Guest HRB853370 Posted May 9, 2012 Posted May 9, 2012 What about a 24" archtop scale length? Or a 26" solid body scale length? Too radical?
iim7v7im7 Posted May 9, 2012 Posted May 9, 2012 Like many of you, I play guitars with a variety of scale lengths and seem to adopt faily easily. My Gypsy jazz guitar has a 26-5/8" scale length, but uses strings with lower tension. I actually asked Bill Comins to make my archtop with a 25" scale instead of the traditional 25.5". In this case, it is still an instrument that is also meant to played acoustically (unlike the Sadowsky instruments referred to in an earlier post). I find with a 25.5" scale, like my Sweet 16; playing a number of my favorite 5-fret Johnny Smith spread voicings get's difficult below the 5th fret. The 1/2" reduction is subtle and helps a touch. Conversely, above the 12th fret the slightly longer scale length than a 24-3/4" opens things up a bit and is a touch more comfortable.
Spook410 Posted May 10, 2012 Posted May 10, 2012 The Gibson Byrdland is 23.5". I always wondered what that would be like to play. Maybe a tighter fit for my hand, but better ability to stretch the fingers to make extended chords. It would be a cool custom build idea too. Had one. Never did get used to the short scale though maybe that's because there's always more than one guitar around and a scale length that different would throw me. Currently playing a 637mm (25.1 inches) scale guitar quite a bit and that feels pretty good.
ledzef Posted May 12, 2012 Posted May 12, 2012 Teles and Strats are usually 25.5". I say 'usually ' because I've never personally seen either in any other scale length but you can often be proved wrong on absolutes Fender used to have a 3/4 24.75 scale body/fingerboard. Don't know if they make them anymore but I'll have to check my friend's son chinese made strat his grandmother got for him last birthday, seem to remember that being shorter than a American made strat.
DavesNotHere Posted May 12, 2012 Posted May 12, 2012 Fender used to have a 3/4 24.75 scale body/fingerboard. Don't know if they make them anymore but I'll have to check my friend's son chinese made strat his grandmother got for him last birthday, seem to remember that being shorter than a American made strat. I just checked the Chinese Strat I bought the other day, it's 25.5"
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