Shorter scale guitar - implications?

[dealmaker]

guys,

been looking at buying a specific guitar of someone - issue is that they had it custom made to a shorter scale length of 24 7/8" instead of the normal (for that guitar) scale of 25 1/2" - so it's 5/8" shorter.

What are the practical implications of this in normal playing??...aside from the distances between frets being ever so slightly shorter???

Thanks!

[MrP80]

As long as the bridge has been moved accordingly there should be no issue, without this the intonation would be out. As it's custom made it should be fine

Other than that if it feels fine for you it should be, it just might take you a while to get used to it - but saying that swapping between different number of frets doesn't trouble most people...

[gingerpaul]

Won't make much difference as long as it has been made properly, as has already been said. It just means you're between the traditional Gibson and Fender scale lengths. Here's a list of guitars around the same link that I have stolen from Wikipedia:


* 24 in (610 mm), confusingly called "full scale" in Fender sales literature:
o Fender Jaguar
o Most and current Fender Mustang
o Most Musicmaster II and Duosonic II
o Fender Bronco

* 24.75 in (629 mm):
o Gibson Les Paul
o Gibson SG
o Original Gibson ES-150
o Fender Cyclone
o Rickenbacker most electric guitars (including 330, 340, 350, 360, 370, 380, 620, 650, 660)

* 25 in (635 mm)
o Most Paul Reed Smith guitars

* 25.5 in (648 mm), closest to the classical guitar scale:
o Fender Esquire
o Fender Telecaster
o Fender Stratocaster
o Fender Jazzmaster
o Most Jackson Guitars
o Squier Stratocaster
o Most and current Gibson ES-150
o Most Ibanez guitars
o Most Schecter guitars

[bigbadbikercats]

dealmaker said:

guys,

been looking at buying a specific guitar of someone - issue is that they had it custom made to a shorter scale length of 24 7/8" instead of the normal (for that guitar) scale of 25 1/2" - so it's 5/8" shorter.

What are the practical implications of this in normal playing??...aside from the distances between frets being ever so slightly shorter???

Thanks!

String tension mostly.

All other things being equal the pitch of a note will be determined by a combination of the sounding length and the tension on the string, as the string gets shorter the pitch gets higher (just like when you fret a note) and as the string gets slacker the pitch gets lower (just like when you loosen a tuner), so, assuming the same string gauges, the strings on a Les Paul (which has a shorter scale length) will feel a little "looser" than those on a Strat making for (slightly) easier fretting and bending.

Your 24-&-7/8" scale length is pretty close to what PRS use (25" - somewhere between a Les Paul & a Strat) on most of their guitars so there's nothing outrageously weird about it.

Let me guess - this guitar is a Strat or Tele type instrument made for someone who normally plays a Gibson :-)

--
JG