FAQs on the Tenor Guitar

Aug 27, 2009, at 10:20 AM
Your Name: Gilbert
Subject: String guage tenor guitar

Message: Hi:
I'm a banjo instructor who needs to guide a student on tenor guitar. From pictures it appears that the 4th and 3rd strings on a tenor guitar are wound strings. Is the 2nd string wound as well? It's hard to tell from pictures. Any suggestions for string gauges?
Thank you so much. Sincerely: Gilbert Nelson

Greetings Gilbert,

Usually it's only the 3rd & 4th that are wound.

My suggestion for string gauges:

009-016-023w-030w.

Mickey Cochran

Folk of the Wood

Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2004 19:15:31 EST
Subject: tenor guitar

WOOD'S FOLK ;

PERHAPS SOME HELP, IN THE FORM OF LESSONS, FOR THE TENOR GUITAR ?

THANK YOU.

WILLIAM O'NEILL

Greetings William,

I haven't played the Tenor Guitar myself...however, depending on the tuning you're using, you should be able to use our Octave Mandolin or Mandola online FOTW lessons.

The Tenor Guitars were historically tuned to CGDA (mandola tuning)...however, Irish players are tuning them to GDAE (octave mandolin tuning).

We cover both tunings as attributed to mandola or octave...depending on the direction you're planning to pursue.

Hope something here helps...Mickey

Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 08:59:03 -0400
Subject: Tenor guitar tunings

I have an old Goya tenor guitar tuned GDAE. How would I tune this to
an open G tuning? Its got a 25 inch scale.
I would like to buy a similar..new instrument and use it in open
tuning to play slide on.
GERRY

Greetings Gerry,

You'll want to experiment to find an open tuning that doesn't add tension to the neck...there are many possible variations for open-tuning in both the keys G and D....the most common for slide playing on guitar...

You only have to remember the triad both of these keys are made up of:
G = G B D
D = D F# A

For example, it would be safe to tune, for Open D:
F# D A D

With the F# on the lower string, I'm not too sure how well it will work...it's safe to say that at least it will not add tension to your tenor guitar neck...

In the key of D, the sequence, for playing melodies and chords would work better as:
A D A F#

However, this tuning may add unnecessary stress to your neck...you could try a lighter gauge string to minimize the tension...

For G Tuning, try:
G D B D
The A string one whole step up...and the E string one whole step down...this would be an excellent tuning for slide playing...and may be the only open tuning you'll need...

Again, you'll have to experiment to find out what works for you and what would be safest for the neck on your tenor guitar...Mickey

Please let me know if I can assist you further . . .