A Great Experience at the Tenor Guitar Gathering in Astoria, Oregon

Astoria is my favorite coastal town in Oregon, so now that I am a resident of the Beaver State I was excited to learn that there's an annual Tenor Guitar Gathering each spring in Astoria. Due to poor planning on my part, I was only able to attend for a few hours on Saturday, but I'm glad that I did.

Not the most flattering picture of Astoria, but the only one I took

 Astoria is a pleasant 100-minute drive from my house with the fastest route also being the most scenic and remote, through Clatsop State Forest. I arrived in time for Alison Helzer's workshop on the neuroscience of practice: what science teaches us about music, learning, and muscle memory. This was a very informative presentation where I learned how repetition, rest, isolation, smiling and visualization can help build myelin. However, the real highlight for me was the Irish "jam" that Alison co-hosted with Pat Mac Swyney immediately after this workshop.

Directly to my right at the Irish session was flatpicker, instructor and Nashville cat Tim May, who has toured with Patty Loveless and John Cowan, and is the author of several books including The Flatpicker’s Guide to Irish Music. Directly to my left was multi-instrumentalist Pat Mac Swyney from Los Angeles. Pat was making great Irishy sounds come out of his 1928 National Tricone resonator tenor guitar! Eugene, Oregon's own Alison Helzer sat across from me on tenor banjo. The only other participants were two fiddlers and one mandolin player. The pros almost outnumbered the amateurs!

With such high-caliber and multi-genre musicians/instructors/performers in attendance, I was worried that it might devolve into a flashy bluegrass style jam over Irish fiddle tunes, but it didn't. We stuck to the Irish session playbook and did common tunes that I know fairly well including Silver Spear, Out on the Ocean, Off to California, Kesh Jig, and Road to Lisdoonvarna. I had brought a tenor banjo just in case but played my Kala tenor guitar the entire time.

The pace was fast at times, but nothing I couldn't keep up with. My hard work over the last ten or so months really paid off. There's something about sitting in with exceptionally talented yet sympathetic musicians that can really lift you up and allow you to play beyond your normal abilities. I had a similar experience years ago at an Irish music camp in Elkins, WV when guitarist Dennis Cahill played backup accompaniment on a tune I was leading in a slow session. So I know the feeling.

The Irish jam went about 20 to 25 minutes beyond its allotted hour. Little did I know that during the latter half of the session mandolinist David "Dawg" Grisman was down below giving a workshop on transitioning to the tenor guitar. So that's where everyone was. I had to be in Beaverton by 5pm so as soon as the jam was over I made a quick exit and hit the road for another 100 to 105 minute drive. Unfortunately, I had no Dawg sightings while in Astoria!

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Kala tenor guitar for Irish music

I couldn't find much information about playing Irish tunes on a Kala Solid Spruce Top Pau Ferro tenor guitar, so I thought I would post something. This guitar does not come in left-handed but I am fortunate to know a local stringed instrument setup and repair person who set it up lefty for me by filling and re-cutting the saddle. It sounds great! This guitar features X-bracing, so at least in this case the belief that the bracing on a right-handed guitar won't sound as good when played as a left-handed guitar is unfounded.

I've been wanting a tenor guitar for playing Irish music, to use as an alternative to tenor banjo. I chose this Kala tenor guitar primarily because of its scale length (21.5 inches as opposed to 23 inches) and because of its price. I paid $250 for it with free shipping, and after the conversion to lefty the total cost was $370. It comes with a nice gig bag and the scale length is similar to a short-scale tenor banjo. I have it tuned GDAE. 

I haven't taken it to a session yet, so I don't know how it'll hold up in that environment. My guess is that it will not be as loud as a tenor banjo, but should be good for playing along in a group setting when you just want to blend in instead of stand out.  

Tenor guitar compared to tenor banjo:

-Less volume so good for practicing at home during quiet hours.

-More sustain, more responsive.

-Needs a strap, whereas tenor banjo can just sit in your lap.

-Lighter weight.

-Similar neck feel.

-Same tuning, CGDA or GDAE or DGBE.

