How to Buy a Short Scale Guitar for Zero Dollars in Under Three Minutes

A short-scale guitar can be a wonderful thing. The strings feel a little softer, the reach can feel a little easier, and the whole instrument can seem more relaxed under the fingers. That is why so many players, especially players who value comfort, are drawn to them.

But before you go shopping for a new guitar, there is a simple experiment you can try with the guitar you already own. It costs nothing and takes less than three minutes.

Tune every string down one half step, then put a capo on the first fret.

That is the whole trick.

The first fret now becomes the working nut of the guitar. The vibrating string length is shorter, the tension is reduced, and the guitar begins to feel much closer to what many players like about a short-scale instrument.

It is not magic, and it is not exactly the same as buying a purpose-built short-scale guitar, but it is a very useful test. It may tell you whether you truly want a different guitar, or whether what you really want is a softer, easier playing feel.

I mentioned this recently in conversation with music journalist Barton Goldsmith, who told me he favours short-scale guitars. When I suggested this three-minute experiment, he was skeptical, which is a perfectly reasonable reaction. Guitar players tend to think of scale length as something fixed, and in one sense it is. But once a capo is on the first fret, that fret becomes the practical nut, and the guitar behaves differently under the fingers.

Before spending hundreds or thousands of dollars chasing a short scale feel, try this first.

You may discover that the guitar you were looking for has been sitting in your case all along.