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Location: Havertown, PA | Has Ovation ever built a production or custom short scale guitar. With the frets a little closer together it would extend one's reach on the fingerboard making chord fingering and chord changes easier. Thoughts? |
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Location: Upper Left USA | Shorter scale but shorter length as well on the 3/4 scale Trekker and the 1/2 scale AA12 or AA14.
Do you mean a full sized guitar with a shorter scale?
Hmmmm. |
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Posts: 60
Location: Havertown, PA | Yes, full size, shorter scale. Maybe custom made originally for a few players, Chet Atkins etc..., but some manufacterers seem to have production units. I know the "T" word is blasphemy here! |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Couldn't you achieve the same thing by tuning down a full step and using a capo? |
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Location: Havertown, PA | standingO;
This wouldn't really provide narrower closer frets though. |
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Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | Mike, the Martin (00028EC) I bought a few weeks ago is a short-scale guitar. The only difference I've noticed so far is that, when playing barre chords on the upper frets (near the guitar body), my fingers tend to feel a little "crowded." On the lower frets, I haven't really felt much difference between the Martin and my regular-scale guitars. |
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Posts: 13996
Location: Upper Left USA | Two words;
Papoose
By Tacoma Guitars. A lot of fun. Come in 6 and 12 string - if the bridge stays on! |
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Location: Havertown, PA | DuncanJ;
Thanks for the info. I've not been staying up on the Martin line.
The ease though,may come about in and around the middle of the fretboard. With the frets a tad narrower, allowing for easier reach of chords. I'm not too aware of many classical or bluegrass artists who go that high up fb. |
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Location: Havertown, PA | MWoody;
Papoose is "one"" word??
No, this is a different concept., smaller that a std short scale, whish is normally about 24.9" |
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Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | Mike, my Martin is a 24.9" scale length, versus a standard length of 25.4". That amounts to a difference of half an inch, spread out over the length of the fretboard. I have hands that are smaller than most, and have trouble grabbing some of those more exotic chords. You would think, therefore, that the shorter scale would make a noticeable difference to me in terms of reach, but I can't say that so far I've felt much difference, except for what I said about the upper frets (and I'm starting to wonder if that's just my imagination).
I'd recommend you try a short-scale guitar at a store and see how it feels to you; maybe you'll notice the difference more than I have. If I recall, Gibson used to make a production model short-scale jazz guitar, the Byrdland. That's the only other regular sized short-scale guitar I know of, but there must be others out there. |
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Location: Havertown, PA | DuncanJ;
Yep, thats right, at least in theory. It's suppose to be easier sustained playing with less fatigue, with less chord stretching and slightly less string tension.
My initial question was did "O" ever make one. I just assumed with alot of the low dollar junk they make, that they'd have also made something more for the pro . Just my .02. Ok, I'll sit back now and get flamed!!! |
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Location: Wooster, Ohio | "Couldn't you achieve the same thing by tuning down a full step and using a capo?"
This seemed to be dismissed, I think Dave would be correct, wouldn't he? You just loose one fret at the top. Unless I am missing something?
Steve |
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July 2003
Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | I have a Larrivee O-09 parlor guitar, with a 24" scale, 12-frets-to-the-neck, and I have the same problem as Duncan J, the neck feels "short" and the upper frets feel "crowded". It's fine for first position chords, but if you start getting up on the neck, it gets hard to play pretty quick. It makes me go back to my 1777 and S771 for serious playing.
I took a quick pass through the Ovation historical site and didn't see anything that looked to be short scale....I thought maybe the 97 Collector's parlor might be, but no.
Roger |
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May 2004
Posts: 295
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | I'm always learning something new on the OFC site. I thought maybe there was one short scale of 24.9 inches. Now I hear of a Larrivee parlor guitar of 24 inches. It raises a question in my mind: is there some limit to how short a scale length can be? At some point does it become too short, and some law of physics kicks in to affect the sound (perhaps the guitar starts to sound like a banjo? - yikes!)? Or is it just that the frets get so close together that there's no room for your fingers? Any physicists or other learned OFCers out there who might know of scale length limits and their effect, if any, on sound? |
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Location: San Bernardino, California | As you can see by the below; the papoose scale length is 19.1 inches.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/d=tp?q=papoose |
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Posts: 60
Location: Havertown, PA | It's my understanding that a standard short scale guitar ( about 24.9" ) has the same sound as a normal 25-26" scale length guitar just easier to play. Some may disagree. Thanks for the thoughts.
The following is an excerpt from the Tacoma webpage
"Just as a violin and viola are similar yet different in sound, the Papoose has its own personality and voice . Created for its colorful sound, the Papoose is tuned like a regular sized guitar with a capo at the 5th fret, yet without any compromise in tone or intonation. The difference is 15 frets clear of the body to allow far more range and versatility. The tuning, 19.1" scale length, neck profile and string spacing are relative to its unique voicing."
This is not the theory behind std short scale. |
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short scale