Short Scale Guitars

A short scale guitar is one whose distance from the nut to the saddle is shorter than an "average" guitar. In other words, short scale guitars generally have a shorter neck and a smaller body.

Short scale guitars can be anywhere from 22 inch scale length up to approximately 24.75 inches in scale length. Three quarter or 3/4 scale guitars are approximately 22.75 to 23 inches. Examples of popular 3/4 scale guitars are:

• Baby Taylor
• Martin LXM Little Martin
• Fender Mini Stratocaster
• Ibanez GRGM21 Mikro
• Epiphone Les Paul Express and SG Express (22" scale)

Other popular lengths are 7/8 and 15/16 scale. At this point we're getting into the realm of guitars that aren't specifically sold as short scale guitars, such as the Gibson Les Paul.

• Fender Mustang 24" scale
• Taylor Big Baby (15/16)
• Gibson Les Paul Standard (24.75" scale)

The benefits of a short scale guitar include:

• Playability. The frets are closer together making it easy to move around the neck quickly.
• Portability. These small guitars are "real" guitars, making them an excellent alternative to travel guitars such as the Backpacker.
• Ease of use for beginners since they are easier to fret.
• Ergonomics for children, women and anyone with small hands or who have difficulties with their fret hand

On the other hand, if you have large hands or fat fingers, a short scale guitar is probably not a good choice. Also for small acoustic guitars the tone is generally not as full as it would be for a standard size guitar.

Worth mentioning separately is Daisy Rock, which are specifically designed for women, girls, and children, to accomodate their smaller hand size. Although Daisy Rock does make some full scale models, many are short scale.