How to record multitrack audio without a computer
(QUICK SOLUTION before starting this: If you were looking for a right-now solution to multitrack recording without a computer that is digital, you want a ZOOM R8 or a Tascam DP-008. No computer is required and the unit is completely self-contained. If you were looking for the old-school analog method, keep reading.)
The first question on your mind when it comes to recording with no computer is, "Why?"
There are many answers to this question, however the most common answer is, "Because the computer ticks me off and I don't want to record with that stupid thing."
Now before continuing, when you dive into the world of no-computer analog recording, there are a few things you have to know right up front.
1. White noise happens
White noise is a hissing sound. When you record to tape, the hissing will happen. Always. But don't let it get you down because you can take care of it on the digital side later with some noise filters using the free Audacity software.
2. Digital at some point is always involved later in the process
The easiest way to share out your music is via the internet, and for that to happen, a digital copy of your music must be made.
If you've ever looked at an old CD jacket from the 1990s, you may see AAD, DAD or DDD somewhere on the back. A is Analog and D is digital. AAD means "Analog Recording, Analog Mixdown, Digital Mastering", DAD is "Digital Recording, Analog Mixdown, Digital Mastering" and DDD is "Digital Recording, Digital Mixdown, Digital Mastering". In some rare instances you may see ADD, but that doesn't happen often because to this day studios prefer analog mixing boards over digital because it offers more finite control. And you will also never see an A on the end, because if you record and mix digitally, mastering with analog doesn't do any good at that point.
Trivia: Megadeth was one of the first big metal acts to record DDD in the 1990s. A ton of money went into their studio recording processes back in the day.
The one you'll be doing here in the method I'll show below is AAD. You will first record with analog, mix down with analog, and then after sending the audio to the computer you'll do basic digital mastering (sounds complicated but it's not) so you can share out your music on the internet.
3. Recording with analog always costs more than digital
The cost involved is the recording unit itself, and the tapes. When you run out of tapes, your only option is to record over what you recorded before, or buy new tapes. And the tapes you use must be high-quality or your recordings will be awful.
Multitrack audiocassette
The cheapest way to record with analog is with multitrack audiocassette machines from the 1990s. The machines are cheap (somewhat) as are the tapes for them.
For the example machine, I'll be talking about the Tascam PortaStudio 424. Specifically, the first-generation model which was a light gray color.
There are several generations of the 424. Later models (like the MKII and MKIII) had XLR inputs for microphones. The first-gen model has no XLR and only 1/4-inch inputs. I personally prefer the first-gen 424 because it's compact and doesn't have problems like the later models had.
The 424 is a 4-track recorder with six 1/4-inch inputs. Four of those inputs are mono and two are stereo. The output is RCA jacks only (the black 1/4-inch seen is for "effects send" and does not serve to output audio anywhere).
On the front panel you have four sliders for volume control, and a fifth slider for your master volume. To the right of that are your tape controls and a simple LED panel with colored lights showing the input level of each input whenever sound is coming through it.
The best tapes to use in the 424 are 60-minute hi-bias "Type II" cassettes, which you can still buy new. These have thicker slack that makes for better editing and recorded sound. You will most likely find 90-minute versions of these, but the best to use are 60-minute because the tape slack is thicker.
How does this thing squeeze four tracks of audio on tape?
By using both sides of the tape at once.
On the 424, when you're finished using one side of the tape, you can't just flip it over and start using the other side because it has already been used. The 424 uses almost the entire width of the slack to do what it does.
Do you get a full 60 minutes of recording out of a 60-minute tape?
You can if you wish. The 424 can record at "SLOW", "NORM" or "HIGH". Slow is roughly half-speed. Norm is normal speed, and high is roughly double-speed. High is the best because the more slack used, the better the recording.
On SLOW, you get about 75 to 90 minutes on a 60-minute tape. On NORM, you get 60 minutes. On HIGH, you get 25 to 35 minutes. It varies depending on slack thickness of the tape.
Known problems when recording this way
No real-time counter
The first-gen 424 has no real-time counter, as in one that counts in literal seconds or minutes. Instead you have a mechanical counter that's 000 through 999, and it's right above the tape door.
The stalk is a reset button when you want to reset the counter. Remember, NOTHING about the 424 is digital. This is all mechanical and analog.
