A Question Of Scale

Scale length has a big influence on a guitar’s performance, Paul Reed Smith tells Jamie Dickson – but string gauge and tuning are just as vital

Anyone who spends enough time around guitars will run into the term ‘scale length’ eventually. But what does it mean and how does it influence a guitar’s performance? To deal with the first question, scale length describes the theoretical length of the ‘speaking’ part of the string – the bit that vibrates when struck by a plectrum: in other words, the section that is stretched at high tension between the guitar’s top nut and the saddle. We say theoretical because the scale length is simply used to calculate the position of the frets. The actual string length between the nut and saddle is longer and requires local adjustment for intonation otherwise the guitar wouldn’t play in tune. Scale length often varies between guitar models: most Fender electrics have a scale…

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Guitarist (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2021

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