Topic: slide in open tunings on a short scale guitar

[cakewalk]

I have recently discovered how cool short scale guitars cane be. The bendability of the strings allows me to pretend I am Albert King. I am in search of an acoustic to play slide on. I wanted to hear what people think about playing slide in open D or open G on a short scale instrument.

I have heard some say the strings are too slack, I have heard others say not so. Still others compromise and say use mediums and there won't be a problem.
What do you all think?

cakewalk

[LB]

Not a problem but it also depends on what you consider short, a 24.25" scale will feel almost unplayable with light strings with open G or D tuning. It would feel even slacky with standard tuning. In that case going to mediums is a logical option and they play nice.

Then again if you mean the difference in 24.9" scale to something like 25.4" there wouldn't be a lot of difference. I do think more slack strings will warm up the sound slightly in some cases. It may also kill your projection. I'd probably just take each guitar on a case by case basis being careful about how much tension I put on it.

Another sidetrack idea is the fact slack feeling guitars make wonderful candidates for tuning a couple of strings tighter and getting open E or open A. Which sounds great, slides great and might make you much more commonly compatable when jamming along with others.

[Dakota Red]

I slide in open A [a tad more tension] on my ~23"-scale '54 5-18.  I slide in open D,E, G,A on 24.9" scale vtg 00 & 000 Martins, 25.4" OM & D models too.  Scale not an issue to me if one attends to string guage, setup, etc.  When playing "normal" I tune that 5-18 to "standard", not "terz"[mi 3rd up], but again it's strings & setup imho.