Tenor Guitar

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maki
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Tenor Guitar

Post by maki »

My wife recently purchased a Kala brand tenor guitar.
It sounds very nice!
Anyone else play these?
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MTGuru
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Re: Tenor Guitar

Post by MTGuru »

maki wrote:Anyone else play these?
I don't own one, but I did spend some time playing with the Kala tenor at the NAMM show a few weeks ago. And yes, I agree, it's a very nice little instrument. It's what, 3/4 scale or less? A pretty big sound for a small instrument, and agile because of the size. I hope your wife enjoys it!

I also liked the new Kala "Waterman" ukulele. An all-plastic Maccaferri clone, marketed as a knock-around or waterproof beach uke. And a good sound at the $40 street price, much cheaper than a Flea or Fluke. The rep claimed he plays it in the bathtub. :-) And the NAMM display featured a Waterman in a fishtank ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-hRbzMkGok
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Re: Tenor Guitar

Post by maki »

MTGuru wrote:
maki wrote:Anyone else play these?
I don't own one, but I did spend some time playing with the Kala tenor at the NAMM show a few weeks ago. And yes, I agree, it's a very nice little instrument. It's what, 3/4 scale or less? A pretty big sound for a small instrument, and agile because of the size. I hope your wife enjoys it!

I also liked the new Kala "Waterman" ukulele. An all-plastic Maccaferri clone, marketed as a knock-around or waterproof beach uke. And a good sound at the $40 street price, much cheaper than a Flea or Fluke. The rep claimed he plays it in the bathtub. :-) And the NAMM display featured a Waterman in a fishtank ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-hRbzMkGok
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Re: Tenor Guitar

Post by Seonachan »

I have several tenor guitars, not the Kala though. I did play one in a store and I agree it's a nice guitar for the price. Small-bodied, short-scale (~21") tenor guitars are neat little instruments - a little bigger than a baritone uke - but aren't in great supply. The only other current maker is Fletcher (Tenortone), which are superb but cost 6x as much. In the vintage market you see Regals pretty regularly but even the low-end all-birch models are going for $400 and up now. Harmony brands like Supertone are more rare. The 5- and 2-size Martins almost always come with a "standard" 23" scale, though I've heard that they made short-scale versions.

Here's my beat-up 1930's Regal:

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Re: Tenor Guitar

Post by Feadoggie »

MTGuru wrote:I also liked the new Kala "Waterman" ukulele. An all-plastic Maccaferri clone, marketed as a knock-around or waterproof beach uke. And a good sound at the $40 street price, much cheaper than a Flea or Fluke. The rep claimed he plays it in the bathtub. And the NAMM display featured a Waterman in a fishtank ...
Hhhhhmmmmmm? My father had an Maccaferri Islander uke. The Maccaferri was not exactly the best choice for a beach uke when the temperatures were hot. They had a low-ish melting point. When last I saw that Islander uke it looked like something out of a Salvador Dali painting.

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Re: Tenor Guitar

Post by MTGuru »

Well, the Waterman is ABS plastic with a melting point of 221F. So it's probably safe at the beach unless you throw it in the barbecue pit. Clone here means clone in the sense that RoboFeadoggie will one day be a clone of Feadoggie. The same charming personality, but a more badass infrastructure.
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Re: Tenor Guitar

Post by Feadoggie »

MTGuru wrote:Well, the Waterman is ABS plastic with a melting point of 221F.
That's good news. One announcement I read said that the Waterman was made of polycarbonate. I could use a bullet proof uke. Still, at $40 I'll probably buy one of these. That and your mini review. Thanks.

It's hard to tell the differences between these and other recent plastic models like the Outdoor Ukulele (and several more) without a test drive. http://outdoorukulele.com/ I have not seen any of these at local dealers yet. Lots of cheap wood-ish models are available on the shop pegs though.
MTGuru wrote:Clone here means clone in the sense that RoboFeadoggie will one day be a clone of Feadoggie. The same charming personality, but a more badass infrastructure.
How is that even conceivable? :)

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Re: Tenor Guitar

Post by Rob Sharer »

Tenor guitars are cool!

They can be a bit quiet for more raucous sessions, but there's always the resonator version...

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Re: Tenor Guitar

Post by s1m0n »

Seonachan wrote:In the vintage market you see Regals pretty regularly but even the low-end all-birch models are going for $400 and up now.
I have a 19" or so (IIRC) Regal I'd happily sell to anyone for $250 + postage. Likely birch. Sweet sound. The neck wouldn't stand up to tuning to GDAE using the 10-12-30-40 irish bouzouki string guages but sounds great with tenor banjo CGDA strings, or similar. You can get to GDAE but at a slacker guage & tension. Original semi-soft case.
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Re: Tenor Guitar

Post by Tor »

The Waterman looks good as a robust alternative.. but I need a Tenor size. I have given up on soprano ukuleles, and even my concerto size Pono is collecting dust. Only the tenors get played.
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Re: Tenor Guitar

Post by MTGuru »

That's understandable. The tenor fingerings are not as cramped, and it's still a compact instrument.

But personally, after years of playing bulky instruments - baritone sax, and bass guitar + heavy amp - I really appreciate the size and portability of the soprano uke. It's the D whistle of the string world. :-) And the ability to span 8 frets allows for some interesting voicings.
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