guitar vs tenor guitar?

[FaxMachine]

I have a 30s Kalamazoo tenor i bought while on a road trip this past summer in California. I love it, but to be honest I don’t think I’ve played it on almost 6 months. I played it non stop when I first picked it up (mostly because I traded my road trip 6 string for it), but after I got home and had access to others again it became a novelty and then stayed in its case. Light as a feather and super resonant, but easy to forget you own for a while. I forget what I tune it to, but it is not whatever d’addario tenor strings suggest. I use much heavier strings (I think 48 or something for the lowest wound) and tune it much lower. Neat-O for sure.

[Scott of the Sa]

I have played one that my friend bought. I put a bit heavier strings and tuned it EADG high to low. This is an octave lower than the Mandolin. With it tuned this way, I do not have to re think what key and what chord. My son has one tuned to the higher tuning (I call it C tuning vs G tuning) It is fun to play and it sounds great, I am just lost as to what key and what chord.

[OldFrets]

The nice thing about tenor guitars in either standard tuning, octave mandolin tuning, or even Chicago tuning is how easy it is to do chord melodies. Yes, you can technically do the same things on an octave mandolin, but the single-strung courses with relatively low tension allow your hand to glide around the neck in a way that is much more difficult on a double-strung instrument.

My personal opinion - which I know is shared by a lot of people - is that tenor guitars usually sound better in octave mandolin tuning while tenor banjos usually sound better in standard tenor tuning. The wooden soundboard just seems better "tuned" to lower frequencies. But that doesn't make them redundant with mandolins at all, either octave or regular. The chord voicing with any kind of 5th tuning sound totally different than what you get with a 6-string guitar in standard tuning.