I mainly play 8-string mando family - though only 4 on my banjo. I picked up a cheap modern resonator mandolin. It sounded ... "OK" ... but I wondered if a better (Delta) cone might improve its tone. This opened a whole can of worms ... it wouldn't setup or tune ... so I took it to Phil Davidson who has made me a number of great instruments. Careful look, the neck is set wrong, all sorts... its a cheap'n'cheerful product. He was going to make a new neck.
A week later and a text - "what do you think about a tenor guitar? " I didn't have an opinion - but Phil thought reso-mando's never sound good and the 12" cone could sound better an octave down.
So - a tenor resonator guitar is born out of an indifferent mandolin - and it's a very lovely sounding thing. Tuned GDAE, it has a tone that cuts through a mix without the brashness of a banjo, and has sustain to give much more legato sounds for slower tunes. Similar but distinctly different from my tenor mandola.
It's so much fun, and a welcome change, that he's making me an acoustic one with Martin 000 body ... Steve Knightley, Phil Beer and Martyn Joseph songs beckon ... and Fender have just released (in the UK) a tenor Tele to go electric on ...
|