Short scale length

[Jules141]

Hi everyone, I’ve been playing for almost 6 years, always with a 25.5 scale guitar. I always have trouble when I have to play big stretches, and not so big ones… I have pretty short fingers
I have no experience with shorter scale guitars, but my guitar teacher say to me that between a 25.5 and a 25 like a PRS or a LP you can barely feel the difference. I saw that @Troy very often uses a Fender Mustag (24 scale guitar) I want to know if a shorter scale guitar would help me to play more confortable. Thanks!

[Troy]

Hi Jules. It really depends what things you feel are comfortable. Here’s an existing thread on the short scale length topic:

What about the "Much-Stang"? (22"5 scale guitars)

That’s funny. I bought my Mustang pre-cbs mar 8 1965 neck for $15 in Fullerton California back 1997. I got lucky I guess. I’ve been using it as a practice/learning guitar. I remember you could buy them on eBay for like $300 5 years ago and they’re becoming scarce. I’m happy to have bought mine back then. I didn’t even know what it was until 7 years ago. I’m thinking of buying 2 more for my daughter and I. I love the scale size on these. I do agree that they aren’t the best for chords, but for le…

[Frylock]

And one thing I think I mentioned in the other thread, you can test different scale lengths by slapping a capo on a 25.5 inch scale guitar.

On a 25.5 guitar, the distance from the nut to the first fret is 1.43 inches. So if you capo the first fret, what remains is equivalent to a 24.07 inch scale (with one less fret to play with at the top end). The bestselling capo on Amazon is only $6, though you can also pay more.

The offset fret markers could make it a little confusing at first, but you could always cover them up temporarily with the fretboard stickers that seem to be widely available nowadays, or even just play with your eyes closed. An experiment like that could help you decide whether you think it’s worth your while to buy a guitar with a shorter scale length.