Tenor Sorted...

All present and correct: cleaned, polished and fitted out with a new set of D'Addario 10-32 Tenor strings. I opted for Standard tuning in the end: in fifths CGDA. It's a bit scary tuning up the top string up to the A,  so I took it gradually and nothing broke thankfully. Considering the scale length isn't massively shorter than say a Gibson, the tension on the strings is a tad hairy, but these strings would just be too flabby in Irish tuning: apparently you need a .012 top string set for that to work.

I can see why old man never got on with the thing, string tension aside: his hands were just too enormous to fret a neck so tiny. I'll see how playing it pans out, although I might give the heavier strings and the lower tuning a try at some point, as I feel that my fingers might not last the course: I play so little these days, the fingers of my left hand have lost their callouses and gone 'office soft' on me. I suppose that should be motivation enough to play more and perhaps re-learn some stuff from my youth and maybe a couple of things that I wanted to learn but didn't. Keep you posted!