Tenor guitar

Tenor Guitar (English: tenor guitar) is the name for an introduced in the 1920s, first in the USA guitar type that has instead of the usual for the plucking guitar six strings only four strings. First, the designated Tenor Guitar tuning of the strings was identical with that of tenor banjos, the musical interval of a fifth. This banjo violin players but also the transition should be facilitated on the guitar. In the following decades, tenor guitars in full resonance ( Hollow Body ) semi-acoustic ( semi -hollow ) and solid construction ( solid body ) were prepared.

History of the Tenor Guitar

The history of the tenor guitar is closely linked to the development of the instrument cast of entertainment orchestras and ensembles in the 1920s. At the beginning of the 20th century violins were also widely used in entertainment orchestras. With the increase in the proportion of wind instruments in musical groups demands increased the volume of the instruments. Therefore, many violinist switched to the louder banjo, the problems of getting used to held low in fifths in his four-stringed version.

In the 1920s, lost banjos as belonging to the group of rhythm instruments orchestras in the United States in popularity - in favor of acoustic guitars that should have won in this period with enlarged dimensions of the instrument body of volume potential. Some banjo players adapted themselves to the changing tastes and the associated employment opportunities and switched to the guitar.

The musical instrument manufacturer came to meet the new needs and developed in the second half of the 20s the tenor guitar, as the violin and tenor banjo has four strings and how it is tuned in fifths. The pitch of the first tenor guitars, rhythm and accompaniment instrument were designed purely as equivalent, with cg- d' -a ' exactly that of tenor banjos. Instruments of this design have 19 frets.

Later models of tenor guitars were modified to meet the demands to the range of melody instruments. The scale length has been extended to about 10 cm, and the neck bears in this version 22 instead of 19 frets. The mood of this " Plektrumgitarre " instruments mentioned was also changed: the most common tunings are for cg- h ' d' and dg - h ' e' ( in fourths, corresponding to the four higher strings of six-string guitar in standard tuning ).

Since the 1960s, tenor guitars have largely disappeared from the offer of guitar manufacturers and also from the music public. With guitarist Tiny Grimes died in 1989, the last world-famous musicians who played primarily this instrument on stage and on recordings.

One of the most well-known in German-speaking players of tenor guitars is the German - Austrian actor and singer Peter Kraus. Kraus played in the 1950s and 1960s, electrically amplified semi-acoustic tenor guitar and recruited as for musical instruments manufacturer Framus. The Framus Tenor guitars were, however, already painted in the 60s again from the product range of the company.

Manufacturer

Among the well-known manufacturers of tenor guitars were the musical-instrument company Gibson, Epiphone, CF Martin & Co., D' Angelico, National and Guild. The company Martin is one of the few manufacturers who are currently performing even tenor guitar models in its product range. Since 2010, the company Eastwood Guitars a Signature Tenor Guitar ago, in collaboration with Warren Ellis from the band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.