Any Gibson Tenor Lute owners in Europe?

[Roman Pekar]

I'm thinking about buying Gibson Tenor Lute from States, but I would really like to try one first. It's a lot of hassle to ship it from US and I also have to pay huge tax for importing it.

So, are there any Gibson Tenor Lutes owners in Europe who can kindly let me try the instrument?

[f5loar]

Ain't that many in the USA. I've got one so I can at least tell you it plays like a tenor banjo. Single string type anyway. Not too many of the 8 strings out there. They are not loud either as you would think due to the string tension and type bridge. Just a really neat idea of Loar's that didn't really pan out.

[allenhopkins]

Rare birds indeed, and I think the previous post sums it up well. No truss rod on mine (four-string), so the neck's pretty beefy. A very sweet, clear sound, not a lot of volume. I have lighter tenor banjo strings on mine; perhaps a heavier stringing would up the volume, but I don't want to take chances with an instrument I bought mainly for its rarity, its Lloyd Loar pedigree, and its vintage.

I do use it on some gigs -- played Those Were the Days for a seniors' audience on the TL Tuesday. But that's infrequent. It's basically, for me, a long-necked mandola, and I have several competitive mandolas that put out more sound.