Tuning a short scale guitar to A

paulnb57

Ive got a Squier Mini Strat (22.75 inch) scale Im faffing with and am considering tuning to A, can I use 10’s or will they go ping! and all end in tears.....

Thoughts...

crunchman

I suspect A will be too high.  I've got a little Breedlove travel acoustic that I've just measured the scale on at 19.5" or thereabouts.  That originally came tuned to A, but I've dropped it to G# as the strings seemed a bit tight.

paulnb57

crunchman said:

I suspect A will be too high.  I've got a little Breedlove travel acoustic that I've just measured the scale on at 19.5" or thereabouts.  That originally came tuned to A, but I've dropped it to G# as the strings seemed a bit tight.

Do you use usual gauge strings, 9’s/10’s?

ICBM

22.75" is the same scale length as to the second fret on a standard scale, so you will get the same tension with your usual string gauge if you tune up to F#. A is probably too high unless you go to lighter strings - the octave G (three semitones above the top string) on a 12-string is normally an 8 or 9, so for three semitones above the F# I would try 8s or 9s.

crunchman

paulnb57 said:

crunchman said:

I suspect A will be too high.  I've got a little Breedlove travel acoustic that I've just measured the scale on at 19.5" or thereabouts.  That originally came tuned to A, but I've dropped it to G# as the strings seemed a bit tight.

Do you use usual gauge strings, 9’s/10’s?

It's acoustic strings, but they are my usual gauge (11s).

DLM

There have been a fair few threads and posts about this, here's links to a couple:

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/2353091/#Comment_2353091

When I get around to sorting out my miKro, I'll try to gather everything together in one place. I'm going to get it new machine heads and try the Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky set I bought for it in standard tuning. I'd not normally touch EBs with a bargepole after long-standing reliability issues, but this was the cheapest option to get a full set at close to the gauges I calculated for standard using stringtensionpro.com: 12, 16, plain 24 (!), 32, 44, 56. I also have a few sets of eights around to try tuning it to higher pitches along the lines ICBM posted about above.