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Tenor Tuning

Hey everyone,
I got my latest edition of "Acoustic Guitar" or whatever its called and the cover was Neko Case sporting an old Tenor guitar. I've had a recent interests in them so this caught my eye. I guess I was wondering if anyone out there tunes their CBGs like a Tenor Guitar C-G-D-A and what you think of it. I'm guessing there are probably a few who tune it in the alternate D-G-B-E that Case prefers. My guess is that if you're coming from a guitar background you'd lean toward D-G-B-E where as if you're coming from a banjo/mandolin/violin/viola/cello background you might lean toward the C-G-D-A. Any thoughts about this? I guess this is probably aimed more at people who haven't replaced their left hand fingers with bottle necks or brass pipe. Maybe not though.

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Permalink Reply by Doc Oakroot on April 28, 2009 at 4:17am

Gerry Thompson tunes in fifths. Not sure if he's tuned like a tenor (CGda) or octave mando (GDae).

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Permalink Reply by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker on April 28, 2009 at 4:51am

I have an actual tenor guitar, and I tune it GDAE, an octave lower than my mandolin so I can use the same fingerings and voicings on it. Allows me to pretend I'm a good guitar picker, with just a bit more stretching. When I bought it, it was tuned in the standard CGDA.

I've built one CBG in what could be called a tenor scale... really it's more of a tenor banjo/short-scale bouzouki scale than a tenor guitar. I have it tuned GDAE also.

As with most stuff on here though, it really comes down to which you feel more comfortable with.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on April 28, 2009 at 4:54am

I really like tenor guitar tuning, it gives a nice airy feel to both chords and melody work, with four strings I'd either use an open tuning or tenor tuning -Irish Tenor is G-D-A-E, like mandolin but an octave down, and handy for playing folk and old-timey country stuff.

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Permalink Reply by Ben on April 28, 2009 at 7:50am

Thanks for the responses guys. I go back and forth about how I want to tune it. I'm primarily a guitarist (well trumpet by trade) but have got some chops on 5-string banjo, mandolin, and violin as well. I think I'm leaning a little more towards C-G-D-A so I can use the same fingerings as the mandolin but get that tenor range. I had considered D-G-B-E but if I did that then I'd just as well play a 6er. This was designed less as an advice column and more just wondering what other people were doing out there.

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Permalink Reply by joe cerroni on April 28, 2009 at 8:21am

I usually go with E,G#,B,E open E tuning on a four string.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Thorsvik on April 28, 2009 at 5:31pm

Ben

I'm using GDAD (Irish Bouzouki) tuning which works pretty good for playing rhythm which is what I do. The keys of D and G are fun to play in and I love the "zouk" open chord sound. I also use DGBE (Baritone Uke or Chicago Tenor) which sounds very "guitarlike" and you can use many guitar chords with little to no modification, but I have found switching back and forth between it and my guitar is problematic because of the string spacing and similar but not identical chords increases errors on both instruments. Because the Bouzouki chords are different but not difficult, I can switch back and forth easily and so prefer playing it.

Doug