is it possible to distinguish a shortscale vs normal scale model from pictures/videos

[donlyn]

is it possible to distinguish a shortscale vs normal scale model from pictures/videos

Despite my wise guy answer earlier, I would certainly have a knee-jerk reaction to this of 'No'. But I started thinking about it and have changed my answer to 'possible'. And I will not address the visual aids argument of the pickguard or any other visual clues from a specific model of guitar other than that it would be a clue but not proof.

So there's a picture of a guitar neck with a minimum 12" ruler conveniently laid out beside it, and for the sake of convenience, the nut is perfectly aligned to the start of the ruler's inch measurement. Since a short scale guitar would probably need a 12.5" minimum to include the measurement to the 12th fret for most common shirt scale guitars, it's still doable since an educated guess could be made for the missing distance. For example if the ruler falls about a half inch short, the result would be 25" scale which is a short scale in most companies opinions. Hey it's a picture after all, and an exact measurement could be made with a ruler over the picture since you now know the scale of 12" is based on the ruler's adjusted scale. Besides the easy scale example, there are a lot of visual and other clues available if the make and model of the guitar is known. It is also possible if you can get a measurement of a piece of the fretboard and know which frets are in the picture. Then compare to known fretboards to get the interval (the more frets the better) between the same frets and extrapolate an answer.

Now the hard part. The asked question includes "/video". The answer is the same as above which includes visual clues or model knowledge. But the real hard part is hinted at in some of the posts. Can you identify a short scale guitar from just hearing it play. I would not accept guesses, but educated guesses would be OK.

When I was first starting out, I could not tell the difference between a six and 12 string guitar unless I saw it. Especially after I got a 12 (pretty early on), it all became easier and easier to identify it from sound only, especially the difficult sound of one course clapping. Now I find it easy to tell if someone's playing a 12 string. It just doesn't sound like a 6 string. So if something's different, can you identify what it is purely by sound? Well, in the same way you can get used to identifying a 12 string sound, maybe you can learn to identify a short scale sound.

I have a short scale guitar (my Taylor 412) and it definitely sounds and plays a little different. Not all Taylor GCs are short scale (my 512ce is standard), so I will dismiss visual clues for the moment and stay with sound/tone. The key would be hearing something a little off and being curious enough to identify it. Knowing there is a difference would allow me to guess it is possible, but there are so many possibilities as to why a tone or note sounds different, there might be alternate answers.

So I will be keeping my ears alert to this possibility for a while. Maybe empirical study will yield an answer. But I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for a result.

Oh yeah, then there are people who possess perfect pitch and might have an edge in this department. I am not one of them, but I will still try listening closely to something that just sounds unexplainably different.

Don
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[JKA]

Originally Posted by Hail

like the collings om2h
Is it possible to distinguish them in a video/pic from each other?

There are some on this forum who can hear the difference new strap buttons make so I'm certain somebody will be able to spot the difference :-)

[Silly Moustache]

I have actually googled images of OM28s and 00028s, hoping to see some clue on the bridge position. No joy.

Trouble is the very common issue in the industry of mis naming models - calling jumbos slope shoulders and 000 12 frets "parlours" etc.

Eastman make very fine guitars but their E20-OM is actually a 24.9" scale so should be called an 000.

Then again, the original 000 12 fret design was the first 25.4" scale Martin. (but that's not important right now).

I'm wondering why the seller - or whatever cannot simply look inside at the neck block to see the serial number and model or the label, or even just measure the distance from nut to 12th fret?

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