# Looking for shorter scale (tuned higher) inexpensive guitar



## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

Lately, I find myself playing big chunks of my acoustic set capo'ed up to 3 or even 5.

It would be great to do that on a dedicated instrument, with the guitar actually tuned up 3 or 5 frets so I don't need to use a capo at all.

I'm aware of the Yamaha nylon string guitalele, which is commonly tuned to ADGCEA, and that sounds interesting, but I'd rather stick with steel strings.

About 5 years ago, in a Toys R Us of all places, I picked up a Washburn Hanna Montana guitar, not expecting much. It turned out to be a rather amazing little instrument and at a very reasonable price. Looking back, I should have bought it on the spot. I went back a few months later and they'd been discontinued. They re-appeared the following year with much girlier cosmetics and the quality had dropped off a lot.

Has anyone encountered any other instruments like that? 

I'm not looking to spend a ton of money. Maybe $100-150 range.

At the moment I have a full dreadnought and an old Norman B20 Folk that's a lot more compact. Looking for something even smaller than the Norman that can sustain a high tuning. Any ideas?


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

Stay away from the Yamaha guitarlele, I've never played one that had even decent intonation.

I actually tune an old dread up to ADGCEA. I buy a set of medium strings, throw away the 6th, and pick up a single high 3rd (.008) for a twelve string. I've never has a problem. And you could _easily_ tune up a minor third (GCFBbDG) if you choose to go that route.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

I've done the same as bw66. Terz guitars are hard to find so one has to do what one has to do. The problem with simply using a capo is you lose the upper range, so tuning up works better. (My first baritone was made doing the opposite, scrapping the first string and getting a .66 for the sixth.)

There are lots of short scale 3/4 size guitars out there. Yamaha makes both steel and nylon acoustic versions, Fender makes electric ones, Beaver Creek is another name I've seen but don't expect great tone from an all plywood instrument.

Peace, Mooh.


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## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

Cool idea guys, thanks.

I dragged out an old guitar and strung it up as suggested. I've got an extra B string in the high A position, so it's an octave lower than it should be, but it'll do for a test.

It seems to play pretty well so far.

Now where can i find a shop that sells individual strings? That octave G from a 12 string set sounds about right.

Anybody know a GTA shop that has a wide selection of individual strings? I remember Cosmo used to have that when they were on Yonge St, but I think it disappeared when they moved to Leslie.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

I imagine most places sell singles, I know that Jeff at The Interesting Music Shoppe in Wilfrid (near Pefferlaw) has them if The Arts or Cosmo doesn't.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

This isn't mine, but I know the owner.
It's a half scale Samick Mini Malibu.









It's tuned A-A and a lot of fun to play.

It's not an acoustic, but there are cool half scale guitars out there that can be used that way.


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## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

The Art had a few singles - I cleaned them out of 8's and grabbed a couple of 9's as well.

I played a few short scale guitars, including the Baby Taylor, and realized that is NOT at all what i want.

I've strung up an old dreadnought with ADGCEA and it's working. Some intonation problems, but it's a real beater so that's expected.

I might need to find a wound C string at some point, to really make this work, or else I'll try it on a better guitar.

Thanks guys; this is pretty cool


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## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

I messed around with this some more last night. I was having an intonation problem in the first few frets, with fretted notes being sharp, especially on the "C string" (3rd string).

I did some reading on it, and it was suggested in several places that this might be a nut-related problem (slots not cut deep enough, fretting near the nut pulls the strings sharp, etc).

One of the troubleshooting steps suggested was "see if placing a capo on fret 1 fixes the issue?", and it DOES.

So for now, I'm thinking a capo on first fret isn't such a bad thing, and it also allows me to tune down a semi-tone to take some stress off the neck of this ancient guitar. It sounds REALLY good now that the intonation issues are gone.

I spent a bit of time comparing my regular guitar with a capo on 5 to this other guitar that's re-strung to support those same notes.

There's really no comparison. The capo 5 guitar loses a lot of high end and note definition; it's sort of woody and muddy and muffled. The dedicated high-tuned guitar is a LOT brighter and snappier and cleaner all around. It sounds like it's SUPPOSED to be tuned this way because, well, it is. And having the whole neck to work with, instead of jsut the top half, is a big bonus for playability.

Thanks again guys; i didn't expect this to turn out nearly so good.

Now I've got three guitars to play with - a regular dread tuned as usual, this high-tuned A-A guitar, and my Norman B20 Folk tuned to an E major chord (EBEG#BE) for Stones and Joni etc.

It's really hugely more convenient for everybody if I can just reach out and grab a different instrument, rather than try to re-tune a guitar mid-set.


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