Technical problem : Long scale length

tommaso · July 2006

All my past guitar playing (several years) has always been done on guitars with standard scale length(ranging from 640 to 648 mm). Since I have moved to long scale guitar (670mm)(five momths ago), it happens that playing is not as natural as before.It happens that fingers do not go to precise positions on the fretboard. I suspect that my brain has internalized the distances and the relationships of the standard fretboard and, as a consequence, when I play on the long scale, the fingers automatically position themselves as they where on the short one, causing sometimes slight errors in positioning. Will this problem disappear with exercise? Or, since there are gypsy guitar models with standard scale, should be preferable for me to adopt one of these?
Thank you all experts for your help.
Tommaso

dennis · July 2006

i've never heard of that problem before!! i suppose time will tell, i have a feeling you'll get used to it if you play it regularly...

beaujazz · July 2006

I can relate. I was a Gibson guy 24.74" so the switch to a Gypsy guitar was a stretch (pun intended). I ran chromatic scales up and down a single string sitting in front of the TV - (God bless the Tour De France) boring and not very musical but it helped. Then I would run diatonic arpeggios up the neck across the fretboard e.g. G - Amin - Bmin C etc.; after that I starred to work on 3 octave scales and arpeggios. Now the borrowed Gitanne feels 'right' and my ES 335 feels 'small'. Good luck.

tommaso · October 2006

This is an update : the discomfort with the long scale tends to diminish. I am confident that soon it 'll disappear.

Michael Bauer · December 2006

I had the same experience as Beaujazz. A houseful of Gibson electrics and here comes a Jorgenson into my life and my hand got really tired trying to make the stretches. Now, I am used to it and never think about it unless I pick up a Gibson again and notice how short it is. I actually find myself playing my Telecaster more now, because the scale is closer to the Jorgenson.

It will come soon and you won't even think about it.