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Hello everyone,
I'm going to start my adventure with jazz but I don't know what to choose. I have small hands (not much bigger than angus young) and I'm wondering whether to buy a 24.75 semi-hollow guitar, tune it to Eb and put a capo on the first fret, Should I buy a Byrdland copy, which already has a 23.5 scale? Now that I'm learning all the notes on the fretboard, I'm not afraid of moving up one fret because the note pattern remains the same. But there's no denying that playing your whole life with a capo on the first fret can look stupid.
What do you think about this?Last edited by PaJaC; 01-05-2026 at 12:43 PM.
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01-05-2026 03:30 AM
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Angus Young gets along just fine with a 24.75 scale. You can too.
More importantly, you need to fundamentally change your outlook.
If you struggle, it's because music is hard, not because your hands are small. I'm 6'4" and also struggle with grips and spreads. It's just part of it, keep working on it and stay positive, you can't buy or modify your instrument into musical aptitude. Use the guitar you have, turn on that metronome and start shedding.
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I have a Stratocaster MIA
. I still need to buy another guitar. Unless, by some miracle, the Mustang single-coil pickup resembles a dark Telecaster, but I'll find out when the guitar arrives.
What's all the fuss about and what's a Mustang even doing here? Well, when I ordered the Mustang 3 months ago, I didn't even think about trying jazz, but then I realized that it would be nice to learn the theory, learn jazz and then try my possibilities at the music academy specifically in the jazz music. In a way, I was enchanted by this music. I had this problem that I was always a fan of the sound of Hendrix and the people who were inspired by him. And the problem is that whenever I tried to play songs in his style, I couldn't catch them with my hand on the stratocaster, which made me irritated and I put the guitar aside for a few years. But now I understand that there are some things I just can't get over, so I gave up fighting with my anatomy and focused on playing simpler pieces on a guitar that will be more adapted to the size of my hands. Unfortunately, I don't own any guitar with a scale shorter than 25.5 inches, so I couldn't remember what it was like to hold a Gibson or Gretsch. As soon as I get a chance, I'll test out some jazz chords on a Gibson scale and see if a cheap, upgraded copy of the ES-335 will be enough for me.
I also have no intention of avoiding my amateurism; I don't fully understand the beauty of a dull and dark guitar, which, in addition, gets feedback when I turn up the volume, so I preferred to stick with semi-hollow shape
Please, I hope I haven't made anyone feel offended with my lack of understanding of jazz. I simply need to learn it all from the beginning, like a child.
Last edited by PaJaC; 01-05-2026 at 01:19 PM.
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I would strongly advise locking yourself into the first fret capo thing. You'll be forever confused on any other guitar. FWIW, a Squier Jaguar is 24", and can be had for just a few hundred or less if you're patient a/o can dicker. I owned one, very nice versatile guitars, and you have several pickup choices depending on the exact model. Despite it's reputation for jangly twang, you can roll down the treble on the neck pickup and get a real nice clear "jazz" tone.
Just a moment...
Here's Joe Pass with one. Notice he has only the neck pickup on.
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Thank you for the great advice! Well, unfortunately, it's not as easy for me as it is for you because I'm left-handed. I'm left with either copies or originals which cost a fortune, though I can definitely afford them.
I have one guitar in a Jazzmaster shape, but the weight of this offset is huge, so I’m a bit biased against this shape. I know there are fans who play the Telecaster for its ergonomics and comfort, but there are two issues: first, the sustain and brightness, and second, the scale length.
But I think I'll do as you say—I'll test out a semi-hollow guitar, see if it suits me, and if necessary, I'll add a capo. At least I'll avoid my two main gripes: a very dark sound and feedback. I'll probably grow into that someday; I just don't understand the concept of an archtop/hollowbody guitar yet, beyond its clarity.
Anyway, thanks for the help.
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In that case, I would think a lefty Mustang would probably be nice.
