A couple of things from a 24" scale player ...
Zebra said:
I seem to recall reading that the placement of Strat pickups affect the tone - something about them being located under harmonic nodes or something...
A harmonic node occurs at different places along a
vibrating string. We all know about the harmonics at the 12th and 24 fret of an
open string. But fret a note on the 1st fret and those harmonics are now at the 13:th and 25:th fret. So in other words - all pickups are always placed under some harmonic node. It just depends on what node we're talking about.
The "snap" or "brightness" of a note isn't only decided by the scale length, placement of the pickups (and by what kind of pickups) and string gauge.
But it's also where you pick a note. If you anchor your hand at the same spot, let's say by the bridge on a 25,5" scale and also on - in my case - a 24" scale, the pick will be picking the string closer to the bridge relative to the string length on the long scale guitar. And we all know that the closer to the bridge you pick the more "snappy", "trebly", "insert-your-own-description-here" it will be.
So, yes, you might say that a Strat has a more snap or bite or whatever than a shorter scale guitar - but you can easily change the sound by how you pick and how you decide to play your notes.
Lastly - you can get waaaaaaay more difference in tone, snap or lack of snap, bite or lack of bite, just by changing your type of pick.
Case in point: my favourite pick these days are the Fender Celluloid 346 shape, heavy gauge. I get the best sound with this pick. When I bought some new ones a while back it turns out they've changed the design.
Can you spot the difference?
The one on the left has a lot of "snap" and a sound that I love. The one on the right sounds completely dull and boring.
So in conclusion - get the 7/8 body, the 24,75"scale 24fret neck, some nice pickups and you'll get all the tone you want. After all, it's you that create the tone.