Very difficult to splice in edits
There's no cut/paste or "jump" cutting on the 424. When you try to splice in an edit, there's a noticable momentary "blank" in the audio. What this basically means is that if you don't get your recorded audio right on the first take, you'll have to do that take over again until you do.
No permanent volume settings
When you finish a recording and get your levels (both for volume and panning) just right, you have to write those down so you don't forget them, because when you go to the next tape and start recording on that, you have to reset your slider levels and pans.
It is very easy to record over stuff accidentally
The 424 does have "safe" switch settings for each track. However, you have to remember to set those to prevent accidental track record-over. If you don't, you will record over a track accidentally, and when that happens, there's no "undo".
Everything is explained in the manual, but it's not easy to use
Fortunately, the entire manual for the 424 is online, but said honestly, if you buy one, get the printed manual because it's just convenient to have.
You will have to read through the whole thing and it will take you a while before you learn how to do things "the 424 way". Tascam did their best to make the 424 as easy as possible to use, but the fact is that there really is no way to make analog multitracking easy as it's just difficult to master by nature.
Once you get to know the 424, it's fairly easy to get along with. But it will take time to learn it, and you will mess up some recordings in the process. It will happen. Expect it.
Cool things you can do with the 424
Pitch wheel
This is one of the best features of the 424. Let's say you have two guitars. One is tuned to standard tuning, and the other tuned to D#. You can record to track 1 with your first guitar, finish, unplug, plug in your second guitar, then just pitch the entire recording down a half-step with the pitch wheel, and record with your second guitar without having to retune it. When done, pitch up the 424 back to normal speed. It's a beautiful thing. To this day, digital recording has never been able to do this easily, but it's a breeze on the 424.
Record backwards
This is a very advanced technique with the 424, so don't try this until you become very familiar with the unit. When you read this you'll be confused and I can guarantee that. But if you ever get a 424, this will make complete sense to you.
Recording guitars and vocals backwards is just a cool thing, and the 424 makes this really easy to do. When you get to the point in the song you want to start recording backwards, you stop the tape and flip it over. Tracks 1 and 2 will now be 3 and 4, so you record to track 2 which will be 3 when you flip the tape back over after you're done.
It's pretty much mandatory that if you intend to record stuff backwards, the drums have to be laid down first so you have some idea of what you're listening to, because everything sounds weird in reverse.
"Ping pong" up to 7 tracks of audio
This is another advanced recording technique of the 424. And again, this will make no sense to you until you get a 424 for yourself.
You've got 4 tracks. That's it. When you fill up the first 3 for a song, you combine those three and then record them all at once to track 4. Now instead of 3 tracks used, you're only using 1. Then you record stuff to tracks 1 and 2, and then re-record those to track 3. Then you have 1 and 2 left to record with.
The 7 tracks is that track 4 is three tracks combined, track 3 is two tracks combined, then track 1 and 2 in single-track mode. 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 = 7. Confused? You probably are. But it's explained in the manual.
The only drawback to ping-ponging tracks is that they all have to be mono. No stereo.
Is it any fun to record with the 424?
Of course it is. Recording with no computer may be a bit of the pain in the ass at first, but once you get used to it, it's pretty cool.
The only thing you really have to worry about with the 424 is the tape drive mechanism, as that is always the first thing to break on these things.
I strongly suggest that if you're thinking about getting one, make sure you know someone local to you that knows how to repair cassette decks. Even if the 424 you get is in pristine mint condition, the belts are probably dried out and the drive motor a bit "wobbly" in operation. If you have a guy take apart the 424 and recondition the unit before using it yourself, you will get years or recording enjoyment out of one.
As for the tapes you buy, all you have to do is make certain that any you buy are sealed and never-opened. These are easy to find on eBay. And don't worry, hi-bias tapes are going to be around for at least another decade before the start to become hard to find. Tapes may not be in wide production anymore, but there are literally tens of thousands of them out there that are still sealed, unused and ready-to-record with.
How do you send audio to the PC for digital mastering?
With an RCA-male to stereo 1/8th-inch male cord. On the RCA are a red and white to go into the Tascam 424, and the other side is a male stereo connector to go into your PC's "LINE IN" port on your sound card. From there you play back your audio from the 424 and record to the PC using your audio software of choice like Audacity, mentioned above. Once the audio is fed in, you can digitally master it with some noise filters to take out the white noise.
