I recently put a Warmoth Pro Conversion 24 3/4 scale maple neck on my MIM Tele. In fact, the short-scale neck was the reason I embarked on the project to start with. I thought it would be the perfect guitar... Slinky, easy to bend strings, shorter reach on tough chords, but still my favorite guitar in the world— a Tele.
I have finally prevailed, but it was not nearly as easy as I thought it would be. The main criticism that I've heard on this and other forums is that the short scale sacrifices some of the beloved Tele twang. It is true, in my experience that the shorter scale produces a noticeably smoother, warmer tone. In short, the key to twang come down to string tension. I first tried a set of D'Addario 10-46's. This provided enough string tension to provide the twang, but I bend strings a LOT, and I hated how tight the 10's felt.
Then I used 9-42's for a couple of sets. They felt completely awesome and I could bend as far as I felt like. The problem was the low E and A were so slinky that they would go sharp just from fretting up to about the 5th fret. They also buzzed enough that I ended up raising the saddles to compensate, which I hated to do.
The Holy Grail, at least for me, came in the form of a hybrid set of 9-46's from D'Addario (9, 11, 16, 26, 36, 46). The bottom 3 strings are big and tight enough to stay off the frets and stay in tune, and back came the twang— immediately. The top 3 are light and slinky enough that I can bend at will. It was a true epiphany for me, and pulled me back off the ledge... as I was getting to the point where I thought I had made a big mistake.
I was so pleased, I felt the need to post this for anyone else who it may help. Put that Pro Conversion neck on with confidence!
I have finally prevailed, but it was not nearly as easy as I thought it would be. The main criticism that I've heard on this and other forums is that the short scale sacrifices some of the beloved Tele twang. It is true, in my experience that the shorter scale produces a noticeably smoother, warmer tone. In short, the key to twang come down to string tension. I first tried a set of D'Addario 10-46's. This provided enough string tension to provide the twang, but I bend strings a LOT, and I hated how tight the 10's felt.
Then I used 9-42's for a couple of sets. They felt completely awesome and I could bend as far as I felt like. The problem was the low E and A were so slinky that they would go sharp just from fretting up to about the 5th fret. They also buzzed enough that I ended up raising the saddles to compensate, which I hated to do.
The Holy Grail, at least for me, came in the form of a hybrid set of 9-46's from D'Addario (9, 11, 16, 26, 36, 46). The bottom 3 strings are big and tight enough to stay off the frets and stay in tune, and back came the twang— immediately. The top 3 are light and slinky enough that I can bend at will. It was a true epiphany for me, and pulled me back off the ledge... as I was getting to the point where I thought I had made a big mistake.
I was so pleased, I felt the need to post this for anyone else who it may help. Put that Pro Conversion neck on with confidence!
