Steve Pyott
http://www.vintagetenorguitars.com
This is something I might be interested in.
Why did they list this just before Christmas? A cruel and unusual temptation! AAaargh.
I'll be back in a few weeks if it's still available ...
Mandola fever is permanent.
Looks like a body repurposed from a longer scale 6 string .... That bridge is pretty far north to my amateur eye...
As an aside, i did lay eyes and hands on an eastwood astrojet sg tenor the other day and was quite impressed.... Looked better than the photos and felt really great.
All the best,
MdJ
Btw - fret marker on the 9th.....
Steve Pyott
http://www.vintagetenorguitars.com
I'm in.
Very, very tempting, but they also have the electric mandocello coming out soon . . .
For what it's worth, Michael did say the 9th fret will be moved to the 10th marker. That was enough for me to pull the trigger. I can't wait for their release in May.
Ditto. Can't wait. My Christmas present to me. I'm not a serial collector, I don't have MAS (really, I don't...), and I rarely ever go out to play in a plugged-in way. But I didn't want to resist. So I didn't. Too purty.
Man, I need another electric tenor like a hole in the head but that thing looks awesome. Are they just re-necking the Classic 6, or is the body a bit smaller? I think tenor necks on full-size bodies can look weird.
It looks like they are re-necking a Classic 6. I agree putting a short neck on a full-size body often looks weird, but I think it works here.
One of the problems with the short-horn body design, as a 6/12-string, is they are prone to neck-dive because of the weight of the tuning machines and the inability to put the horn strap far enough forward. This one looks like it should balance nicely because of fewer machines and the shorter-scale neck.
Speaking of scale, I'd like to see what others think of 23" vs 21".
As many of you here, I came to tenor via mandolin/mandola, so how I play comes from a short-scale instrument [I also play guitar and bass, but they are in 4th's].
The 23" scale tenor-guitar design, if I understand the history correctly, comes from it being a cross-over instrument from tenor-banjo, which is that scale.
I've been studying tenor banjo of late and it's very clear to me that the chord, scale and arpeggio shapes are different from the mandolin world. This means the transition from mandolin to long-scale tenor requires learning a slightly-new instrument. The tuning's are in 5ths, but IMHO playing a 23" tenor requires a significant change in technique that is mitigated on a shorter-scale 21" neck. Please don't take this as me saying we shouldn't be open to new learnings, just that it might not be necessary here, and may be a roadblock to some considering trying tenor guitar. Many of those finger stretches are either impossible or very painful.
The argument then comes up, why not just use a capo to get a shorter scale? If I'm into using a capo, I'd rather string a 6-string guitar as a tenor, capo it and save my money because these Eastwood's are really sorta-tenor-bodies/necks with 6-string hardware. Would be nice to see them do proper tenor hardware and pickups - they did it back in the day and there's no reason it can't be done even better now.
Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate what Eastwood is doing here to revive the tenor, but if we are at a historic juncture why not look at the tenor-guitar as an extension of the mandolin/mandola family and not a throw-away for banjo players.
This is a long-winded way of saying that, to my mind, it might be easier to sell a shorter-scale tenor to mandolin/mandola players, such as myself. Since there are far more of those than tenor-banjo players, I would think there's a good business case to be made here as well.
And to be perfectly correct, the Classic 6 is a short-scale 6-string at 24 3/4", which is Gibson Les Paul territory. Fender Stratocaster is 25.5", the start of long-scale guitars. So for this to be a correct tenor version of the Classic 6, I suggest it should also be short-scale, which in the tenor-world is 21" and shorter.
Am I beating a dead-horse here?
I think the recent tenor guitar resurgence has so far been mostly a matter of imitating the specs of earlier tenors, 23" neck included. That might be changing, as tenors like the new Kala have a shorter scale and, to my mind, seemed to be aimed more at players of little instruments. I think the longer scale sounds better, though. Tenor guitar technique is definitely its own thing. I jump around the neck way, way more and don't find myself playing multi-octave scale runs.
I think Eastwood might be a little mystified about which scale length to go with- I mean, who's actually playing electric tenors? I've only seen one electric tenor 'in the wild' that wasn't at an event geared toward tenor-guitar-appreciators.
In this biz it seems what was done in-the-day is gospel, regardless how crappy it might be. I was around back in-the-day, and they were just throwing stuff at the wall hoping something would stick. A lot of things were made without much thought put into it other than what it would take to make things work at that point based on the legacy they were working with at that time [i.e. tenor banjos].
After getting very frustrated looking for an electric tenor, I decided to buy a guitar I liked and have it converted. This was my choice:
I was going to get a luthier to do a conversion, but found restringing and using a capo works for what I need - still not optimal, but it works. Using a capo at the 2nd fret on a 24.75" scale gives me a 21" tenor which I'm finding is much better than my 23" Harmony for my hands [I'm 6' tall with proportionate hands].
I got my Wildkat for $299 plus another $6 for a capo. Sure, it's a 6 string and not a "real tenor", but I'll argue that Eastwood using 6-string bodies and hardware isn't much different. Certainly not different enough to sway me.
Considering my preference for semi-hollow/f-holes, this Eastwood is certainly ringing some of the right bells but the neck scale will probably be a deal-breaker for me, and I imagine others coming from the mandolin/mandola world.
It needs to be restated - there are more mandolin than tenor-banjo players in the world at this point and, as Ogilvy once said, it's always easier to sell something your customers want to buy.
So what might one of these sound like? As someone who owns a Blueridge acoustic tenor with a pickup in it, I'm wondering what the electric would give me that the Blueridge would not. I'm the type of player who does mostly strumming instead of fingerpicking, and I strum with my finger, not a pick. Not sure if that would sound good on an electric like this, but I dunno.
Easiest way is to find a similar 6-string, capo it at the 2nd fret and see if you like the sound.
At the end of the day it's an electric guitar with a short neck and the tone is largely determined by the pickups whereas your Blueridge is acoustic and all that implies. Quite different animals IMHO.
I panicked and made a last minute pledge. Looks like I'm getting a new electric tenor!
Needed 12 pledgers and got 45. Not bad.
I'm going to revive this thread ....
Can anyone comment on these Eastwood Classic Tenors? Do you all like them? How's the build and playability? I have the Warren Ellis tenor but this tenor appears to have closer string spacing. Can anyone comment on the two? Thanks!
Be true to your teeth, or they'll be false to you!
Check out the reviews shown here:
http://www.eastwoodguitars.com/classic-tenor-walnut/
Steve Pyott
http://www.vintagetenorguitars.com
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