Tenor Guitar - Use and Performers

Use and Performers

Tenor guitars are now very closely associated with the tenor banjo with its similar standard CGDA fifths tuning and they 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. This is a practice still carried out by many contemporary jazz banjo players. This period is generally regarded as the initial "golden age" of the tenor guitar.

Two of the McKendrick brothers, confusingly both named Mike - "Big" Mike and "Little" Mike, doubled on tenor banjo and tenor guitar in jazz bands dating from the 1920s. According to Bob Brozman in his book on National instruments, The History and Artistry of National Instruments, they both played National tenor guitars and they are both shown in the book in photos with their National tenor guitars. "Big" Mike McKendrick both managed and played with Louis Armstrong bands while "Little" Mike McKendrick played with various bands, including Tony Parenti.

Brozman's book also features photos of Hawaiian music bands that include players with both National tenor and plectrum guitars. The Delmore Brothers were a very influential pioneering country music duet from the early 1930s to the late 1940s that featured the tenor guitar. The Delmore Brothers were one of the original country vocal harmonising sibling acts that established the mold for later similar acts, such as the Louvin Brothers, and even later, the Everly Brothers.

The younger of the Delmore brothers, Rabon, played the tenor guitar as an accompaniment to his older brother, Alton's, six string guitar. Rabon favoured the Martin 0-18T tenor guitar and the Louvin Brothers later recorded a tribute album to the Delmores that featured Rabon's Martin 0-18T tenor played by mandolinist Ira Louvin, but tuned as the four treble guitar strings. Another interesting 1930s band to feature the tenor guitar was the Hoosier Hotshots, considered to be the creators of mid-western rural jazz. Their leader, Ken Trietsch, played the tenor guitar, as well as doubling on the tuba.

In British Columbia, Canada, Professor Douglas Fraser plays thirties jazz with “The Genuine Jug Band” on a 1939 Gibson arch top tenor guitar. A musical style called Texas fiddling uses the tenor guitar as part of its rhythm accompaniment. Well known exponents of the tenor guitar in Texas fiddle music include Jerry Thomassen, Al Mouledous, and Gary Lee Moore. Thomassen has a signature tenor guitar named after him that is built by luthier Steve Parks. Gary Lee Moore has produced an excellent teaching resource for playing the tenor guitar as backup for Texas fiddling, entitled Getting Started in Fiddle Backup, obtainable as a free pdf download - see External Links.

In the 1930s Selmer Guitars in Paris manufactured four string guitars based on guitar designs by the Italian luthier Mario Maccaferri that were to be marketed to banjo players as a second six-string guitar-like instrument. The two main four string models offered by Selmer included a regular tenor guitar, with a 23 inch scale length, tuned CGDA, and the Eddie Freeman Special, with a larger body and a longer scale length, using a reentrant CGDA tuning. The Eddie Freeman Special had been designed by English tenor banjoist Eddie Freeman to have a better six string guitar sonority for rhythm guitar work than the normal tenor guitar with its very high A string. However, it was still tuned CGDA so that it could still be played by tenor banjoists. The Eddie Freeman Special was based on a six string model and it had a larger six string body and a six string scale length of 25.25 inches, rather than the tenor's smaller body and normal 23 inch scale length. The CGDA tuning used was re-entrant with the C and D tuned in the same octave and the G and the A tuned in the same octave, lowering the overall tone. The tuning and scale length give this very unusual four string guitar a sonority that is very close to that of the six string guitar, compared to a regular tenor guitar.

Maccaferri heavily promoted the EFS guitar through the Melody Maker and Eddie Freeman even wrote a special tune for it called 'In All Sincerity'. There are also promotional photos of the well-known British singer, banjoist and guitarist Al Bowlly, playing the Eddie Freeman Special and it can be seen in use by Ray Noble's guitarist in a recording session photo of his orchestra. This guitar, unfortunately, was not commercially successful in the 1930s, possibly due to concerted resistance by the British six-string guitar fraternity, particularly Ivor Mairants. Many were subsequently converted to much more valuable six-string models because of the Django Reinhardt connection. Originals of the Eddie Freeman Special are now very rare and are consequently highly valuable. Within the last three years, modern Maccaferri-style luthiers, such as the late David Hodson in the UK and Shelley Park in Canada, as well as others, have started building this four string model again due to demand from their customers. Many have now been made and they are becoming more widely played. They are considered to have a beautiful sound and offer a very broad range of tuning possibilities including CGDA, GDAE, DGBE, CGBD, DGBD and ADGB.

