Scale Length?

[RonC]

I'm still researching Fender steel guitars before I purchase one. I've read that there's several scale lengths that were offered over the years (22.5", 24.5" and 26"). I read someplace that the 26" length had problems with string breakage and the 22.5" and 24.5" were more popular for that reason.

My question is, what are the differences in playing, tuning, etc between the 22.5" and 24.5" scales? Is one generally preferable over the other?

Thanks!

[mikey]

Aloha Ron,
It seems to be a matter of personal preferance, and give and take, the long scales were discontinued because, as you stated, string breakage, it seems Western Swing players prefer the 24's and they IMHO do have a slightly "better" tone...Hawaiian players, myself included, prefer 22's for the ease of slants in lower registers...so for me that overrides the tone trade off( it is VERY slight)...but that's just my opinion,also it seems 24's are more plentiful than 22's...so there you go, just my opinion tho,
Aloha,
Mike

[Bob Stone]

Here's my two-cents worth. As for string breakage, it's my understanding that as long as you don't use a first string higher than E , it's not a problem. My experience with 22.5 and 24.5 steels is that any first string higher than E doesn't sound that good anyhow, so the 26 wouldn't seem to be be a problem. (Jerry Byrd bases all his tunings on E for the first string). Chances are that you won't run across that many 26-inchers anyhow.

I happen to have a 22.5 Stringmaster at my house that I'm checking out for a friend and I agree with Mikey: the difference between 24.5 and 22.5 is VERY slight and probably not worth the trade-off for low register slants. Most Dual 8 professionals are short scale and many players prefer them over Stringmasters.