4 string guitar - what is it?

[Armistice]

Just sitting watching the Elvis Costello live in Memphis DVD and on the track "Delivery Man" he's playing what appears to be a Gretsch 4 string guitar - doesn't sound like it's in standard tuning either, maybe tuned as a mando?

Anyone know what the hell it is?

And no, it's not a bass in case anyone was going to suggest that, it's a big semi-acoustic body with a very thin neck and only 4 strings...

[faderbug]

it's a tenor guitar, mainly used in the 1950's in jazz bands.

[Track Rat]

Yeah, it's a tenor guitar but they've been around for a lot longer than that.

[rxQueen]

ya want one? check it out: http://www.master-guitars.com/

kinda pricey though.

[ggunn]

If it was a tenor guitar (although all the ones I have seen have a small body), it is indeed tuned in 5ths like a mandolin.

[Light]

Originally Posted by ggunn

If it was a tenor guitar (although all the ones I have seen have a small body), it is indeed tuned in 5ths like a mandolin.

Tenor guitars are tuned all sorts of different ways, but most of the guys I know who play them tune them like the top four on a guitar, D-G-B-E. Other guys tune them to open chords, or else like a tenor banjo (which is where they were most popular, in the thirties when guitar started to take over the banjo in popular and jazz recordings/bands. The guys who had been playing tenor banjo switched to tenor guitars.)


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[Armistice]

Thanks peoples..

Hey Light - do you actually know who originally said the "talking about music is like dancing about architecture" thing? Been trying to find out - it seems to have been attributed to all sorts of people..

[jalbert]

Rabon Delmore of the Delmore Brothers(one of Country music's most important and influential groups) played a tenor guitar. He used it like Light is talking about for that banjo style, dixieland rhythm while his brother Alton did incredible six-string flatpicking over it. I had never heard of or seen one till I got into the Delmores and I haven't found them being used anywhere else(though I haven't really been looking).

[daryle_ackerman]

Originally Posted by rxQueen

ya want one? check it out: http://www.master-guitars.com/

kinda pricey though.

How much? Did you have to e-mail him to get a quote? I would do so myself, but it's probably beyond my budget.

[hixmix]

4 strings. I'm hip. Simplify. That's what it's all about. Less is more.

[rxQueen]

Originally Posted by daryle_ackerman

How much? Did you have to e-mail him to get a quote? I would do so myself, but it's probably beyond my budget.

i didn't e-mail him myself, but a member at Harmony-central did and he said it was something like $2500...

[YeshuasFan]

I'm probably dating myself for being somewhat archaic but check some of the old Kingston Trio recordings from the late 1950s - mid 1960s. Tenor guitar figured very prominently in their sound. Nick Reynolds tuned it to the octave of a soprano ukulele.

[mandocaster]

There is a bit of a resurgence of tenor guitar interest among mandolin players lately.

Usually tuned like a mandola CGDA.

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by YeshuasFan

I'm probably dating myself for being somewhat archaic but check some of the old Kingston Trio recordings from the late 1950s - mid 1960s. Tenor guitar figured very prominently in their sound. Nick Reynolds tuned it to the octave of a soprano ukulele.

I was a big Kingston Trio fan myself; I taught myself guitar basics by learning their songs. I still trot out "MTA" from time to time.