ilovefuzz.com

Since people are discussing basses, I guess I should chime in on those too. My dad has a bass that he bought with plans of learning to play that I mess with occasionally. I really need to get a smaller one for myself eventually (the Squier Bronco basses are fun...) because it has a 34" scale length, and my left arm has to be put in some awkward positions to reach anything above the 5th fret. Wouldn't be so bad if my left wrist wasn't screwed up, but yeah. Next time I have some money to spare I'll definitely be getting one of those Bronco basses. Looks like a good modding platform too!

Coming from the standpoint of having larger than normal size hands,

I don't like short scale at all. Basses, sure. Six strings I prefer a bit of room to roam on. I play heavy down tuned stuf but also venture into some heavily effected trippy shit and thats where I tend to hit some of the high notes. Having a bit of room for my fingers helps.

I tried violin for a bit and was miserable. Uke for some reason is fine?

I've gone back and forth between 25.5" with my Jazzmaster/Telecaster and 24" with my Jaguar. Played my first real guitar show yesterday and think I might try out 24" scale next time to see how it feels, going to see if chords feel any better on the shorter scale

The scale doesn't bother me as much as the neck size does. It's okay if the frets are close together 'cause I only play BS anyway.
I don't like it when I can wrap my hand around it and then some. Girth is more important than length, guys.

Also I love the icon

Since I got my mustang, its really the only guitar I play. I have a rather small build and smaller hands so it just works better for me.

Achtane wrote:The scale doesn't bother me as much as the neck size does. It's okay if the frets are close together 'cause I only play BS anyway.
I don't like it when I can wrap my hand around it and then some. Girth is more important than length, guys.

Also I love the icon

Pretty much this. I learned to play on a strat, so the 25.5" scale always has felt very comfortable to me, but my Les Paul has been the guitar I've played the most in the time I've had it because it has one of the best neck profiles I've ever wrapped my hand around. The little Silvertone 1448 is one of my favorite guitars to play because of its neck, too, and it has a rather silly scale length of 23.75", or thereabouts. What makes it so comfortable is how wide the fretboard is. Even though the frets are close together, there's still enough room between the strings for me to snake my not-so-short fingers in around each other.

Tonally, I do find the longer scale lengths tend to have a bit more bite to the attack, but it isn't all that significant.

I would also like to add,

I sound like me on any of them.

And at 6'8" with large hands, well, any standard guitar is cramped.

The different sound of the Jaguar/Mustang honestly are the electronics and bridge resonating differently as much as the scale length - I played a couple 24" misc. Fenders that didn't have the standard bridges on them (the Cyclone thing with Strat trem or whatever it was, etc), and those sounded more like their big brothers.

But I still sound like me.

Paradoxically though the smaller scale is easier for me to play on some things even though the finger size v fretting area is comical at the upper registers.