The Best Short Scale Electric Guitar for Small Hands 2024

Is a short-scale guitar right for you?

Finding the best short-scale electric guitar for small hands can be a challenge. Knowing which is right for you can be a tough decision with so many different brands and models on the market.

This blog post will look at the best options available and help you decide which one is right for you. Whether you’re a beginner, an experienced player, an indie rocker, or a metalhead, there’s sure to be something here that’s perfect for your needs!

So without further ado, let’s get started!

The Best Short Scale Electric Guitars in 2024 at a Glance

• Editor’s Choice: 
  Fender Vintera ’60s Jaguar Modified HH
• Best Budget Alternative: 
  Squier Classic Vibe ’70s Jaguar
• Best Semi-Hollow Body: 
  Gretsch G5655T
• Best for Metal: 
  Jackson Pro Mark Morton Dominion
• Best for Beginners: 
  Epiphone SG Special VE

Suppose you’re an intermediate to advanced guitarist looking for a retro-looking surf guitar with as much variety in tone as it does mojo. In that case, the Fender Vintera ’60s Jaguar Modified HH is the guitar for you.

This offset body guitar pays homage to the California Surf Culture that Fender is synonymous with but adds modern features that take this Jaguar to the next level.

First, the Fender Vintera Moded Jaguar comes with Dual Atomic humbucker pickups. These pickups have tons of output gain for getting wonderfully dirty, mid-range tones from the guitar. Fender’s Jaguars typically come equipped with single-coil pickups. The utilization of humbucking pickups is a step in a very new and excellent tonal direction.

However, Fender did not abandon the single-coil design in the Vintera 60s Jaguar HH. These Dual Atomic Humbucking pickups can transform into single-coil pickups with a wheel’s turn. While you could play this Jaguar as a humbucker setup or single-coil setup, it gets more interesting as you blend the two for endless tonal options.

The Jaguar’s unconventional pickup selectors and tone controls are overwhelming at first. However, once you get the guitar, you’ll find tweaking and bringing new and inspiring tones to your playing easy. The biggest challenge with this guitar is remembering what combination of settings you used to create specific tones.

This electric guitar has a short scale length of 24”, making it highly comfortable for players with smaller frames and small hands.

The modern maple C-shaped neck doesn’t feel bulky in hand and is comfortable for playing barre chords and picking out lead lines up and down the neck. The neck width is small at 1.65”, which makes open cowboy chords easy to play.

The floating tremolo system and Adjusto-Matic bridge look great and do a suitable job keeping the instrument in tune.

The tremolo bar stays snug in the bridge. It is easy for light to aggressive whammy-ing without compromising the tuning. The placement also doesn’t get in the way of your strumming hand.

One thing to be aware of is the radius of the Adjusto-Matic tuner doesn’t quite match the radius of the fretboard. So not all the strings sit evenly over the electric guitar’s neck. Most players won’t notice this; however, you can always ask to replace the bridge during a professional setup if you are sensitive to it.

While you can get loads of tones out of the Fender Vintera 60s Jaguar, I find that the guitar doesn’t have the best sustain. This electric guitar also has a very colored, vintage sound to it.

This Fender Jaguar features a bolt-on neck that needs to be removed if you want to make adjustments to the truss rod. This can be a pain because you need to make the strings slack before removing the neck from the body to make adjustments. This is not as convenient as accessing the truss rod from the headstock on modern instruments.

In my opinion, the Fender Vintera 60s Jaguar is the best short-scale electric guitar because it’s incredibly versatile, high-quality, and has a great vibe. However, I wish a guitar in this price range would come with a hardshell case.

All in all, this guitar will make a great addition to your guitar collection. Especially if you are an intermediate to advanced electric guitar player looking for a guitar that will keep you inspired while playing it!

Suppose you’re looking for that cool-looking offset body design of Fender’s most popular Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars but are on a budget. In that case, the Squier Classic Vibe ’70s Jaguar is a wonderful alternative to the American and Mexican-made Fender’s.

Squier has recently stepped up their production game, and the Classic Vibes series will not disappoint you if you’re a beginner or intermediate guitar player.

The alnico single-coil pickups give a clear, punchy, and vibey tone that Fender electric guitars are known for. While this short-scale electric guitar is best suited for indie, rock, and jazz, it does have high output gain. This allows you to push the guitar’s tone into fun, distorted territories.

However, Jaguars, in particular, don’t have the best sustain. So if your playing style gravitates toward big soaring lead notes and chunky chords, you may want to look at another guitar on this list like the Epiphone SG.

The thin, short-scale C-shaped maple neck feels very comfortable in hand and works great for electric guitar players with small hands. The offset poplar body is lightweight and comfortable in your arms, making playing this guitar very enjoyable for long periods.

Another feature celebrated on the Squier Classic Vibe ’70s Jaguar is the Fender Mustang Classic Vibes bridge. The Fender Mustang bridge creates less buzzing and string friction giving a more consistent and reliable guitar.