Guitar shredding sucks
Guitar shredding is one of those things that only metalhead kids and stuck-in-the-80s guitar shredders think is awesome, but in fact never was.
I can prove shredding *isn't* awesome quite easily by posing this simple challenge: Name any 10 famous guitar shredders right now off the top of your head without looking it up on the internet first.
You'll most likely come up with at least 3 or possibly 5, but definitely not 10 without looking it up on the internet first. That's because there really aren't that many famous guitar shredders.
Ever heard of The Great Kat? I didn't think so. She's arguably the "best" female guitar shredder that ever existed. If you did not know of her, that proves I know more about guitar shredding than you do since I'm aware of her "famous" shredding, and I'm not even a shredder.
Why does guitar shredding suck?
1. Shredding is about showmanship and not musicianship
The only point to shredding is to show off how fast you can play complicated scales with technical precision. That's it. And technical music sucks because you can't clap your hands, stomp your feet or bang your head to it.
A shredder would reply to this with, "I don't care about any of those things." Well, if you ever expect to "make it" as a guitar player, you should, because a song with no hook will get you nowhere.
2. People get unimpressed by shredding after about 10 seconds
Guitar shredders are under the impression that since they are concentrating so much on their playing, other people will be too.
Nope.
You'll command attention for ten seconds. That's your window. After that, if there's no song, nobody cares.
3. Shredding is boring noise
This really ticks off shredder players when I say this. In their minds, the speed, "intricacy" and impossibly difficult scales they're playing is the most awesome thing in the universe.
Wrong.
It's the most boring thing in the universe.
A song which is mostly if not all soloing to most non-musician's ears is not a song at all. They hear it as filler, as in noise.
4. Most shredders can't write riffs at all
A shredder knows every single note on the fretboard and can "play the impossible", so to speak, but yet can't write a single good riff.
Ask any shredder if he's written any songs. He will say "Yes! Of course I have!", but they're all unfinished.
Want to know why?
It's for one of two reasons (or both).
Reason #1: A guitar shredder is his own worst critic.
He can't write riffs because he gets disinterested with the process quickly, gives up, and just keeps shredding instead. The end result is that sure, he probably has a million songs written, but none of them will ever be completed. Notes are so micromanaged that he ends up making things way too complicated and - surprise, surprise - BORING, even for himself. So songs go unfinished and stay unfinished.
Reason #2: A guitar shredder never learned how to write riffs at all.
I've known guitar players like this. The shredder gets his first guitar, and all he does is concentrate on soloing, just soloing, and nothing else. That was the first and only thing he learned. Now he's a great soloist, but a crappy riff writer because he never learned how.
Here's another fun fact about shredders: A ton of them can play Far Beyond the Sun by Yngwie Malmsteen from start to finish easily, but can't play All Right Now by Free. The reason? They'll say it's "too slow", but the fact is that they can't play standard rock riffs. The shredder is completely out of his element and will have big problems playing that stupidly simple song. You'll see his hands tighten up, see lots of jerky motions, his timing will be way off and he'll get really, really embarrassed (and ticked off) by the fact he just can't do it - because he never learned how.
A shredder will even go so far as to say, "That's the rhythm player's job!" concerning basic rhythm playing. Oh, screw you, Mr. Shredder. Learn how to riff, jackass.
The shredder might even fire back with, "Hey! I play acoustic too and can riff that way!" I seriously doubt it, because all you're doing on acoustic is that super-intricate nonsense instead of SONG-STYLE strumming.
Speaking of strumming, that's another foreign concept to a shredder because they simply don't do it. All they know are short, jerky motions for super-precise picking and nothing about full 6-string up/down strumming with a proper fluid motion to produce even tone.
What does the shredder need to do to suck less?
By this point you're thinking, "Screw you. You don't know anything about guitar shredding. I love to shred. It's what I do, and I do it well."
It might be true you shred well, but you're "skilled" at all the things on guitar that absolutely nobody cares about. And you know I'm right.
Put your angst-ridden "metal attitude" aside for a moment, and do the following below to suck less.
1. Stop playing for other guitar players
Shredder's mentality:
"If I can play a million notes a second, I can really impress people when I'm at Guitar Center!"
Reality:
WHY would you care about impressing ANYONE at the GUITAR STORE? Who cares? Are you hoping to impress other players with your "mad skills"? What possible benefit do you get out of that? I'll answer that question for you: NONE!
