Shortest reasonable scale length for travel guitar?

[Dan Hehnke]

Hello new forum! It's been a while since I've posted. I'm starting plans for a design for a new travel/small guitar, having been inspired by the fact that I can get an adapter that allows me to play into my iPhone. Pretty cool. Anyway, what has been folks' experience with the shortest reasonable scale length that still feels and plays like....a guitar, and doesn't require tuning up in pitch? I am aiming for a 21" scale right now, to maybe make the guitar fit as a carry on. Thoughts?

[Steve Senseney]

I don't know about travel guitars, but could you explain the smart phone/iphone ap?

[Dan Hehnke]

Well the one I'm looking at is the Peavey Ampkit Link and Ampkit app. It uses the headphone/mic input on the phone to allow you to plug your guitar straight in to the phone. It acts like an amp/pedals and sends the signal out the headphone out to either headphones or speakers or whatever. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds pretty cool in theory.

[Henrique Schneiter]

It depends on how heavy a string set you can get. From my experience, the string feel correlates roughly with the increase in strings caliber and a decrease in scale lenght fret by fret. In other words, if you capo the fingerboard on the first fret and tune to standard with a 0.10 set, it will roughly feel like a 0.09 set tuned to standard without the capo. As I said its from experience, I never actually measured anything, and I'm only mentioning string feel, not the different feel from smaller fret intervals.

[Dan Hehnke]

Yeah, that's a good point, though I figure I can get whatever size strings I need, since there are 8 string guitars, and basses, and 8 string basses, etc, etc. As long as I look hard enough. Just wondering if people had experience with shorter scales and what they felt was a good compromise, because of course I'm compromising here. Thanks for the input.

D

[Mark Wybierala]

Shorter scale length guitars tend to not satisfy. Take a look at a Pignose. These are 24 1/4" scale length (almost a full scale) yet still a very small guitar due to the placement of the bridge. I had a PGG100 and after removing the offending on-board amp and speaker was able to evolve this into a really decenty player. Eventually this became my midi guitar.

[Dan Hehnke]

What do you mean Mark by your post? It seems like from what you said that once you removed the cheapo on board amp/speaker that you actually liked the short scale guitar, and it was a really decent player? Sounds to me like you just didn't like the built in electronics. Clarification would be appreciated. Thanks for the input.

[Henrique Schneiter]

Yes Dan, but there is a limit. In extremely short scales, even bass strings will feel floppy, and you can't expect such an instrument to sound and play like a regular guitar. It will feel more like a tiny bass instead. I can't tell you what is that limit, but I think I would not go under around a 22" scale if I intended to tune it standard.

You can experiment different string gauges and scale lenghts with a regular guitar and a capo, and take your own conclusions. I know people that ended up liking the shorter scales better.

BTW, you can also build a "carry on" guitar with a regular scale (a headless of course).

[Matthew Lau]

Dan, what type of guitar are you thinking of?

I'm assuming a solid body electric.
The nice thing with electrics is that you have much greater flexibility with neck joints than acoustics.

Have you considered a folding guitar (like the Voyage-aire) or a simple bolt-on (just take it off)?

Personally, I recommend building around the scale length that you like the most.
Otherwise, the action will be unsatisfying...at best.

[Mark Wybierala]

Yes I like the Pignose guitars. I wouldn't call 24 1/14 really a short scale guitar but it is just a bit shorter that the two main electric guitar scales -- but not much. These guitars are made surprisingly okay with better than okay hardware. They are far far better than the mini strat by Fender and whatever Epiphone call their little Les Paul -- evil things those are for grownups unless you tune them up a few steps.

[Jamie Unden]

I made a guitar for my granddaughter where I took a 25" pre-slotted board and cut it down so that the 5th fret was a zero fret, so the scale was about 18 3/4". I used the largest gauge strings I could find and it worked great.

[Dan Hehnke]

Cool thanks for all the tips. Yeah I'll do some experimenting as I'm still on the fence as to how short will feel okay.

[Dave Tays]

this is just a reply to the person wondering about the rig to plug your guitar into your phone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nod69aTzsM

[Dave Tays]

I do have a question. did i just break the rules by posting the youtube website? if so I am sorry. I am new to this and will learn.

[Greg Robinson]

Hi Tayser,
No, you haven't broken any rules by posting a link to YouTube, but please familiarize yourself with our rules (they're pretty common-sense) available here.

Also, please see my post in your other thread here.

[Richard Turner]

I pulled the same trick as Jaime, using a pre-slotted 25" scale board but only cut down 4 frets... ended up with a 20 fret board and scale length about 19.5" ish. Put a medium to heavy set of electric strings and the string feel is ok. This was for my young son rather than for traveling. With careful bridge placement and efficient head design, I would think you can make this carry on friendly... Looking forward to a similar project I've considered those Steinberger gearless tuners for potentially closer tuner grouping AND because it seems they may be less vulnerable to taking travel related incidental wacks. I'd love to see some cheap knock-offs of those things to try out.

I don't think the sound will live up to full scale, but if you're just looking for something to kill time with and keep the fingers limber when your stuck out on the road, should be passable.

[Bruce McIntosh]

If you could come up with a suitable way of cloning something akin to their funky behind-the-bridge tuner/tailpiece combo, you could just about get away with a full-scale or nearly so (sacrifice a couple frets off the top) Steinberger style headless guitar. Or just find a fixer upper on eBay.

[Rodger Knox]

If I remember correctly, John Lennon's Ric was a 22" scale...