's about>normal guitar length, 25",
maybe a little longer) and is tuned CGBD, the low
>C an octave below the tenor. In other words, they're tuned like a tenor>banjo
and a plectrum banjo,>respectively.
Right again.
Both the tenor and plectrum banjo are what might be termed "back-formation"
instruments, in that they developed in response to the popularity of other
instruments or new styles of music.
If you want to go WAY back, the first banjos were three and four string
fretless gourd instruments, made by hand on Southern plantations, but the five
string banjo was the first widely popular version built in factories and
workshops for a mass market.
In terms of popularity and market dominance these five string banjos were more
or less the electric guitars of their day. They sustained that popularity from
at least the 1840s to about the 1890s, when a fad for mandolins and mandolin
music caused banjo sales to dwindle somewhat.
The shorter scale 17 fret tenor banjos, with their fifth interval tuning,
allowed mandolin-style chords and melodies to be played on banjos with greater
ease.
A great many people still played their five string banjos, of course.
When Dixieland music and other forms of jazz began to dominate music, the
rhythmic forms became too difficult for more fingerstyle banjoists to follow.
So many of them simply removed their short fifth strings and began playing
their banjos with picks as four string instruments.
The "plectrum" style banjo is just a streamlined version of this adaptation.
It has the longer neck and typical tuning of the (pre-bluegrass) five string
banjo, it just lacks a fifth string and peg.
Around this same time, the tenor banjo players began to play more chords and
much less single string melody work, so the instruments themselves changed to
reflect this change in emphasis: the scale lengths grew longer, the necks
typically got 19 frets instead of 17, and most players started using resonators
(which are those bowl-like removable banjo backs, not to be confused with the
speaker cone resonators in resonator guitars like Nationals.)
The banjo resonators enabled the instruments to be heard over the horn section
in a typical jazz band.
How does this relate to guitars? It reflects another sea change in popular
tastes - as the music changed again towards the late 1920s, banjos fell out of
fashion but guitars became popular.
Banjo players who didn't want to bother with learning an entirely new
instrument often opted to purchase guitars with banjo-style necks.
Personally, I've seen FAR more tenor guitars than plectrum guitars. I don't
know whether this means that there were a lot more tenor banjo players than
plectrum banjo players to start with, or if plectrum banjo players, already
comfortable with the longer scale, found it easier to just make the move over
to regular guitars, rather than purchasing a hybrid instrument like a plectrum
guitar.
My guess is that it's a bit of both.
Anyway, while tenor guitars are traditionally tuned C G D A, some modern
players string them with heavier strings and tune them G D A E, an octave below
the mandolin. And even more players will string them with the four highest
strings of a standard guitar set, so that the notes low to high go: D G B E.
To each their own - I think my own preference would be for the traditional C
fifth interval tuning, since that would be the one to get the most tone out of
the little guys. (But it's moot, really, as I don't own a tenor guitar....)
Hope that makes sense.
Wade Hampton Miller
Chugiak, Alaska