As the six string guitar eventually became more popular in bands in the 1930s and 1940s, tenor guitars became much less 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, possibly due to the effects of the Dixieland jazz revival and the folk music boom. At this time, they were made by makers such as Epiphone, Gibson, Guild and Gretsch as archtop acoustics and/or electrics, as well as a range of flat top models by Martin. Around this time in the 1950s and 1960s, electric tenor guitars were also referred to as "lead guitars," although the rationale for this is not now clear, unless it was for marketing purposes. Lead playing on a six string guitar often involves just using its top four strings.

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. Tiny used guitar (DGBE) tuning on his tenor guitars, rather than tenor CGDA tuning.

The Martin 0-18T flat top acoustic tenor guitar was played in the late 1950s by Nick Reynolds of The Kingston Trio. The acoustic tenor guitar became a popular instrument in the folk music boom of this period, particularly this model. In 1997, as a tribute to the Kingston Trio, Martin re-issued 34 limited edition 40th-anniversary commemorative sets (40 sets had been planned, but only 34 orders were received and executed) of the three main instruments used by the Kingston Trio to celebrate their founding in 1957. The commemorative set included a custom Martin Kingston Trio KT-18T tenor guitar with "The Kingston Trio" and “1957–1997” engraved on the fingerboard in mother-of-pearl and its label was signed by C. F. Martin IV, the CEO of Martin Guitars and 4 of the surviving members of the Kingston Trio.

Since the death of Nick Reynolds in 2008, Martin Guitar Company has now announced that it will be producing the 0-18T Nick Reynolds Commemorative Custom Artist Edition. The Martin 0-18T Nick Reynolds Commemorative Custom Artist Edition encompasses many of the elements of the original 0-18T that Martin discontinued in 1989. This classic tenor guitar features premium solid tonewoods throughout: a top of Sitka spruce with ¼ inch non-scalloped braces, back and sides of genuine mahogany, and a neck carved from solid mahogany. Old Style 18 appointments abound, from the rosette and five-layer black/white top purfling to the tortoise brown body binding and Delmar tortoise brown endpiece. The finish likewise emulates the original: straw aging toner on the top, dark stain on the back and sides, and Martin’s flawless polished gloss lacquer on the body. Also stained dark to match the body, the neck receives a satin finish. The East Indian rosewood headplate provides a warm background for the familiar “C. F. Martin” gold decal. The headstock is also fitted with classic Grover Rotomatic enclosed chrome tuners. In a departure from Style 18 appointments, the fingerboard and bridge are crafted from black ebony. Abalone pearl position markers of diminishing size at the 5th, 7th and 9th frets lead to Nick Reynolds signature in mother of pearl between the 19th and 20th frets. The nut and compensated drop-in saddle are both genuine bone. A black ebony heelcap, and a beveled and polished black pickguard, complete the appointments. Each Martin 0-18T Nick Reynolds Commemorative Custom Artist Edition guitar bears an interior label that combines Nick Reynolds’ facsimile signature with the actual signature of Leslie Reynolds, Nick’s widow. A special tenor Geib style hardshell case is included with each guitar. Authorized C. F. Martin dealers are now taking orders for the open-ended 0-18T Nick Reynolds Commemorative Custom Artist Edition (including left-handed instruments, which may be requested at no additional cost).

In the near future, a list of participating Martin dealers will be posted at http://www.martinguitar.com According to the Elderly Instruments web site, this guitar is expected to become available from 30 June 2010. Martin Guitars had previously released a production tenor guitar - the Martin LXM Tenor "Little Martin" since they stopped regular production of the Martin 0-18T tenor in the late 1970s. The new Martin LXM tenor guitar can be seen here at Elderly Instruments and Elderly also sell vintage tenor guitars.