Mike, you don't currently own a tenor????? That is a disappointing thing to hear and you need to remedy that right away!!! There are many nice tenors out there that are very affordable in terms of vintage instruments. In my opinion, you can't beat the old 20s and 30s Gibsons and the Martin O18T's from the 30s and 40s.
The tenor is a unique voice that I'm surprised more folks havent taken seriously. The range of the instrument is right between 6 string guitar and violin/mandolin. It is a very good complementary instrument in a string band. You just can't play it like a mandolin as it lacks the percussion (though it has very different percussive qualities that can be utilized). I really love to play the tenor even though I only get to do it a few times a year. The fiddlin folks in Seattle with whom I play Texas fiddle tunes are serious good tenor players as well, so we rotate it around. That is where I play it most. Usually once or twice a year, I'll get into swing jams that already have enough fiddle or mando players and I'll get it out. It is a wonderful swing instrument as well, you can get very nice jazz phrasing out if it that often lacks on the double course instruments due to the percussive attack of the notes. When I play it, I sometimes get the fifth transpositions mixed up in my head. If the jazz is modern enough, my friends just think I'm playing "outside" :-) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to taterbugma...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to taterbugmando+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en.