-Similar scale length.

Bob Gramann – guitar and banjo luthier, instrument setup and repair

Last year when my banjo was buzzing I took it to someone on the southside of Richmond who looked at it and suggested I get a taller bridge.  Not satisfied with that solution, I researched other instrument setup and repair persons and found Bob Gramann in Fredericksburg, a city about 40 miles north of where I live.  I took the banjo to Bob who removed the neck, made an adjustment to the truss rod and did a few other tweaks while I waited.  The banjo has been great ever since! 

Similarly, my wife recently took her tenor guitar to Bob Gramann to have it setup in the Irish GDAD tuning.  While doing so, Bob noticed some intonation issues and made corrections to those, thus improving the overall sound of the guitar.  During that same visit I brought in a right-handed tenor banjo that had been sent to me as a vintage Gibson neck paired with a Recording King RK-R35 bluegrass rim.  Bob switched it around to lefty by making a new nut, reversing the armrest and making sure that the action and neck angle were properly set.  Now it's a regulation left-handed 19-fret Irish Tenor Banjo with resonator, wink wink!

The Deep Run

Since I’m not much of a tinkerer, I am happy to have found Bob Gramann for our instrument setup needs.  His prices are very reasonable.  It’s also fun to see his shop and check out the guitars and banjos he has made or is currently working on.  Bob makes some fine instruments.  Instead of churning them out one after another, he really puts a lot of care into building each individual guitar or banjo.  I especially like his small body/travel-size Deep Run model which would make an awesome tenor guitar.  He is making a new one of these right now, to be finished this summer.  

The Rappahannock

Bob is also a folksinger and songwriter.  If you are in the Richmond/Fredericksburg/Northern VA general area, I strongly recommend Bob Gramann for instrument setup and repair.  And for those in the market for a handmade guitar, his instruments, which are named after different rivers in Virginia, are well worth considering.  (Gramann sounds like "GRAH-min").  

Tenor Guitar Backup Comparison - Ibanez Artwood Vintage AVT1 vs. Blueridge BR-40T

The Ibanez Artwood Vintage AVT1 and the Blueridge BR-40T are both modern tenor guitars modeled after vintage styles.  Below is a video (audio only) comparing the sounds of these two guitars in GDAD tuning in a backup role on the tune The High Reel.  The Ibanez is first and the Blueridge starts at about 01:09.  The same tenor banjo was used for the melody in each case.  Do you hear any differences in the sound between the two guitars?  (Note in the image on the video that's the Blueridge on the left and the Ibanez on the right).

Cost
The Ibanez AVT1 sells for about $299.00
The Blueridge sells for about $399.99

Sound
The Ibanez has a slightly thin, tinny sound.
The Blueridge has a warmer, fuller, rich sound.

Volume
The Ibanez is fairly quiet.
The Blueridge is louder.  Similar in volume to a six-string acoustic.

Neck Shape
The Ibanez's neck is thinner.  Almost too skinny.
The Blueridge's neck is more round, like on a tenor banjo. It feels more ergonomic.

Body
The Ibanez feels smaller (because it is smaller). It's lighter weight.
The Blueridge feels bigger, but not uncomfortably so.  Well balanced.

Overall Quality
The lower cost Ibanez seems more cheaply made.
For approx. $100 more the Blueridge is a much higher quality tenor guitar. More attention to detail.

The Verdict
Hopefully, the richer, more nuanced sound of the Blueridge comes across in the recording.  If you can afford it, the extra $100 for the Blueridge is well worth it.  You get a much nicer tenor guitar.  The next step up from Blueridge would be significantly more expensive.

Blueridge BR-40T left, Ibanez AVT1 right

This seems like a "bad" review of the Ibanez Artwood Vintage, but the truth is that it's a fairly decent tenor guitar that a lot of people would be perfectly content with.  It's just that when compared head to head to the Blueridge BR-40T the differences in quality are more apparent.

Tenor Banjo Conversion - 5-String to 4-String!!!