Do not play to impress other guitar players. Do not do that. Ever. They will not go to your shows, and certainly won't buy your music on iTunes. You need to target your music to NON-MUSICIANS, as in regular people. And guess what? They hate guitar shredding. Surprise, surprise...
2. Knowing more chords and scales doesn't make you any better of a player
Shredder's mentality:
"People will be really impressed with all the notes and chords I know!"
Reality:
These 'people' you're referring to are other guitar players. Again, STOP DOING THAT. STOP PLAYING FOR OTHER PLAYERS. Nobody cares. Write good riffs instead.
3. Write an actual song
Yes, Mr. or Ms. Shredder, I know, this will not be easy for you. But I'm sure you're up to the challenge. If you can master every note on the fretboard, this should be seriously easy stuff for you.
Your challenge is this:
Write a song between 3:00 to 3:30 long, and use one of the two standard rock song structures. These formulas are very simple to follow.
Formula 1:
- Verse (Intro)
- Verse
- Chorus
- Verse
- Chorus
- Bridge
- Chorus
- Chorus (End)
Formula 2:
- Verse (Intro)
- Verse
- Chorus
- Verse
- Chorus
- Bridge
- Verse
- Chorus
- Chorus (End)
Verse is "Riff 1".
Chorus is "Riff 2" and the hook of the song.
Bridge is "Riff 3" and the portion where you would solo.
One song, three riffs. I'm sure you could do that.
When writing the song, DO NOT SOLO until your riffs are completed FIRST. Concentrate on FINISHING THE SONG. When your riffs are done and structured using one of the two simple formulas above, guess what? You've got a song. Isn't that great?
When you have actual songs, you've got something you can actually work with, and you also have music other musicians can work with as well. Isn't that cool? Darned right it is.
Remember: It's a hell of a lot easier to get a band together when there's a song list ready to go.
4. Riff more
You've got the soloing thing down. Now it's time to work on riffs and structure those into songs. Simple, straightforward, headbanging riffs. This is what made Metallica sell millions of records with their self-titled album, what made Megadeth sell millions of copies when they released Symphony of Destruction and the album Countdown to Extinction, what made Persistence of Time from Anthrax sound so amazing, and the list goes on and on.
Those three albums I cited as examples are all about RIFFS. Good, solid, headbanger kick-you-in-the-face riffs. Sure, there are complicated solos on all of them, but the point is that the riffs are there, structured right, and they're good.
Cut back your shredding and riff it up more.
And if you happen to make a few songs that sell a bunch of copies, send a few bucks my way, because you know where to find me. Remember, before today you probably never realized how important metal riffs really were. Now you do.
Top 5 electric guitar myths
I've played enough electric guitars to know what's true and what isn't, and this is my top 5 list of electric guitar myths - as in things a lot of players believe to be true but aren't.
5. "An expensive guitar will make me a better player"
Not true. Spending more on a guitar will not magically make you a better player. A cheap guitar that's properly set up and in good working order is just as good for learning guitar as would be the expensive electric.
If you wanted to buy, say, a Fender Select Stratocaster (arguably "the Ferrari of Stratocasters"), go right ahead. But don't expect the guitar to make you a Strat master overnight, because that's simply not going to happen.
Cheaper guitars are always better to learn on for one simple reason: You can beat the crap out of them and not care. With expensive guitars you're always worried about making scratches, nicks, dents, damaging a component or whatever. On a cheap guitar, you have none of those concerns. You can play hard, and that will make you play better over time.
4. "All the good electric guitars were made in the 1950s and 1960s"
This is such a nonsense belief that I don't even know where to start.
I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again. If someone gave me (because like hell if I'd spend the tens of thousands of dollars to buy one) a 1962 Fender Stratocaster, I would literally have to get the entire guitar redone just to play it. The 3-way switch would be dumped for a 5-way, all the wiring ripped out and redone with new, the bridge and block replaced, the neck sent to a luthier to get fixed up (most likely for all new frets), the tuners replaced, and so on. By the time I was done there would be very little original material left on that '62 Strat. For all intents and purposes, it would be a new guitar with all the "historic value" of it ruined on purpose just to make it playable.
Or I could just save all that hassle and buy a new Strat for a whole lot less that needs absolutely nothing.
3. "Old pickups sound better"
No, they don't. The only thing an old pickup has that a new one doesn't is rust, and that does nothing for tone.
