Tenor Guitar

History

The Tenor Guitar came into being around the 1920s when the banjo was losing popularity and the bands were hiring guitar players. A banjo neck put on a guitar allowed pro players to quickly adapt to the guitar craze without re-learning their skills.

Tunings and Fingerings

The Tenor Guitar is usually tuned in fifths C G D A (like a tenor banjo) but the alternative Chicago tuning in fourths DGBE (as baritone uke or guitar top 4) is sometimes used.

DGBD and GDAE are also known.

Most Tenor guitars will happily take DGBE tuning though it’s a fairly non standard tuning so we would recommend getting some fairly chunky strings due to the short scale length of a tenor guitar. The top 4 strings of a guitar .12 or .13 guage set would do the trick.