ShortScale.org

IMG_0412 by nightceiling

so the last two weeks i have been seeking out a short-scale on craigslist/ebay, reading this forum and just trying to find the right guitar neck in general (have small hands with particularly short thumbs - up until now an 87 LP Studio has been good but far from perfect)
first thing i got (thru CG) from a very cool dude with countless sleeper guitars to sell was a beautiful sunburst T-15. i don't even like sunburst finishes (pretty much never do), but this one had aged and worn so well that it didn't have the fake look a lot of other guitars have. i wish i had taken photos of this one (i'm even considering buying it back and modding it a little).
immediately i noticed the super flat radius on the T-15, which was the first thing tempting me to email the seller and ask to check out the Patriot he had ($50 less didn't hurt either).
then i realized there was a reason the action/intonation was so slinky and weird - one of the bridge studs was missing (one of the two that tightens either the left or right side of the bridge for height). instead of getting the overpriced $30 pack of 6 peavey bridge studs on ebay (a pretty weird not-common bolt it appears), i met up with dude from CG...

Patriot:

IMG_0413 by nightceiling

right away the neck felt far superior, it plays great and it's in perfect shape.
it's not as "vintage", but i think i can live with that.
one thing i'm not sure i can live with is a stupid floating strat bridge (earlier patriots had a hardtail), but i can at least put a piece of wood under it and it's better than not even having saddles like on the T-15.
still a large radius, but not quite as flat as the T-15... it's not ideal, but it is still really nice (and i'm not sure what ideal necessarily is yet).

in the morning a package comes with a Memphis guitar i got off ebay (a risky purchase without any info besides a blog post about the seller's auction itself Memphis A2 - 1970s Japanese Strat-shaped Junior style "project" guitar - i couldn't help myself, the thing looked so cool (and pretty cheap at around $120 shipped)
it is ALSO a 23.5" scale, which is a super weird coincidence seeing that i can't think of any (?) guitars besides all three mentioned that use 23 1/2. it's kinda weird in general and probably less functional than 24" scale (just in terms of it generally being better to have another half inch).

Memphis A5:

IMG_0397 by nightceiling
IMG_0417 by nightceiling

such a cool pickguard!
other memphis matsumoku era guitars like the MG100 have bill lawrence humbuckers in them, so i assume these are as well, but i haven't had enough time to inspect closer (or hear it through an amp).

IMG_0411 by nightceiling, on Flickr
IMG_0416 by nightceiling, on Flickr

the neck on the Memphis is GREAT! super comfortable... note too wide, but not too thin and the finish is actually nice/smooth. right now it has something like 9s on it which is ridiculous, so we'll see what it's like with 11s.
it's without a doubt the lightest guitar i have ever picked up, which is i suppose is a good/bad thing, hopefully it isn't something like plywood (then again there are good plywood guitars and the build is always 100x more important).
i still am not sure whether this is from Memphis's way better years in Japan or the not-so-awesome Korean era, but it's a really cool guitar. definitely a cheap "student" style guitar whenever it came out.

i already kind of want to refinish it... looked dark/navy blue when i saw it on ebay, but it's def black. never really done it before so i'm not in a rush to, but this would look amazing if it really were a nice deep blue.

I think that's a really common scale length for Japanese guitars of that period: I've owned 2 different models, and both had a 23.5" scale length.

I was going to compliement on how cool that tort pickgaurd is on the Memphis, but you already know that.
I play bass mostly, And I notice how tight or compact the neck is on my jaguar all the time, I couldn't imagine going with a smaller scale.
Did I mention the pickguard on the Memphis is beautiful?

I love both of these, welcome.

Did I mention the pickguard on the Memphis is beautiful?

how is this the only guitar i've seen with this awesome tort style for a pickguard??
i want to put one on a mustang (once i get one that isn't insanely overpriced... these $100 guitars are spoiling me)

oh some measurements BTW for anyone who cares (for me its crucial in deciding what guitars i'm playing), here are the nut widths:

Peavey Patriot: 42mm
Memphis: 40mm (also it's 24" not 23.5)

interesting how both these guitars are basically mustang/musicmaster "copies", same knob/jack layout etc. - but not offsets.

there is also that actual memphis mustang copy i've seen fairly frequently, but those look way shittier than this one and certainly compared to the MG series.
might be a sort of in-between timeframe this one was made (transitioning from the tiesco-style era guitars that some memphis logos found themselves on, to the 70s LP/strat copies that sellers love to vaguely refer to as "lawsuit" models)

its crazy how much of a difference that 2mm makes, but the patriot is just unbelievably solid.
trying to figure out if i can do a "BASS VI" style conversion on one of the peavey short scale basses (which seem to be even better than the T series guitars).

Nice! My first guitar was a Patriot. I like it a lot.

You measure the scale length from the nut (or zero fret) to the 12th, then multiply by 2. Nut to bridge gives wrong scale length, although I don't doubt non-Fender 24" guitars exist, whatever scale yours is.

my brother's friend had a memphis exactly like that which belonged to his dad back in the day. I remember it being a pretty cool little guitar! It looked cool in a cheap old pawn shop guitar kinda way, but when I played it, it actually felt pretty decent!

Hey dude, those are both really sweet. All older peaveys are boss and that tort is sick as fuck on the Memphis.

I almost picked up a memphis once, but different to that one. It played pretty good for what it was and had a cool sounding pup in it. I think the ~23.5 scale is fairly common for 60's Japanese guitars. My Tiesco is roughly that scale.

Nice score on both of those guitars.

so both of these guitars seem in need of some serious hardware improvements, but i also may be purchasing a mustang soon and might not be able to keep both anyway.

part of me is thinking instead of just blocking that trem on the patriot i should just grab a cheap T-15 body and not waste the empty space (although whether it's a patriot/t-15 body i will still prob be better off with a better hardtail).
i think i could actually use a telecaster/mij squier bullet body for the patriot neck as well (pretty sure they all fit that heel shape fairly easily), but that's kind of lame. the sunburst t-15 in particular IMO is the best looking peavey guitar.

anyone have suggestions for a solid-not-overpriced-but-still-good-looking bridge (for either guitar)?
...because the same DEFINITELY goes for the ridiculous teisco style bridge on the memphis (how many of those things did they make??). i'm sure it's buzzing will go away once i throw 11s on it, but that thing has got to go. don't know whether the stop-piece is really consequential or not? (looks pretty good where it is)

maybe a TOM on the memphis? for some reason i feel like the gibson "harmonica" bridge would look dope on that.

If by any chance you still have this Memphis guitar, I'd like to buy it. My first electric was the very same model...

I always wondered about that dual blade pickup in the original A-2 models, kind of cool it's even shorter as well.

I have the A-2TR model (later Korean made version with a single humbucker and a strat bridge). Those are 24" scale, sound kind of like a Mustang with a bucker in the back end.




Video of me playing it -

I love them both. Good score.