If you're a perfectionist and want a pickup that has the "glass", "spank", "growl" or whatever you're looking for, your best course of action is to have your pickups handmade. Have a guy (preferably one very skilled in vintage electronics) personally construct your pickups using the same materials used in the 50s and 60s, wind the copper wire himself and build the whole thing using no automation old-school style, and yes you will get "that sound".
Buy a true vintage pickup, and you'll quickly discover the thing is falling apart and will have a dead or almost-dead magnet, which means a lot of money spent for no tone whatsoever.
2. "Digital is bad"
No, it isn't.
Effects
On the guitar effects pedal side of things, chaining even as little a two analog pedals together creates massive amounts of white noise while digital is much "cleaner". The simplest example I can think of is a delay effect pedal. When you want delay with total control and the least amount of noise, you get a BOSS DD-7. It's digital, "clean" and amazing.
Recording
On the recording side of things, anyone who would purposely choose to record using analog technology over digital must either have a lot of space, or likes to waste a ton of time using a linear recording system over non-linear.
The difference between linear and non-linear is easy to understand. An example of linear is a VCR. When you want to go to a certain spot on a VHS videocassette using a VCR, you must rewind or fast-forward, wait, and then you eventually get to where you want to be. An example of non-linear is a DVD player. Whenever you want to go to a certain point in a movie you're watching, you just "jump" there with no waiting.
Analog recording equipment is big, bulky, noisy and linear, meaning you're adding in tons of wait time just to do simple multi-tracking. Oh, and let's not forget that if you want to go "true analog", you must use a humongous reel-to-reel system. And before you say, "Cool! I'd use that!", do you even know how to load tape on the reels properly? Yeah, you'll spend at least an hour figuring that stuff out if you've never done it before.
Amplification
There's this belief that any amplifier that has any digital stuff in it is junk. Wrong. Digital modeling technology - even on tube-type amps - is great stuff. Yes, you do have to know how to program it because that's how it works, but it's time well spent.
Consider it this way: Digital modeling allows you to create multiple types of amplifier sounds from a single amp head rather than having to buy several big, bulky heads. It saves you money and a lot of it if you learn how to use digital modeling properly.
I'll stick with digital, thank you very much.
1. "People love guitar solos"
Only rock guitar players believe this and nobody else.
What people remember is the song and not the solo.
As a guitar player doing instrumental stuff, the formula for soloing-yet-not-soloing at the same time is to play your lead as if your guitar was a singer. Jazz guitarists have been doing this forever. When you treat your solo as a melody as if someone were singing the part, you've actually got a song and not just one long boring solo.
Do tonewoods matter on an electric guitar at all?
You'll notice I purposely put electric guitar in the title of this blog and not just guitar on its own. The reason for that is because when it comes to acoustic guitars, the woods chosen in the build absolutely matter.
The word tonewood is defined as "any wood suitable in the construction of a musical instrument". Concerning electric guitars specifically, there's a lot of confusion as to how the wood actually affects the tone since an electric guitar's tone is all-electric.
Before continuing, the answer to The Big Question:
Do tonewoods matter on a solid-body electric guitar?
Answer: No.
Why? Because modern pickups aren't affected by the body wood a guitar is constructed out of.
Did tonewood actually matter at one point?
Yes, but not for the reasons you would think.
Early electric guitars of the 1950s and 1960s used very microphonic pickups. They were so microphonic that they would even pick up the sounds coming from under the pick guard, so when an electric guitar's body had a wood that vibrated more when strings were played, this did in fact affect the tone.
However, with modern pickups the wood doesn't matter at all because the days of those overly microphonic pickups have been gone for decades.
Would you want overly microphonic pickups like they used to make in the 50s and 60s for "vintage tone"?
No, because they're awful. Any overdrive or distortion effect applied to them will cause feedback (squealing noises) so they're pretty much useless. You'll even get massive feedback even if playing "clean" with no overdrive/distortion effect applied at all.
I'll talk more about pickups in a moment.
My 2012 Bullet HH body has the same "resonance" as a 1962 Stratocaster
This should put to rest any doubt you would have as to why tonewoods don't matter anymore with solid-body electric guitars.