"Gibsonoid" T banjo as lefty

Last week, the Irish Tenor Banjo Blog's Mike Keyes sent me one of his RK-R35 banjo conversions to check out.  The term "banjo conversion" usually refers to taking a tenor banjo and converting it into a bluegrass or old-time banjo by attaching a new 5-string neck to a vintage tenor banjo rim.  Sadness.

However, what Mike Keyes does is reverse this bad karma by removing the 5-string neck on a new Recording King RK-R35 bluegrass banjo and replacing it with a 4-string neck from his stock pile of vintage Gibson tenor banjo necks.  The vintage necks fit on these RK-R35 pots and you can re-use the tuners from the Recording King on the tenor neck by reaming the tuner holes to 3/8".

Once set up properly you're left with a very utilitarian Gibsonoid / Franksenstein style 19-fret resonator banjo that will more than meet the needs of most session-playing Irish tenor banjoists.  I'm not much of a tinkerer, so yesterday I had Fredericksburg, VA luthier Bob Gramann convert this heavyweight champ to lefty and tweak the setup.  Below are audio recordings of the first two tunes I played on it after getting it home - Golden Keyboard and Joe Bane's.

Bob Gramann also re-strung my wife's Blue Ridge BR-40T tenor guitar from DGBE to the Irish bouzouki tuning of GDAD, and fine-tuned the intonation while he was at it.  That's her playing the newly setup (single-course bouzouki) tenor guitar in the background. By the way, those Blue Ridge tenor guitars are great sounding instruments for not that much money.

Instrument Review - Red Line Traveler Mandolin and Blueridge BR-40T Tenor Guitar with sound samples

Blue Ridge BR-40T and Red Line Traveler

Red Line Traveler Mandolin
I've had my Red Line Traveler mandolin for a little over three weeks now.  It features a spruce top, mahogany back and sides, a special snake head shaped peghead, chrome Grover tuners, an adjustable truss rod, a Cumberland Acoustics adjustable bridge, radiused fretboard, and came strung with D'Addario J73 strings.

The Red Line Acoustics brand Traveler mandolins are made just outside Nashville, TN by Steve Smith of Cumberland Acoustics and his small shop team.  The mandolins are modeled after the old World War I Army-Navy "pancake" style mandolins, with a flat-top and rounded body.  Steve has upgraded this classic design by adding a truss rod, radiused fretboard, different bracing and his trademark Cumberland Acoustics bridge.

Mandolin and Tenor Guitar Sound Sample - Over the Waterfall

These oval hole Red Line mandos are symmetrical.  Steve had a couple unclaimed ones in the build process, so he took the one I chose and finished it up as a lefty.  It took about 2 months total from the time I first contacted him until I was holding the instrument in my hands!

The Traveler has a good amount of volume and what I would call a "sweet" tone, probably due to the mix of mahogany and spruce.  I haven't had any setup done at all and can't really tell that it needs any.  Eventually I might have someone give it a once over, but it was very playable right out of the case it was mailed in!

As I now listen to these recordings made this past Thursday, a little over 3 weeks after receiving it, I am very impressed at the sound I am hearing (not only does the mandolin sound good, but as someone who took up mandolin in January of this year the person playing it doesn't sound too bad either! I had played tenor banjo for a few years prior which certainly helps with mandolin.)  For a hand made mandolin in the less than $700 price range, you can't beat the Red Line Traveler.

Blueridge BR-40T Tenor Guitar
My wife Laura has been backing me on tunes using a baritone ukulele tuned DGBE, like the 4 highest strings of a guitar.  She uses a pick to play and this works great for around the house, but when she takes it to an oldtime jam it's easy for the baritone uke to get drowned out by the fiddles and banjos.  And forget about taking it to most Irish sessions - the baritone uke is still a bit too foreign to be openly accepted in that environment.

Mandolin and Tenor Guitar Sound Sample - The Boys of Tandernagee

So, Laura wanted an instrument with more of a guitar-like tone that she could still play the same as the baritone uke she was used to - same chord shapes, strumming, 4-strings, et cetera.  A tenor guitar strung up DGBE was the obvious choice.  "Tenor guitar" may be a bit more accepted in trad music circles because noted Irish players like John Carty, Brian McGrath and Eamon Coyne have used a tenor guitar on some recordings, not to mention its history as a backup instrument in Texas style fiddling.

