durero

I actually agree with him that longer scale might sound like a bass more then a normal guitar, If you take a normal scale bass and play on the D-string with a lot of distortion you will get a very clear piano like sound, the same thing happens on a baritone, I had an old squier that I tuned to C and it sounded much closer to the bass then my epiphone guitar I had at the time.

[budda]

interesting! thats a longass neck! lol

[s7eve]

I have a 27" and a 25.5" both tuned to B standard, tone wise the 25.5" sounds better and has more clarity because it is mahogany with nailbombs vs basswood and EMG's. Playability wise I prefer the fret spacing of the 25.5" on the first 5 frets and the spacing of the 17" on the remaining frets.

Basically I like them both equally and I suspect the true benefits of a 27" scale wouldn't be revealed unless you tuned down.

[noodles]

Originally Posted by Matt Crooks

For me, I just did not like the sound of a long scale guitar tuned to B. I found that there was a certain "piano like" quality to the low notes that I did not like. It has a sharpness to the low end that I expect out of a bass, but not a guitar.

When I played in a one guitar band, I absolutely agreed with you. It just didn't have that midrange crunch that really defines what we expect a guitar to sound like. In a two guitar band, though, the longer scale instrument really ties the area between the guitar bass together. Now that I have the Sii-7 proto back, and put a pickup that does not suck in it, I ought to bring it back by and let you throw down a couple scratch tracks with, and then double it with one of yours.

[Emperoff]

Originally Posted by Matt Crooks

For me, I just did not like the sound of a long scale guitar tuned to B. I found that there was a certain "piano like" quality to the low notes that I did not like. It has a sharpness to the low end that I expect out of a bass, but not a guitar.

That "piano" thing is what makes me love them. The Agile 27" I had back in the day sounded and felt awesome. Very clear and singing tone

[Durero]

Rethinking my previous post I realize that it's pretty crazy for me to assume that what I have in mind as a typical bass tone is the same as what everyone else has in mind.

So I'd like to cancel the way I framed it as a disagreement with Matt when his post is just as reasonable as mine. I think what we're calling guitar-like tone and bass-like tone is too subjective and diverse to make definitive generalizations about, but we can still generalize about the effect of scale length on tone.

So to rephrase:

- keeping the same tuning and string gage, a longer scale will increase string tension which will affect the tone and feel, and brighten it to a point.

- keeping the same tuning but using thinner string gages to keep the tension the same at the longer scale will make the tone much more twangy, bright, thin, piano-like etc.


So to address the original question, assuming your using a 7-string tuning with an extra bass string as opposed to a high-A kind of tuning, then in my opinion yes the extra scale length is often well worth it for extra clarity out of your lowest string. However other factors, especially the pickups, my enable you to find the tone you want without an extended scale. And noodles point about considering how the tone fits in with the rest of the band is right on.

[auxioluck]

I personally find the extended scales a little uncomfortable once they get past 26, the tension is cool, but i love having the slack for bends and vibrato. Plus my fingers aren't too long, so...I'm biased