Scale length?

[Tony Done]

I'm having a discussion in rmmgj aboout the effect of scale length on
tone. Someone is suggesting that 24.75 gives a dark sound compared with
a light sound from 25.5 - his words. What say?

Al, Kevin?
--
Tony Done

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=784456

http://www.flickr.com/photos/done_family/

[Benoit Meulle-Stef]

The only thing I can think of is as longer the scale as thinner the strings needs to be, so yes a longer scale will provide a more bell ring tone...

Cheers
Benoit

[Kevin Hall]

"Tony Done" <tony...@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:kmecbn$okv$1...@speranza.aioe.org...

My old friend the late Bill Lewis used to say that scale length is the first
consideration when designing a new instrument for a specific client, but
it's only one of many variables which will affect the overall performance.

Given otherwise identical instruments a longer scale will generally give
greater projection and volume since it puts greater tension on the top.
The trouble with such sweeping statements however is that instruments with
longer scales often have slightly heavier bracing and/or top specs in order
to better cope with the increased tension. Instruments built that little
bit more heavily can tend to have a slower, less subtle response than more
lightly built ones. Add the variable of string guage and you open another
whole can of worms. Long scale instruments are often strung with light
guage wires in order to make them more playable, so a shorter scale
instrument strung with mediums may actually provide more bite with a more
subtle response.

In the 70s and '80s when Jean Larrivee and his various accolytes were
building virtually all their steel strings with 650 mm scale lengths and
bracing them fairly heavily many players bought them, liking the volume as
they came from the shops with medium strings. Within a couple of months
many of those players, tired of the hard tension and stiff response,
switched to lights then found they didn't care for the drop in volume which
accompanied that switch. For a while there were lots of bargains around
Toronto on 6-month to a year old Larrivees et al.

Like virtually everything else about guitars there is a delicate balance
between scale length, top thickness, brace weight and stiffness, string
guage and players' style. This makes it very difficult to come up with a
definitive answer to which one of any of the above variables may be the best
for a particular player.

One of the main objections many players had to the old Mossman flat-tops was
that they felt 'stiff' and they had to beat the liver and lights out of
them to get the best tone. Mossman used long scale lengths on his stuff,
and while that made them powerful and very attractive to heavy-handed
bluegrassers etc. it made them unpleasant for a lot of others, especially
when strung with the medium strings for which they'd been designed.

Your average player doesn't want to worry his or her pretty little head
about such niceties, and just wants a short, straight answer to questions
like 'which is better, short or long scales?' or my all time favourite: "
What's better, steel strings or them rubber ones?" ;-)

KH

[Tony Done]

On 9/05/2013 6:25 AM, Tony Done wrote:
> I'm having a discussion in rmmgj aboout the effect of scale length on
> tone. Someone is suggesting that 24.75 gives a dark sound compared with
> a light sound from 25.5 - his words. What say?
>
> Al, Kevin?

Kevin and Ben. Thanks for the replies, I copied them to the jazz group,
I hope you don't mind. IMO it is easy to get a bit precious over these
things, like bone bridge pins and the like. There are more basic things
to worry about when buying a guitar, and overmuch emphasis on what I
think of as lower ranked issues might mislead the new chum as to their
importance.

[JimLowther]

I've been thinking a bit about this since you posed the question. I
am perhaps the least qualified person on the NG to suggest an answer,
though.

I guess about anything you would say about it would come with "all
things being equal" and/or a number of qualifications of one sort or
another. If one were to make the comparison I am not even sure would
should be equal, string gauge or string tension. In other words,
would it be more correct to compare two (otherwise hypothetically
equal) guitars (25.5 and 24.75) strung with strings of the same gauge
or should the 24.75 scale guitar have heavier gauge strings so that
the tension of each string matches the comparable tension of the
corresponding string for that pitch on the 25.5 scale guitar.

It would be kind of nice to know what happens to the harmonic content
of the vibrating string as it increases either in tension or in mass.

Best wishes,

Dr. Jim Lowther

[elitecust...@gmail.com]

Hi Kevin,

I am a luthier from California and just received an email from a potential client asking if I could build him something similar to that of the famous Bill Lewis electric. Unfortunately, I am at a dead end in finding info on the scale length (how I stumbled upon this), electronics capabilities ect. I have seen a photo where there are many wires connected to a strange looking potentiometer almost like it is a double dole double throw pot. If I could pick your brain it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Brian
elitecustomguitars.com
elitecust...@gmail.com