by "zeontestpilot" (zeontestpilot)
Published 03/13/2017 at 07:11
by "zeontestpilot" (zeontestpilot)
Published 03/13/2017 at 07:11
Tags: Musiclopnik
STARS: 4
With my birthday coming up, I decided to expand my horizons as a musician. Currently I play bass guitar and mess around with the ukulele and banjo. I prefer four to five string instruments, so when I found out tenor guitars were a thing, I was very interested.
Its a Ibanez PFT2 Tenor Guitar, tuned to CGBA, and has a mini-dreadnought body with about a 22.8" neck. Bass guitars tend to have a 34" neck.. It’s incredibly small, but still pretty decent IMHO. It’s really fun to play though.
It was under $200, which isn’t a bad price for a beginners instrument. It’s all laminate too, but I can always upgrade to something better later on in life. This way I can try it out to see if it’s something I’d like to pursue or not.
One fun thing about the tenor is that it’s not often seen; sort of like how you rarely see super cars on the road unless you live by a rich neighborhood. And most everyone plays guitar, not many play a tenor guitar, so this odd instrument just drew me towards it.
Would I recommend it? I totally would. It’s a versatile instrument too, with multiple ‘normal’ tunings, like GDAD or even DGBE (like a guitar). It’s a fun instrument to just jam and play around with.
"Blind Willie Tyresmoke Namington IV" (sal-man)
03/13/2017 at 07:19, STARS: 1
Very interesting, I had never heard of the tenors
Quick question: I would like to pick up an ukulele for my birthday but since I would only play it for fun I was thinking about a cheap one like the stagg US20. Do you think it would be completely useless?
"Leadbull" (leadbull911)
03/13/2017 at 07:31, STARS: 1
Nice, I’ve heard of those but never seen one out in the real world before.
How do you like the Sigma? I’ve been pretty interested in those lately, but haven’t found the time to go down to geetar center and try one out.
"Honeybunchesofgoats" (honeybunche0fgoats)
03/13/2017 at 08:10, STARS: 2
It might be redundant, since you can tune the tenor to DGBE, but if you want another weirdo instrument in the future, I can highly recommend getting a baritone ukulele. I fell in love with them in college, because I wanted something I could relax with that wouldn’t get me kicked out of my dorm for playing at 2 AM.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/13/2017 at 09:05, STARS: 1
For $50USD it’s probably crap. My first uke was one of these , and at twice the price it was still not wonderful by any measure. It felt great to play, nice balance and neck thickness, but the intonation was decidedly off and the overall tone wasn’t too good either. It was fun but there’s only so far you can get with a cheap instrument. Anyway it eventually decided for me that it was time to move on...
I ended up with one of these next, and it’s been great.
Still not super expensive as instruments go, but all around a more complete package. It’s a Fender ‘52, sells for a little over $300CAD, not sure what it sits at south of the border.
If you’re really set on staying cheap, my advice would be get a brand known specifically for ukes. Such as Kala. This one is in the same price range, but is a well known brand, and as a bonus already comes with Aquila Nylgut strings as opposed to the black nylon you usually get on cheap ukes. They make a huge difference. The intonation issues on my first uke started within the first 3 frets on the original strings, but only became noticeable around the 9th or 10th with the Aquila’s.
Fwiw my ukes were concert ukes, they’re a little bigger than the sopranos. Don’t know if that impacts the price because I always thought of the sopranos of too small for my fingers and ignored them.
"zeontestpilot" (zeontestpilot)
03/13/2017 at 09:16, STARS: 1
My wife’s tenor ukulele is pretty good, a Caramel. I have a rogue soprano and it keeps pooping out of tune. I got mine for $20, hers was like $60. I don’t even play mine anymore, just hers. It’s a much better feel and better timbre/sound. And the bigger frets are more manageable, and it’s the same tuning as the smaller one.
I haven’t played the Stagg, but I would highly recommend this Caramel brand.
"zeontestpilot" (zeontestpilot)
03/13/2017 at 09:21, STARS: 0
I listened to a bari ukulele in a video, didn’t have the sound I wanted. Though, I went to a stored and played a tenor tuned to DGBE, same fingerings as a ukulele, just a different key.
I really like the CGDA tuning, a lot of chords are two fingers only. Plus the other chords are easy to figure out. The harder part is the solo stuff, which I’ll be checking out mandolin stuff (tuned GDAE) to figure out how they play solo stuff for a working example.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/13/2017 at 09:22, STARS: 1
On yours:
What strings do you have and have you tightened the tuners?
I found my original black nylon strings wouldn’t hold a tune but better strings would.
"zeontestpilot" (zeontestpilot)
03/13/2017 at 09:28, STARS: 0
It’s my wife’s, and she likes it, it’s an early model back when Martin guitars still made them. She’s the guitar guru in the house. Martin stopped making Sigma back in ‘07, and Sigma is now made by two different companies now; a German one (she thinks) and a US one. Both are made in China. One is allowed to sell in the US, the other isn’t. According to my sources (aka the lovely MrsZtp). She hasn’t played any current Sigmas, so she can’t judge them yet.
MrsZtp really likes Alvarez guitars, she has two other acoustics by Alvarez, which she loves. She says they are good quality for the price.
"zeontestpilot" (zeontestpilot)
03/13/2017 at 09:34, STARS: 1
For my cheapie Rogue ukulele, we’ve never changed the strings on it. You can get one good practice session out of it before it goes out of tune. We’ve let our 4 yr old play with it now, so she won’t feel left out, lol.
I got it to try the instrument out, and I do enjoy it. The fretboard was small in my opinion. The tenor ukulele does help. I have trouble doing chords on our mandolin, the frets are too small, :/.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/13/2017 at 09:39, STARS: 0
Yeah, I avoided the soprano for that reason, felt too small. I’m happy with my concert ukes.
I would love to learn a mandolin but the whole “double strings close together” thing isn’t compatible with my fingers :)
"zeontestpilot" (zeontestpilot)
03/13/2017 at 09:46, STARS: 1
For me it’s putting two fingers on two different strings, but on the same fret; It was really crowded. Especially coming from bass guitar, where I have so much room. The tenor ukulele does it nicely, and I can easily do a D major chord on it.
For the mandolin, the two strings have greater tension. I can do individual notes easily, but I’m still learning how everything is setup; like where all the notes are located.
"Leadbull" (leadbull911)
03/13/2017 at 15:22, STARS: 1
Dang, I didn’t know Martin quit making those.
I’ve played a couple of Alvarez guitars and I’m also a fan.