Re: Tenor gtr conversion to octave
I did it with a Harmony archtop tenor. I have posted the pictures some time ago in old posts in both the tenor section and the CBOM section. It came out pretty good, considering my lack of experience and limited tools.
*By far* the hardest step was redrilling the headstock cleanly and accurately for 4-on-a-plate mandolin tuners (after filling the original holes), with only a hand drill and no clamps or other setup to position the guitar and secure the headstock while drilling. It was not clean, and just barely accurate enough. The other thing to do is make and slot a new nut (I used a scrap of mahogany), and reslot the bridge saddle for 8 strings. Still, I would say this is a fairly manageable project for anyone who is interested in trying it, if you can get ahold of a tenor guitar inexpensively. I got mine for ~$100 so there wasn't much risk. I didn't find neck width to be a problem at the nut, which is 1-1/4", but the width doesn't taper out much up the neck, so it feels like the strings remain almost parallel. I'm sure there will be differences among different guitars. The tone is only OK; it is still an all-birch Harmony after all. It sounds best when strummed at light-medium volume, with open strings ringing as much as possible. Trying to "punch" out single notes doesn't sound too good. I would try it again, except that I would want a spruce-topped guitar, which are very rare to find in the cheaper Harmony/Kay/Regal family.
If the neck doesn't have truss rod, like on any old Harmony or Kay, the extra string tension could introduce some bend to the neck, but I haven't really seen much of that with mine. I use pretty light-wt strings, and also tune them down if I'm not playing the guitar on a regular basis.
Jeff Rohrbough
"Listen louder, play softer"
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