Scale length effect on tone?

Lebarque

Yep, I know that it affects the string tension and feel, but if I hypothetically made two identical guitars, with the only difference being one has 24.75" scale length and the other has 25.5", what would be the difference in tone and how significant would it be?

Roland

All other things being equal (string gauge, guitar construction, pickups, electricals, hardware) the longer scale will be slightly brighter because the string tension will be higher. How significant will depend on whether the difference is swamped by other factors. For example, if you’re using overwound deathbucker pickups then not much. Whereas it will be more noticeable with low wind single coils.

Lebarque

Roland said:

All other things being equal (string gauge, guitar construction, pickups, electricals, hardware) the longer scale will be slightly brighter because the string tension will be higher. How significant will depend on whether the difference is swamped by other factors. For example, if you’re using overwound deathbucker pickups then not much. Whereas it will be more noticeable with low wind single coils.

And if you compensated for the lower string tension with thicker strings?

Whitecat

I’ve owned very similar Gretsch guitars in both 24.6” and 25.5” (the 6119 - it seems to vary depending on year). The longer-scale versions have more pop & snap, remarkably obviously so. 

However, shorter is only ‘warmer’ to a point - 24” Fender guitars suggest that anyway...

ICBM

You can try it for yourself. Fit a 25.5”-scale guitar with one string gauge heavier than you normally use, tune it a semitone lower, and capo it at the 1st fret. Instant 24”-scale guitar.

The short answer is that it will change the sound far less than popular wisdom says it should. And that’s even given that the pickups will effectively be in slightly different positions, closer to the ‘nut’.

Scale length *by itself* doesn’t actually matter. It’s the effect it has on almost every other variable that does.