Short scale GJ guitars feel.

opus20000

Playing standard archtops 24.75" (close to a 630mm I guess) scale length most my life, I find the standard gypsy jazz long necks, I can get my hands on as these are hard to come by, a bit uncomfortable. I see a 640mm is the shortest scale length available for GJ guitars. Are they similar in feel to an archtop, standard guitar neck, are they much wider too?

ChrisMartin

Width can vary, so check or ask nut width at least, but most GJ guitars have a flat fingerboard, where archtops may have a radius. Some will tell you the longer the scale the better the volume and tone and that 640mm short scale guitars (usually with a 12th fret neck/body join) are more suitable for rhythm (pompe) but hey, rules are meant to be broken anyway, and there are many short scale models that are good all-rounders.

Lango-Django

I just love my short scale 2014 Castellucia F-hole which I bought here at Djangobooks.com… can’t recommend it highly enough…

https://www.djangobooks.com/Item/castelluccia-belleville-2

billyshakes

I think Francis-Alfred Moerman notably played a short scale D-hole a lot. You can see him playing it on many album covers. I recognize that the conventional wisdom Chris provided above is very prevalent, but I think Moerman and others who have played the shorter scale have shown it to be eminently playable at a high level.

Russell Letson

I don't know that there is a single "standard" scale length for archtops. I have several of varying ages and makers, and they all have radiused fretboards. The '46 Epi Broadway has a 25.5" scale, the Eastman 805 has 25", and the Loar 600 has 24.5" (which would seem to be the standard for pre-war Gibsons, which it mimicks). My Shelley Park Elan 12 is spec'd at 640mm, which is just under 25.2".

As I move from guitar to guitar, I don't notice that scale length makes as much difference in feel as do fingerboard width and radius and neck profile. (Though I know that a long-scale Selmer-style would probably be a bit of a stretch for me.) My beloved Michael Dunn Daphne has a combination of traits (1-7/8" flat fingerboard and shallow profile) that my aging left hand sometimes finds challenging, where the somewhat deeper-necked, 1-3/4" radiused Eastman is quite comfortable, as is the Park's 43mm fingerboard and D profile.

pdg

Bireli played a short-scale (but 14-fret) Hahl D-hole for many years.

Scoredog

I also have a Hahl short scale, I enjoy going between normal scale and short.

scot

I had a 12-fret 64cm scale length Dupont d-hole for a long time and used it for lead and rhythm. That guitar actually sounded a lot like a Selmer d-hole. The real difference is that the shorter scale places less tension on the strings. This loads the top differently, but mostly it makes things like playing a fast tremelo and some kinds of fast soloing more difficult because the strings deflect more under a hard attack. If you always play a short scale you get accustomed to these things. But I always had trouble switching back and forth from my long scale guitar.

pdg

Good point. But aren't Argie lights on a 670mm scale sort of comparable to Argie mediums on a 640mm scale?

Of course, if you like mediums on a 670mm scale, there isn't an equivalent for a 640mm scale guitar (I don't think "12s" would work well or sound good).

scot

I could never tell much difference between .011s and .010s on either of my guitars. When I bought the guitars (I also had a 14-fret Favino) in 1993, Argentines were nearly impossible to get in the US, and the pre-New Concept Argentines we could get had a lifespan literally of a few hours before they started to unravel. So I usually used XL Daddario bronze strings, which actually worked pretty well. But it always seemed to me that side by side, the strings on that 12 fret guitar just felt loose.

This post is informative https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/5940/string-tensions

It's funny how things work. My Dupont did not sound any different with 010s or 011s. I also used ball end nylon strings on it for some gigs, also Pearse silk-and-steel for others. It always sounded about the same.

MarkA

I apologize if this is too off-topic, but I was wondering about something else with short scale guitars. What differences in sound might arise between 12 and 14 fret short scale guitars because of the difference in bridge placement? Any difference in bracing between the two? Thanks