what scale for drop A??

[Mario Kessels]

Dear friends. I am thinking of building a drop a guitar for a friend who is in a stoner band.
Any ideas about the ideal scale for this? Maybe even fanned?
I build/ repair professionally btw.
thx Mario

[Bob Gramann]

I built a successful baritone tuned from B to B with a 27 inch scale. I think the strings went from .067 to .014”.

[Alan Carruth]

I've made two bari's for Ken Bonfield, and couple for other folks as well. The first of Ken's had a 27.75" scale. That was too long, and the second one was shorter. He has used both in B-b tuning with 'normal' intervals, but drops the low string several semitones most of the time. Ken's a real gear head, and will discuss stringing and pickups for as long as you like. Check out his web site.

[David King]

420 mm? <G>

[Paul Rhoney]

I'm gonna go a little against the grain here and say that for a stoner band, and I assume we're talking about doom metal here, you actually probably want to just stick with 24-3/4" scale length. I think a huge part of the sound of that music is the Gibson Les Pauls that all those guys seem to play, and they all tune way down, with gigantic string gauges. But the short scale length introduces this sloppiness to it, a sort instability to the tone. You get this always just a certain amount of out-of-tune modulation, which creates that thick density and complex grit. It's perfect because it's imperfect.

For an example, listen to this. These guys are playing cheap LP copies tuned down to drop A#. The 3:55 mark is ridiculous, you can actually hear the fret rattle.