Tenor Guitars

The first time I ever saw a tenor guitar was in an Elvis Presley film many many years ago. I can't even remember the film, but I was intrigued about this four string guitar he was playing.
I've had a couple of tenor guitars over the years, I like playing them, they have a lighter sound than a normal six string, for obvious reasons, and they lend themselves to slide playing quite well, and I love playing slide guitar.
I can't work out why they aren't more commonly seen than what they are.
But it wasn't always like this.
Back in the day it seemed that Gibson would make every conceivable variation of their guitars, and so produced a raft of tenor variations of their guitars. I would imagine these were made in limited numbers, if not one off custom models. Either way they'd make a fantastic addition to any collection.

Obviously Gibson weren't the only makers to build these instruments, but I think theirs have a bit of style and panache.

But then we get to Gretsch......

And not to be outdone Rickenbacker had a go, but added a couple of strings to make it a banjo/ guitar

There's dozens of variations of tenor guitars all over the world, and if you're looking for something a wee bit different to the norm, then try one out, whatever your style I don't think you'll be dissapointed .........unless you play death metal I suppose.........


Finally, here's link to a video, it's quite whimsical and made me smile, which was probably the point

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFuwJRKz7Vg