# Forcing yourself to get used to a guitar/scale length



## SnowfaLL (Apr 1, 2011)

So as most of us, I've been dabbling in the 7 string realm for the past few years. I would say, outside of college (i graduated in 2009) I played mainly 7 strings, up until about this past November. Of those 7 strings, the one that got most play before I sold it was my Agile Septor 27" beast. Shredding on that obviously was a breeze.

I did play in a band for almost a year that performed pop/blues/rock songs mainly, although it did have some heavy riffing in afew songs, the majority of the stuff I played was chords, standard 1-4-5 or 12 bar blues types... And I can tell you, the 27" scale didnt really make those chords sound great. Obviously being a mahogany body and pickups/etc had a small part in that, but I get the same feeling everything I play other 27" scale guitars. The chords are odd actually, its not that they dont sound good, they just sound more "clear" almost to a fault for THAT style of music. It works fine for more straight-ahead jazz fusion like Allan Holdsworth, but for pop and rock, I really didnt like it.

So, that brings me to November, when I bought a Strat (well, Carvin bolt) and a Carvin AE185 (semi-hollow 24fretter).. These sound great chordally, are very versatile except for one issue. They are so small! Im used to the 27" scale for solos, especially since I have large fingers as it is, my fingers can barely fret notes past the 17th fret on 25.5" scales.. Its a nightmare really, and turns me off from playing anything past the 12th fret now..

I have my next 7 string coming which will be in the 26ish range, so that should help out some, but when it comes to 6 strings, besides a custom or another 27" scale guitar, im not sure I can find something that I can really get along with.. It sucks, I LOVE the quality of Carvin guitars (im obv a huge Carvin fanboy) but all their 24 fret 6 strings are 25", which is even less than the 25.5" ! 

So what I am trying, is just forcing myself to play it.. and after afew weeks, maybe it'll be better. I'm in week 2 of this, and cant say its really feeling much better, but maybe a tad.. just wondering what to do..

Anyone else have this issue?? There must be some people out there, especially after most of us get used to the longer scale on 7 or 8 strings, when going back to 6 strings it feels awkward.


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## ralphy1976 (Apr 1, 2011)

in order to avoid this feeling i have been switching back and forth between 6s and 7s so that no matter what axe i get in my hands i am happy with it (fanned or not fanned too)

after a while it is actually funny to switch because as you said the same piece of music played the same way will sound a little bit odd on such or such axe...


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## SirMyghin (Apr 1, 2011)

I don't have this issue. I am a bassist who went to guitar after a few years (and still play tones of bass). Any scale is fine, I don't have any issues with intonation or missing the note due to distances. 

Something to think about in terms of scale lengths (of course they sound different, and are a much larger factor than wood could ever be). The vibrating length of the string changes, as does the amplitude slightly, the nodes change in relative location and are farther away. What doesn't change with these changes in vibration of the string? The pick spacing, or pole locations. Humbuckers all share the same width, the standard, scale regardless. So the longer the scale the less difference between what each pole set will sample, shorter scales, will get a lot more diversity between what is being sampled. I think this is the real difference between a bucker in a 'strat' and a bucker in a 'Les Paul'. Just imagine how it extends to the further down you go. Then you also have the increase in fundamental and decrease in harmonic overtones with increased tension. 


34/35", 25.5, 25 (I prefer 25.5 for 6 strings) no problem. I have a 27.5 coming, I do not forsee issues.


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## SnowfaLL (Apr 1, 2011)

Yea..

Surprisingly, I have no issues with playing bass (thats what I was playin for the year after school) and my 34" Carvin was fine, but I think its partly because obviously on bass, you dont play past the 20th fret often. Also, since I fingerpick on bass, it gets held at a different position, which treats it basically as a different instrument. So bass to guitar isnt bad, its just guitar in varying scales, throws me off big when it comes to playing past the 12th fret =[


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## SirMyghin (Apr 1, 2011)

NickCormier said:


> Yea..
> 
> Surprisingly, I have no issues with playing bass (thats what I was playin for the year after school) and my 34" Carvin was fine, but I think its partly because obviously on bass, you dont play past the 20th fret often. Also, since I fingerpick on bass, it gets held at a different position, which treats it basically as a different instrument. So bass to guitar isnt bad, its just guitar in varying scales, throws me off big when it comes to playing past the 12th fret =[



That is a pretty bad generalization, 12 and 20 are not comparable in any way, that aside I play well beyond 20 on several occasions. I have used closer to 30 playing beyond the fretboard. What the past 12 tells me is you are not necessarily overly accurate below 12, you just have enough leeway due to fret spacing to get away with it. I mean these distances are less than 5 hundredths of an inch (.05"), even at 12th fret going from 27 ot 25.5, and they get even smaller after that. That is not a significant change. The problem I would wager, is you are overthinking the problem, and by acknowledging it, you create it.


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## Winspear (Apr 1, 2011)

SirMyghin said:


> That is not a significant change. The problem I would wager, is you are overthinking the problem, and by acknowledging it, you create it.



 The fret size on a 27" guitar is only the equivalent of playing _one fret _lower. So if you can't play past the 17th fret on 25.5", you can't play past the 18th on a 27". 
I can't imagine such a small difference causing a problem could be anything other than psychological.


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## exclamation-mark (Apr 1, 2011)

I have some ibanez semi-hollow (an ags83 I think) that for some reason articulates chords much better then my Horizon even though it's 24 3/4 inches vs 25.5 (not a huge difference...) and much, much cheaper (sounds beastly tuned to B too!) Could be due to the fact that the thing is made entirely out of maple and ridiculously bright... anyway... 

What I meant to say is that I'm sort of the opposite when it comes to scale length. I played this Ibanez for 3 years straight before I moved to my Horizon, which I've had for a little over a year now. The 3/4 of an inch in scale length was actually REALLY noticable, and even after 'adjusting' to the 25.5, the 24 3/4 still feels more comfortable to me. The 27 inch scale doesn't really bother me too much on my 7, in that I don't miss whole frets or anything, it's simply just not as natural to me as the 24 3/4. Kinda like how when I go to the music stores I facepalm at the 'super low action' setup guitars you demo an amp with except the gap between fret and string is like 3mm. Playable, but not condusive to maximum guitar wankage, and certainly not comfortable.

I also have gripes with the spacing between higher frets on the <27 inch scale lengths, but I find the trade off is that longer scale lengths make it harder to do large stretches around the 12th fret area, and vice versa. Pretty sure I would have to dislocate my pinky to play some of my repertoire on my 7. So the moral of this post is basically sausage fingers FTL.


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## SnowfaLL (Apr 1, 2011)

EtherealEntity said:


> The fret size on a 27" guitar is only the equivalent of playing _one fret _lower. So if you can't play past the 17th fret on 25.5", you can't play past the 18th on a 27".
> I can't imagine such a small difference causing a problem could be anything other than psychological.



maybe so, but when you factor in how the body of most guitars cut off the fretboard around the 20th fret (sometimes less on strats or other instruments), then that 1 fret is a pretty huge difference. The further down it moves, the closer to the body you get, and hand position plays a big part in that also.


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