My 2012 Squier Bullet HH guitar has amazing body vibration to it. It's a basswood body just like almost every other solid-body Squier electric guitar made right now, but when you strum strings, you can really feel the "correct" type of vibration going through the body. This correct body vibration is something cork-sniffer types pay tens of thousands of dollars for, and I have it on a guitar I bought for under $120. I'm not kidding when I say that acoustically, the Bullet HH really projects well. In other words, when strummed unplugged, you can really hear it and feel it.
What does this mean? It means that the Bullet HH has just as much of a "resonant" body as a real-deal 1962 Fender Stratocaster. If you don't believe me, go to a guitar store, play the Bullet HH unplugged just like a true cork-sniffer snobby guitar collector would, and you'll feel the correct vibration (but of course the cork-sniffer collector would never admit this!)
Any cork-sniffer type who reads this will instantly think, "NOT POSSIBLE!" Oh yes, very possible. I know the tests cork-sniffer types use to test the vibration of a Strat body. Example: Plucking the B string unplugged while the guitar is hanging on the wall, then touching the end of the body to test for resonance while the string is vibrating. The Bullet HH passes the test with flying colors and the resonance is there (not that it matters because body resonance on a solid-body Strat electric is nonsense anyway).
"So... it's all about the pickups?"
For the most part, yes. The four things that make up an electric guitar's tone are pickups, electronics, strings and the pick you use.
Pickups
Throw in a cheap set of Fender Tex Mex Pickups, and yes, your Fender or Squier Strat will "sing" vintage-style like you want it to.
Electronics
This simply means using proper potentiometers (commonly known as "pots") and good wiring. On the Strat, wire it as you wish, use good solder connections, a good set of 250k pots (which do work best with Strat single-coil pickups), and it will sound great.
Strings
I've talked about strings before, but here's a refresher.
Strats do typically sound best with nickel-plated steel strings such as the Dean Markley 1972 Vintage Reissue, the D'Addario EXL120 and so on.
If you want a more "hard" or "biting" sound, you use plain steel strings.
If you want somethnig "really vintagey", pure nickel strings like GHS Nickel Rockers or D'Addario Pure Nickel series strings work well.
Picks
The hardness or softness of the pick you use does change how an electric guitar sounds because it affects the vibration of the strings as you pluck or strum. There are many to choose from. My personal preference is the Jim Dunlop Tortex series. I list a bunch of those here.
So anyway, there you go. Ignore the wood and concentrate on pickups, electronics, strings and picks instead.
Short Scale vs. Standard Scale electric guitar necks
The scale length of a guitar refers to the measurement from the bridge saddle to the nut. No guitar company I know of makes all their guitars exclusively using one specific length, because there are times when the design of a guitar neck needs to be a certain length for either appearance, function or both.
The two most-used scale lengths are "Fender Standard" 25.5-inch (647.70mm) and "Gibson Standard" 24.75-inch (628.65mm), however that doesn't mean that all electric guitars are one or the other. Some guitar companies (including Fender and Gibson themselves) will produce super-long (like baritone guitars) or super-short (like "mini" models) scale lengths depending on what the guitar model is and what it's supposed to sound like.
Fender's 25.5-inch, commonly referred to as "twenty-five and a half", is considered the standard scale length that most guitar companies use. Whenever playing a Fender Stratocaster or Fender Telecaster, you are playing a guitar with a neck that has a 25.5-inch scale length. Does Squier follow this same scale? Yes, they do for Strats and Telecasters. An example of a totally different guitar that uses Fender Standard scale length is the modern Schecter C-1 Hellraiser, which does use a 25.5-inch scale.
Fret Spacing
If you take two guitars, each with 22-fret necks, the one with the shorter scale length will usually have the frets closer to each other.
For example, a USA Stratocaster has 22 frets and a 25.5-inch scale and a USA Les Paul also has 22 frets but with a 24.75-inch scale. Due to the scale difference, frets are spaced differently.
On a traditional Strat neck: The distance from fret 1 to 2 is 34.31mm, the distance from 2 to 3 is 32.39mm, the distance from 3 to 4 is 30.57mm and so on.
On a traditional Les Paul neck: The distance from fret 1 to 2 is 33.30mm, the distance from 2 to 3 is 31.43mm, the distance from 3 to 4 is 29.67mm and so on.
These tiny differences in length do make a difference when playing, and it is true that the spacing from fret to fret is shorter on the Paul compared to the Strat. That doesn't necessarily make it better. Just shorter.