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Unless you are under 5 feet tall with tiny tiny hands you can get by with a 24.75" scale guitar just fine. My youth guitar instructor was Angus' size, barely over 5 feet tall and he could likely still outreach me even today and I am 6 and a half feet tall. It's all about putting in the time, your hand will become more limber with practice, especially if you are working on big reaches often. It's a process and a guitar with two inches shorter scale over the course of 22 frets will not do much if anything to speed up.
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It's actually funny because I'm over 6ft tall, but I just have really small hands. Most women have bigger hands than me
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We had a guy here a year or so ago who was claiming he needed a longer scale custom axe because he was 6'10" or something and his hands were so large. He backed his claim up by talking about his reach on a piano, a reach which I could pretty much duplicate.
Originally Posted by PaJaC
It's actually funny because I'm over 6ft tall, but I just have really small hands. Most women have bigger hands than me
I can pretty much play any scale, any nut width, no problem. Of course he argued about it. Unless you have child sized hands you're going to be ok. Again, it's a process. You aren't going to be able to play a 12 bar blues in F in the first position until you put some time into doing so. Getting started is far more important than finding a super short scale length instrument from the get go. As you develop your desires in an instrument will more than likely change from what you perceived yourself as needing/wanting from the start. Good luck.
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Thanks everyone. I'll wait for my Mustang then. I'll put some cheap flatwound strings on it and see how the single coil works. It's a bit of a shame to dedicate the entire Mustang to jazz, but I'll check two things:
A short-scale solid-body guitar.
A single coil in jazz.
If it turns out that I don't have to do any sick contortions with my hand on the neck, I'll go for an upgraded ES-335 copy.
If that doesn't work, so be it. In return, I'll stage a coup d'état and overthrow half of Europe by forcing companies to produce short-scale guitars. I hope the first plan works out, because the second one will be much more difficult.
I'm curious about one thing: you all almost unanimously rejected the Byrdland's short scale and narrow neck. Why? Is this guitar unique in any way in terms of sound, for example, due to its very short scale?
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Spending 10,000 on a guitar when you can’t even play is foolish. Learn to play, then invest in a Gibson. You don’t even know if you have the jazz bug, or just like the idea of playing jazz.
You need to like practicing, even the hard and boring stuff, scales with a metronome, reading music, writing and shedding chord inversions. Learning tunes and solos by ear.
It’s all work, I love it. Some people don’t and that’s fine. Figure out if you love it or not before you buy an esoteric vintage specialty guitar.
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Don't worry, I've been thinking about Chinese copies for now. I'm not crazy enough to look for original guitars (which, apart from the ES, aren't available because they don't exist), or more likely; write to luthiers asking for a custom guitar built to suit my preferences. The truth is, I've always liked the 335. And I would never buy a used guitar for €2,500 without knowing if it would be with me forever
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I'd add this.
Scale length is not the only variable that can make a guitar neck seem too big.
I thought for years that 25.5 was too big for me. But, when I got a Yamaha Pacifica 012 (which is 25.5) the neck was so small in other dimensions (width, thickness, taper) that it was instantly comfortable and remains so.
I thought the knocks on short scale involved tone and tuning stability, but I might be wrong about that. I'm aware that Joe Pass sounded great on a Jaguar. Joe, btw, was not a big guy. Nor, if I recall correctly, was Jim Hall and other great players.
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The sound of short scale guitar will definitely be a problem. The Mustang has a very flat sound, and no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to fix it. That's just the nature of this guitar.
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Danny Gatton had short stubby fingers and he did okay. It’s about mentality, not physicality.
One has to get out of their own way.
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Some Ibanez semis, at least older ones, have really thin necks. AS-120 for example. It was produced until 2003, with later editions equipped with Super 58 PUs. I'm not tall but have relatively big hands. The AS-120 neck was actually too thin for me.
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Start at ~ :40
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LOL
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I don't know about that. I think this sounds pretty good. Originally Posted by PaJaC
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It's not a Mustang, it's a Partcaster—unless you have a 24-inch scale and a single-coil in the neck position. In that case, I congratulate you on that guitar's sound!
