X20 owners who have opted for shorter scale lengths

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

I just arrived at my place in SW Florida and am having trouble with my ISP here (reactivating seasonal account), so I may not be able to be on the forum much, if at all until I can get things rectified. For whatever reason, it could take a while. I look forward to being able to interact as soon as I’m consistently able.

Lol - is this Tom's polite way of telling us there's no room at the Inn for freezing New Englanders?!? "What was that, Methos? You're breaking up. I can't hear you." CLICK!

Seriously though, I hope you get it worked out and get back on. Heat wave in New Hampshire this coming week. Gonna get into the 30s and 40s! Time for shorts and T-shirts after the last few weeks!!!

[Carmel Cedar]

I went for a 24.9" scale length on my Emerald, though it is an X7, not an X20. Love it - fabulous guitar!

I have not tried 24.6", but am guessing that would work well too. Very close to the 24.75" scale that lies at the low end of what is considered "short scale".

[Claytone]

Originally Posted by Carmel Cedar

I went for a 24.9" scale length on my Emerald, though it is an X7, not an X20. Love it - fabulous guitar!

I have not tried 24.6", but am guessing that would work well too. Very close to the 24.75" scale that lies at the low end of what is considered "short scale".

Hmmm...I guess that I am in the minority here, but I capo-ed,(is that a word?), on the second fret & lowered the tuning to compensate...

[Earl49]

A standard 25.5" scale with a capo placed on the first fret is right at about 24", give or take 1/10". So tuning down a half-step and capo'ed (capo'ing ??) on the first fret makes for a pretty short scale by most standards. The Taylor GS Mini is 23.5" and the CA Cargo is 22.75" for comparison. I don't recall the measurement for capo 2 offhand, but it is fairly short.

To consider what a 24.6" scale would feel like on my custom X20-12 before finalizing the order, I did just this on my Taylor for about three weeks. The reduced string tension was noticeably lighter, and the chord reaches were easier too.

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

Lol - is this Tom's polite way of telling us there's no room at the Inn for freezing New Englanders?!? "What was that, Methos? You're breaking up. I can't hear you." CLICK!

Seriously though, I hope you get it worked out and get back on. Heat wave in New Hampshire this coming week. Gonna get into the 30s and 40s! Time for shorts and T-shirts after the last few weeks!!!

As of this evening, I’m back in business. Now able to access the internet from my Florida house.

Haha, that’s funny. I can identify with anyone needing to escape such cold extremes. When we flew from Canada, it was -40C (with wind chill) which is the temp where C and F are the same. Bloody cold! So Methos...get out of the cold...bring your X20 down to Fort Myers Beach and we’ll have a good ‘ole time.

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by Claytone

Hmmm...I guess that I am in the minority here, but I capo-ed,(is that a word?), on the second fret & lowered the tuning to compensate...

Originally Posted by Earl49

A standard 25.5" scale with a capo placed on the first fret is right at about 24", give or take 1/10". So tuning down a half-step and capo'ed (capo'ing ??) on the first fret makes for a pretty short scale by most standards. The Taylor GS Mini is 23.5" and the CA Cargo is 22.75" for comparison. I don't recall the measurement for capo 2 offhand, but it is fairly short.

To consider what a 24.6" scale would feel like on my custom X20-12 before finalizing the order, I did just this on my Taylor for about three weeks. The reduced string tension was noticeably lighter, and the chord reaches were easier too.

This is interesting. Maybe opting for a standard 25.5” scale and down-tune/capo as desired to achieve shorter scale would allow the best of all worlds for most flexibility. Hadn’t thought of that. Hmmm.....

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

This is interesting. Maybe opting for a standard 25.5” scale and down-tune/capo as desired to achieve shorter scale would allow the best of all worlds for most flexibility. Hadn’t thought of that. Hmmm.....

It's easy enough to experiment Tom. The longer scale is useful if you use alternate tunings a lot, as I do. Extra scale length means more tension on down-tuned strings. Some of my tunings take the bass string down to C or even Bb, and the fifth string down to E or F.

But I'm pretty happy with the 24.6" scale on the X20-12. I don't want to mess with down-tuning from E-e and using a capo on a twelve string, to play along with others. It's no big deal on a six string....... I'm retuning all the time anyway, using seven different slack-key tunings. And I keep one guitar in D-d all the time (medium gauge strings) for better vocal comfort on certain songs. That one is easy to capo back up to pitch when needed.

[Methos1979]

I actually did this with a Bourgeois Slope D Custom I had. Got it in a trade and it was a long scale. I liked the guitar well enough so thought about keeping it. Since we play some songs down a half step anyway that meant tuning down a whole step and then capo'd at 1 would be a half step down. It seemed to work just fine and the strings had less (more comfortable) tension but in the end I sold it anyway.

Even with the 24.6" scale when I remove the capo the scale seems 'long' compared to the songs capo'd at frets 1, 2, or 3 thus proving once again that ultimately we get used to what we have. We're so spoiled these days with the plethora of nut widths, string spacings, scales, tone woods, body sizes (and on and on and on)!