[Dixielandjazz] Lute or Tenor Guitar?

[Allan Brown]

Dear Ginny,

I concur, Scott makes beautiful looking guitars and if they sound half as good as they look, then I reckon they must be a joy to play.

My father in law is a great woodworker and a few years ago he made a couple of beautiful Renaissance lutes. However, none of us have the wherewithal to play them, so sadly they're just sitting in a cupboard. I struck up conversation with a professional lutist (is that the correct term?) on a train journey a few months ago and it was a real education. The frets are tied loops of  gut string, which can be moved about to suit the myriad of tuning possibilities available to the player, depending on the type of music and the particular keys they're after. He said there's a wealth of lute music out there, most of it written in various types of lute tabs so a lot background knowledge is required to read/ interpret them in accordance with the times they were written in.

Talking of tuning, another guy I accosted at Boston Airport, had this extraordinary banjo that had a flat metal fingerboard, on which you could magnetically attach one of several 'fretted fingerboard' faces, each slightly different depending on the key one's playing in. The idea was that one could play with 'just tuning' (I think that's what it's called) as opposed to the more usual equal temperament. They were weird looking with many of the frets being split slightly, so instead of running across the width of the neck they were in places slightly staggered, with two of the strings covered by a half fret, the other two with another half fret, but slightly displaced. I don't know how it sounded but it looked cool.

The moral being if you're carrying an instrument case in public, you're probably best avoiding me - especially if you've a deadline to meet.

All the best,

Allan Brown


On 18 Mar 2011, at 01:57, Gluetje1 at aol.com wrote:

> Hi, Tony,
> 
> List mate Scott Anthony builds wonderful F-hole, arch top 22 fret plectrum  
> guitars.  He did one for me.  I also have a small body, cut away,  round 
> hole plectrum guitar made by a fellow named Fairchild up in  Michigan.
> 
> As far as I know Scott will make any style guitar per your individual  
> preferences.
> 
> I've also had a quick look at plectrum necks made in Portugal by  Soares'y 
> and they seemed nice -- the most economical route.
> (_http://www.infolinkmiami.com/soaresy/index.html_ 
> (http://www.infolinkmiami.com/soaresy/index.html) ) 
> 
> Ginny 
> 
> 
> In a message dated 3/17/2011 6:22:15 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
> jsbarque at netscape.net writes:
> 
> 
> These days a guitar with 4 strings is usually referred to as a  tenor 
> guitar regardless of the number of frets or tuning. 
> There were  4-string Gibson Guitars with L5 style bodies with both 19 fret 
> necks tuned the  same as a tenor banjo and, 22 frets tuned the same as a 
> plectrum banjo. Models  were TG4 and PG4 respectively. A plectrum guitar these 
> days is usually a  6-string flat-top such as the Martin D28.
> 
> I occasionally play an early  1930s plectrum guitar, a Gibson PG4 tuned 
> CGBD. A nice F-hole arch-top  accoustic but, lacking the depth of a 6-string 
> guitar. It looks identical to a  guitar seen in Eddie Condon's early photos. 
> He did play other models, too of  course.
> 
> Tony Orr
> Wombat Jazz Band.  Melbourne
> 
> 
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