If it's a Telecaster neck on a Mustang body, your intonation is nonexistent unless you've moved the bridge back. Oh, and now I see you're playing a P90. That's a total custom, and as we all know, a P90 is a very warm single coil.
Besides, I don't plan on milling the guitar. I like those Mustang pickups and specifically wanted the H-S version for rock/indie. For me, the easiest thing in the world would be to just buy a separate guitar for jazz. I just want to check if I'll be able to master more difficult jazz chords on a short scale within a few days without having to stretch my hand in some strange way.
If it turns out that I still have a small reserve in my hands, I will simply choose the 24.75 scale. But if I can barely reach from fret to fret and have to jump or reposition my hand because I can't grab the chord comfortably, then I'll definitely stick with a short-scale guitar. For now, I just want to see what it's like to play jazz on a short scale and whether the Mustang's neck pickup can sound close enough to a Tele single coil
Last edited by PaJaC; 01-05-2026 at 06:31 PM.
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That's actually a Bass VI with a 30" scale! It would be interesting to hear how that sounded played by JP. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
I would strongly advise locking yourself into the first fret capo thing. You'll be forever confused on any other guitar. FWIW, a Squier Jaguar is 24", and can be had for just a few hundred or less if you're patient a/o can dicker. I owned one, very nice versatile guitars, and you have several pickup choices depending on the exact model. Despite it's reputation for jangly twang, you can roll down the treble on the neck pickup and get a real nice clear "jazz" tone.
Just a moment...
Here's Joe Pass with one. Notice he has only the neck pickup on.
I have the Squier version of it, it's a lot of fun.
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It's not a Telecaster neck. It's a Mustang neck with a Telecaster style peghead. It has a 24" scale length. The guitar began life as a cheap MIM Player series Mustang and I had a custom neck built for it that's beefier and has a wider nut width (1 3/4"). The pickup is a Lindy Fralin hum cancelling P90. I'm not really a P90 player so I don't know how close to a real P90 it is but it was a lot fuller sounding than the Mustang pickup. He also makes Mustang direct replacement pickups that would probably make a big difference as well. Even with all the mods I have well under $1000 US in this guitar. Originally Posted by PaJaC
It's not a Mustang, it's a Partcaster—unless you have a 24-inch scale and a single-coil in the neck position. In that case, I congratulate you on that guitar's sound!
If it's a Telecaster neck on a Mustang body, your intonation is nonexistent unless you've moved the bridge back. Oh, and now I see you're playing a P90. That's a total custom, and as we all know, a P90 is a very warm single coil.
Besides, I don't plan on milling the guitar. I like those Mustang pickups and specifically wanted the H-S version for rock/indie. For me, the easiest thing in the world would be to just buy a separate guitar for jazz. I just want to check if I'll be able to master more difficult jazz chords on a short scale within a few days without having to stretch my hand in some strange way.
If it turns out that I still have a small reserve in my hands, I will simply choose the 24.75 scale. But if I can barely reach from fret to fret and have to jump or reposition my hand because I can't grab the chord comfortably, then I'll definitely stick with a short-scale guitar. For now, I just want to see what it's like to play jazz on a short scale and whether the Mustang's neck pickup can sound close enough to a Tele single coil
This is the only guitar I have that is tuned to standard pitch. After playing for 63 years, my problem is not hand size but rather hand strength. Even with flatwound 10's, I really can't handle the tension of standard pitch on anything longer than this.
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Okay, that makes sense. However, pitting a custom P90 against a weak single-coil Mustang pickup isn't exactly fair.
But you're definitely right about it being possible to make a Mustang that starts to sound good, and in fact, all you had to do was replace the pickup! I was definitely wrong about that, and I'm glad I was. I'd always heard the Mustang was kind of bland. I thought it was a short-scale fault.
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Ah, I think you are right. However, what confused me is, his instrument appears to have 3 switches like a Jaguar, not 4 switches like the Bass IV. Originally Posted by entresz
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I believe that's the guitar from Sounds From Synanon. Originally Posted by entresz
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