Scale lengths and Cabs

Q

Hey there Steve! I’ve been curious about a few things—first, what’s the scale length for your main explorer? And what are your opinions on differing scale lengths in general? Lastly, what’s the setup on your 3×10 cab you use with the bandmaster, i.e. speaker type and ohms?

Jarett, Fl.

One Thought on Scale lengths and Cabs
    14 May 2020
    5:27am
    Comment:

    Explorer scale length is 24.75, “twenty four and three quarters” or “Gibson scale length” as we used to say; same as the Les Paul, SG, 335, etc.
    My L-5 and L-7 are a little longer, 25.5 “Fender scale length”. . go figure.

    Lately I’ve been favoring the L-5 and L-7 but I’m not sure if the attraction is the Fender scale length or the sunburst finish.
    I really do enjoy playing on strings of any length, ukulele, Modulus Graphite 5 string, whatever. Challenges and rewards, trade-off’s, no reason not to see where it takes you.
    That being said, it’s a lot easier to bend light strings at 22″, and a whole lot easier to maintain stable tuning and intonation at 26″, so that’s normally the way I’d use the diff; exaggerate it.
    Sometimes it’s a more objective measure of matching scale to hand size, for me, 24″ is about the limit for first position chords on fretless guitar in standard tuning, and on the lap steel, scale and string spacing dictate your slant positions.

    I think the only thing scale definitely tells you is how in-tune the string might be with itself. Long thin strings are less false than short fat ones. .
    Of course there’s playability and compliance tradeoffs as I mentioned earlier, but that stuff is complex enough and subjective enough to suffer occasional exceptions.
    ——————-
    The 3×10 is three eight ohm Jupiter 10LC’s in parallel. Also pyramid : )
    2.6 ohms, I think. .

    Three 8 ohm speakers in parallel on a 4 ohm Fender OT is a nice sound, stringy and bright, a little nasty, but not all the way to the 2 ohm “cold” thing.
    I do not like half the rated load on a Fender.
    In any case, normally I’d use the Bandmaster or Bandmaster Reverb and 3×10 with another amp to balance the stringy/brite effect a little.
    Either my Brown Pro 1×15 with a modern Supro speaker, or with a Filmosound projector amp and a very old Ampro speaker.
    Just for little warmth.
    The Bandmaster 3×10 Jupiter’s and Brown Pro 1×15 Supro is the only rig I consistently use with modern ceramic magnet speakers.

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