I got a 1952 Martin Tenor for £400 shipped from the states, no import problems because of its age it seems. I had to spend about £30 on having the bridge re-cut to fix the intonation and new tuner buttons as the old ones perish over time, but I think you can get a bargain if you have a look at some of the US shops online and are prepared to take a punt on an older instruments.

You would always be able to ebay over here if it was not what you were after, but I don't think any of the new ones are up to much (I've tried plenty). I can think of two prominent folk musicians from the UK playing tenors at the moment, the newer made ones don't sound anything like their records, but the two martins I have heard in the flesh are bang on.

I was looking to get one before they were commercially available about 2 years ago and got fed up with the lack of availably... so made my own one to keep occupied whilst I shopped around - I took a travel guitar I had knocking about, did the maths for the string thickness/tension for GDGD tuning and stuck 4 strings on the middle 4 slots of the nut. No need to re cut anything or alter the guitar permanently. The shorter scale length works well with the higher pitched tuning of a tenor and it certainly give you a chance to get used to the tuning/chord shapes. I'm sure you could do the same to a regular acoustic guitar for a temporary fix!

LJC (yes, first mudcat post, but I have been lurking for about a year and a half!)