The Blueridge BR-40T kind of has a corner on the market of tenor guitars.  There's the Gold Tone model, but it gets poor reviews, and then there's the Ashbury line - out of the UK but made in Vietnam - which has some good feedback but there isn't as much information on.  The BR-40T stood out as the best choice.

The BR-40T is pretty much a copy of the classic Martin 0-18T tenor guitar.  It has a 13.5" lower bout, a 10" upper bout, is 3 7/8" deep, has a nut width just over 1.25", has a 23" scale and is 35.25" inches in overall length.  It has a solid spruce top and a laminated mahogany back and sides.  The neck joins the body at the 14th fret.  The neck has more of a rounded tenor banjo shape to it than a typical guitar neck.  The vintage style tuners seem to hold.  There's an adjustable truss rod and a radiused fretboard.

For an instrument made in China, the Blueridge is very well made and playable.  Laura had it checked over by John Gonzalez of Fan Guitar and Ukulele the day after it arrived in the mail and he only had to do some minor adjustments.  It comes strung up with strings for CGDA tuning, but John set it up for DGBE tuning with D'Addario Phosphor Bronze EJ26 strings.  There were a couple cosmetic blemishes, probably from when they were filing down the frets in the factory - common on instruments from Asia - but John was able to lightly sand those down so it's not noticeable.

Mandolin and Tenor Guitar Sound Sample - Julianne Johnson

Laura says the size of the tenor guitar makes it very comfortable for a woman or a person with smaller arms or hands.  It's definitely louder than a baritone uke with more sustain and achieves that guitar-like tone she was looking for with better than expected results.  The sound samples featured here were recorded on her first day of playing it after it had been setup, so the sound could open up even more once it's broken in.

In summary, the addition of a mandolin to my tenor banjo as well as the addition of tenor guitar to Laura's baritone uke gives us a wider combination of sounds to choose from when picking and strumming tunes.

Left-Handed Fletcher Tenor Guitar for sale, hand-made by Jamie Dugan

Fletcher tenor guitar for sale

For sale is my 2012 Left-Handed Fletcher JD1 Mahogany tenor guitar.  Hand made by Jamie Dugan in Ithaca, NY.  

This finely crafted instrument is in very good condition with little or no wear and tear.  It cost over $2,000 new.  I'd like to get at least $1,200 for it to cover the cost of my next indulgence - which will be an electric mandolin.  Make me an offer!  Shipping will probably be around $60 to $80 - US buyers only.

Although this 4-string tenor guitar was made to be left-handed, the symmetrical design means that the "right" buyer could easily convert it to right-handed, if desired.  (Note: in that case one of the strap buttons would be on the wrong side for a right-hander).

I will include the hardshell case it came with AND a custom fit Blue Heron soft case/gig bag ($200 value) that I special ordered.  I tune this tenor guitar GDAE one octave lower than a mandolin but you can use a variety of tunings. 

Sound samples 
(Fletcher tenor guitar lead melody played by me with baritone uke backup):
Home With the Girls in the Morning


Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine


Rakes of Mallow

Specs:

• All Mahogany body
• Black Binding
• 21" Scale Length
• 32" Total Length
• 1.25" Nut Width
• Fretboard Side Dots
• Upper Bout 8"
• Lower Bout 11"
• Strap buttons
• Acoustically Tuned Top and Back.
• Arched X Braced Top
• Wood-inlaid Rosette
• Two way Adjustable Truss Rod
• Banjo-style Peghead with an Ebony Peghead overlay
• Ebony Fretboard with Abalone Dots
• 5-Star Geared Planetary Tuners with Ebony Knobs
• Bone Nut
• Floating Ebony Bridge
• Cast Weber Tailpiece

Contact me if interested!

Fletcher tenor guitar in Blue Heron soft case/gig bag