ampage Tube Amps / Music Electronics	For current discussions, please visit Music Electronics Forum.

ampage archive

Vintage threads from the first ten years

Short-scale guitar?

:

8/20/2005 9:03 AM

Short-scale guitar?

I'm a long time Strat player with small hands. Middle age is bringing on it's share of hand and wrist pain and troubles so I'm looking for a shorter scale guitar that doesn't compromise on quality.

Warmoth makes a Les Paul scale length neck for a Srat, and I have one of those but it really doesn't make that much difference.

This morning I played a new Duo-Sonic and it was really comfortable. The problem is the pickups are crap, there are only two of them, and the string spacing is narrower than a standard Strat. The tuners can be replaced, but probably not the bridge.

Are there any companies out there that build pro-quality short-scale electric guitars?

8/21/2005 8:18 AM

I recently modded a '64 Music Master for a signed artist. He wanted a single pickup such as a Tele neck pickup and a dual concentric tone control to facilitate treble and/or bass roll-off.
This allowed him to get quite a vast range of sounds from a single pickup. Also, importantly in your case, he could load the guitar with 11 guage strings because the short scale would allow easy playability.
A good set of pickups in a Duo Sonic would be great.

8/21/2005 12:00 PM

Hi KC

Ranging from "expensive" to cheap:
Fender Mustang (2 PUs + trem)
Fender DuoSonic (2 PUs)
Fender MusicMaster (1 PU)
Right now I'm talking about used ones from the 60s and 70s. I did have a really nice playing/sounding stock '64 MusicMaster but I did get an offer I couldn't refuse and I do/did have many other guitars.
My point: try some older ones and pick the one you like the most.

Chris

Ps I'm not a vintage-snob

8/21/2005 7:14 PM
sweetfinger	Most of the official "Brian May" signature versions of his homemade original are short scale and are pro quality.

8/22/2005 5:50 AM

KC,

You mentioned Warmoth, so its safe to assume you aren't afraid to spend a reasonable amount of money to get your dream axe, and you seem to be in the market for a bolt-on.

Why not ask a luthier to build you a bolt-on? Assuming you stay away from pretty furniture wood, you should be able to get something superb for far less than 2,000 dollars all in, with the best hardware money can buy.

Just my thoughts.

Andrew C.

8/23/2005 6:23 AM

Thanks everyone for the advice. I actually still have my first guitar which is a '73 Mustang, and even after all these years it's a lot more comfortable in my hands than my Strats.

The 24.75" neck from Warmoth is a very nice piece, but just didn't really make that much difference. They told me at the time I bought that neck that they have available 7/8 bodies and necks, but I have yet to see one, and of course that's buying an instrument without playing it first. So I think that I'd like to get down to 24" or less.

I went ahead and bought a MIM Duo-Sonic the other day to see how the very short scale will work out for me; it was cheap after all. It's taking some getting used to, and may actually be a little too short.

Andrew, I'll probably go that route... I just hate spending so much on an instrument you can't take i nto your hands and see how it feels first, but in this case there aren't a lot of options.

Spence: Care to share how you wired up that guitar?

Thanks,
KC

8/23/2005 4:11 PM
Spence	Essentially, it works the same way as a Will Ray Hellecaster. Fender aren't forthcoming with that schematic and they don't specify cap values so you've just got to fiddle about. I'll send you a copy of the schematic and the finished guitar. It's worth noting that the Tele neck pickup I made was wound to 7 K Ohms using A2 magnets.

Page 1 of 2