Re: Blueridge Tenor Guitars
I'll add my plaudits for the Blueridge BR 40T which I took delivery on just a few weeks ago. It sounded very mellow and loud with the original CGDA string gauges (.010, .014, .022W, .032W). I struggled with transposing for a while, then gave in to practicality and converted it to GDAE (John Pearse 450L's, .013, .020, .030, .042) with a little filing of the nut grooves.
At first, I thought its sound suffered a little from lowering the pitch, but as my ears have become more accustomed to the sound I've come to enjoy the deeper voice.
I bought this guitar to increase my exposure to the swing tunes I had been learning on the mandolin and recover some of the "reach" I had lost over the last 12 years as my 6-string guitars languished in their cases and the mando took over. The first time I worked out an arrangement of "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" I knew it was all good. I'm having to re-think my solo's, though, since the stretch for notes is harder.
As a bonus, I can play the same arrangement on my mandolin (and improvise much easier) and the tenor chords have expanded my chord work on the mando. Everybody wins!
"Got time to breathe, got time for music" -- Briscoe Darling
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