Fret spacing is the first thing you will notice about 25.5-inch vs. 24.75-inch or shorter. If you are used to playing on guitar necks that have a 25.5-inch scale, you are going to have one of two reactions when playing a shorter scale neck:
- You'll love it and will be able to play chords and solo a lot easier.
- You'll hate it and experience minor wrist pain after playing it for a few minutes.
Also, if you're used to 24.75 and try a 25.5, the same applies. Either you'll love it or hate it.
A 24-fret neck that has a scale length under 25 inches is usually a bad idea
Some people like 24-fret necks. I personally don't. In fact, I prefer the 21-fret vintage style Fender necks (which both my Squier Bullet Strat and Squier Bullet HH have).
When you're playing on a 24-fret neck but it only has a 24.75-inch scale length, you run out of room real fast after the 20th fret because the frets are so close together. On the lower frets you usually won't have a problem, but for those solos on the higher frets, you barely have enough room to do anything up there.
Whether you have little hands or big hands, 24 frets on a 24.75-inch scale neck simply doesn't work most of the time unless you are very precise with your fingers on the frets.
I'll put it another way. If you like soloing on the high frets and keep "missing notes" constantly, look up the scale length for the guitar you have. If it's a 24.75-inch scale length or shorter, consider switching to a 25.5-inch and the missed-note problem will probably go away quickly. You will have to adjust for the wider spacing on the lower frets, but you'll get used to it. And no, I'm not saying "Play a Fender" even though I like that brand. I'm saying that if you keep missing notes on the high frets, continue to use the guitar brand you like and seek out something they offer with a 25.5-inch scale length neck on it.
When are short scale necks better?
If you're the type of player that encounters one or more of the following:
- You have a really difficult time holding barre chords
- You encounter wrist pain often enough to where you can't play for more than 20 minutes at a time without having to put the guitar down for a few minutes before playing again
- You really aren't interested in soloing and like playing chords more, OR, you want a guitar that you can solo faster on (at least up to the 20th fret)
...then you want an electric guitar with a short scale neck. The closer spacing of the frets will make a world of difference.
Fender and Squier both make guitars that have short 24.0-inch scale necks, including Fender Jaguar, Squier Jaguar, Fender Mustang and Squier Mustang. The extra-short 24.0-inch scale is something you'll really like if the 25.5-inch doesn't really fit your playing style (or just makes your hands hurt).
Gibson and Epiphone use the 24.75-inch scale on almost every popular model they have. The Gibson Les Paul, SG, ES-335 and several other models all use it on standard (meaning not "mini") models. The Epiphone Les Paul, SG, Dot and several other models also use the same scale.
Keep in mind that all of the Gibsons and Epiphones are a full three-quarter-inch longer than the 24.0-inch short scale Fender/Squier guitars are, so you should try the shortest first with the Fender/Squier offerings. If that's too short for your taste, move up to the Gibson/Epiphone with the slightly longer 24.75-inch - OR - find a guitar brand that offers 24.75-inch scale necks and try those out.
You will have to play a different scale neck for at least 15 full minutes to know if you like it or not
When trying a shorter or longer scale neck guitar in the guitar store, you will not know instantly if you like it or not. This is something where you have to sit down and play for at least a good 15 minutes before you know if the guitar neck "agrees" with you or not.
My suggestion is to sit down with the guitar and purposely play it unplugged to figure this out. Don't even bother plugging into an amp at this point because you're testing how your hands react, and not how the guitar sounds.
How will you know if a shorter or longer scale is good for you?
That's an easy answer.
Do your hands hurt after playing for 15 minutes on the guitar with the different scale length?
If you encounter annoying wrist pain, then you know that scale length you tried is not for you.
If your fingers or wrist hurts "a little bit", then the guitar may be something you will become accustomed to over time - or not. You will have to decide whether it's worth the risk to continue.
If you didn't encounter any wrist pain, and you really feel you can play the guitar with the different scale length better, that's when you plug in to an amp and see if the guitar sounds right. If yes, buy it. If no, at least you know what scale length your fret hand "agrees" with better and can seek out an alternative brand.
My final bit of advice is this:
If there's a specific guitar you really, really want, but it has a neck with a scale length that your fret hand doesn't agree with, you will never get used to it. Every time you play that guitar, you will get finger and wrist pain. Don't make the mistake of getting a guitar that has a scale length you know doesn't work for you. Stick to what feels most comfortable. Your hands will thank you for it.