Frank Nordberg wrote: > Jon Freeman wrote: > > > > You will probably get better answers but I would suggest scale length and > > frets are the clue with the tenor running from somewhere round about 20" for > > a short scale 17 fret job to maybe 23" for a 19 fretter compared to, I think > > around 26/27" for a 5 string or plecturm. > > Thanks Jon. > Mine has 20 frets and a little less han 23" scale length and sounds > really nice in "octave-mandolin tuning". > It solved another "problem" I've had recently too, btw. I never could > decide whether I preferred playing Gilderoy on the mandolin > or on the guitar... > > One more question: > Would you consider the Irish and The New Orleans tenor banjos as two > different instruments? > > > > > > Tuning, are you sure you had strings suited to the tuning you tried? > > The only type of four-string set I've ever seen in a Norwegian music > store, is D'Addario's set for New Orleans-tuning, and it definitely > doesn't work tuned that high on a 23" scale instrument. > A friend of mine who is the Norwegian distributor of GHS and > a couple of > other string brands, have promised me he can get strings for any > stringed instrument that exists, though, so I guess I can > sort this out > now that I know what to ask for.
Hi, I had the same problem in Germany to find the right strings. Usually you can get 3 types of strings (CGDA for tenor, EADGBE for guitar-bjo and strings for 5-string-bjo). I got a nice 4-string-banjo. 18 frets. I don't know the exact length at the moment but I think it's nearly 3cm shorter than what we call a tenor-banjo around here. I tune it GDAE (octave-mandolin) but I had to look a while for suitable strings. Now I use the C-, G- and D-string of a tenor-banjo-set as D-,A- and E-string. As a G-string I use the lower E-string of a guitar-banjo (I think about 63cm length). This works realy good, the strings have nearly the same tension as they were desinged for. There are some Dixieland-banjo-players around here. Most of them don't play CGDA on their tenor-banjos. They tune down to BbFCG. Makes it much easier to play in keys like Eb, Bb, F, C. But the second reason is, that in CGDA-tuning the A-string breaks very often. Btw. with capo=1 one a GDAE-bjo it's easy to change from Irisch music to Dixieland. Toni To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
