What instrument is this?

March 17, 2010 4:55 AM

What instrument is Neko Case playing in this photo?
posted by Ike_Arumba to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

It looks like a Gibson SG bass guitar with a tremolo.
posted by chillmost at 4:59 AM on March 17, 2010

Best answer: Tenor guitar. Here.
posted by fire&wings at 4:59 AM on March 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ah!
posted by chillmost at 5:04 AM on March 17, 2010

Best answer: And here. Tenor guitars were popular among tenor banjo players back in the day, because you can directly transfer your knowledge of the fretboard from one to the other. (These days you see more of the inverse; guitar players with six string banjos.)

There's a good interview with Neko Case that talks a lot about her tenor guitars in the Summer 2006 issue of Fretboard Journal.
posted by usonian at 5:57 AM on March 17, 2010

Best answer: Ah, an online copy of said interview is linked to from fire&wings' link: here.
posted by usonian at 6:02 AM on March 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Gibson tenor guitars are extremely rare.
posted by tremspeed at 8:41 AM on March 17, 2010

Yeah a tenor. That's weird. I've never seen an electric tenor before. I wonder what music they were thinking was going to get played on that when they made it.
posted by sully75 at 12:04 PM on March 17, 2010

Tiny Grimes played electric tenor. He was good enough to play with Art Tatum. When asked why his guitar only had four strings, he said "that's all you need."
posted by timeistight at 1:39 PM on March 17, 2010