A negative to be aware of when you are purchasing a Squier, or any budget guitar for that matter, is that you will likely need to get a professional setup after purchase. You can’t rely on an excellent factory setup with these Indonesian reduced-scale length guitars. You often find intonation issues, string height issues, and bridge issues. Although this is a budget-friendly guitar, you should factor a professional setup into your overall price.

However, as affordable short-scale guitars go, the Squier Classic Vibes ’70s Jaguar is a great choice. You get a beautiful and classic-looking electric guitar and one that has lots of sonic versatility. With help from a professional luthier, you could have a short-scale guitar that you will love playing for years to come.

Gretsch is a guitar brand that makes some of the best semi-hollow body electric guitars on the market.

While the Gretsch G5655T Electromatic is not the shortest scale guitar on this list, it’s a smaller-bodied electric guitar that feels intimate in your hands while providing a huge tone and remarkable sustain.

The G5655T features a solid spruce woodblock that runs through the center of the guitar, which reduces resonance and feedback that is often an issue for hollow-bodied electric guitars. This lets you play the guitar with more gain and push the guitar into bigger and bolder distorted tones.

The Thin U maple neck has a bit more bulk, and the 12″ radius will feel a bit more round in hand. So while this short-scale electric guitar will still be an excellent option for players with smaller hands, it will have more of an acoustic guitar feel which might not work for some.

This Gretsch guitar is beautiful to look at with the Bigsby Tremolo system and laminated maple body. It also comes in various retro-looking colors, with my favorite being jade green.

The Broad’Tron humbucking pickups have surprising versatility and can deliver clear and silky jazz tones up to gritty mid-range growl. Suppose you’re looking for the best short-scale electric guitar for rockabilly, blues, and rock. In that case, you will fall instantly in love with the G5655T Electromatic when you first pick it up.

The G5655T punches well above its weight for the price. You’d be surprised at the amount of guitar you are getting, and you will be hard-pressed to find a better guitar below $1000. However, one of the drawbacks is that this guitar does not come with any kind of case or gig bag.

Suppose you’re an intermediate to advanced player looking for short-scale electric guitars with great tone, sustain, and aesthetic. In that case, the Gretsch G5655T Electromatic is the guitar you should be looking at with serious intent.

Finding short-scale electric guitars for metal playing can be difficult. This is because metal guitarists often play in dropped tunings, requiring the string tension of a full-sized guitar.

However, the lead guitarist for Lamb of God, Mark Morton, has a signature short-scale electric guitar that will be perfect for the small-handed guitarist who wants to shred.

The Jackson Dominion is a high-octane guitar with features that make it easy to play and sound amazing.

First, the unfinished mahogany neck paired with the ebony fingerboard makes the neck play very fast. It’s effortless to play up and down the neck and feel as if your fingers are flying above the fretboard.

The neck has a compound radius. As you move up the neck of this shorter scale guitar, it gets flat and makes playing fast lead lines easy. Then as you move down the neck near the nut, the guitar rounds out, making it easier to play big chunky barre chords.

While the Jackson Dominion does high-gain tones exceptionally well, a toggle switch transforms the aggressive DiMarzio Mark Morton signature humbucking pickups into a twangy single-coiled pickup sound. This makes the guitar great for clean, bluesy tones and gives the guitar versatility you don’t find in other metal guitars.

This electric guitar features a solid mahogany body, and while it’s chambered (hollowed-out), the guitar still feels heavy. While this helps with the sustain and projection of the guitar, it can be a little cumbersome for smaller players.

The hardware used on the Jackson Pro Mark Morton Dominion is high-quality. The tuners have a die-cast locking system which helps keep the strings in tune even with aggressive bends, fast picking, and hard strumming. The anchored tailpiece with the Tune-O-Matic bridge helps with the guitar’s exceptional sustain.

For the price of this guitar, you would think that Jackson would include a hardshell case, or at the least a gig bag, but this is not included in the purchase of this guitar.

Suppose you’re a player with smaller hands looking for a short-scale guitar that will excel in the metal genre. In that case, the Jackson Pro Mark Morton Dominion is the guitar you need to buy now!

If you’re a beginner learning to play guitar, then most of the short-scale electric guitars on this list may be out of your price range.

However, this doesn’t mean you can’t find an excellent short-scale axe for a beginner’s price.

The Epiphone SG is an instantly recognizable body shape you have often seen used by some of the most famous guitar players in history. The SG features a lightweight poplar body and bolt-on slim-tapered Okoume neck. This provides a very comfortable playing guitar that feels great in your hands.

This guitar has a very rock n’ roll vibe to it, and the guitar’s tone matches its aesthetic.

This electric guitar features humbucking pickups providing an articulate, creamy crunch and incredible sustain. This guitar sounds good while playing with a clean tone, but it’s a guitar that wants to be in overdrive.

While this short-scale guitar doesn’t have as many features as the other electric guitars on this list, the value-for-money on the Epiphone SG Special VE makes this a no-brainer.

How to Choose the Best Short Scale Electric (Buyers Guide)

Look, I’m only one man’s opinion regarding the best short-scale electric guitars on the market. While I think that these guitars on my list will make most guitar players happy, I understand that many more short-scale guitars that deserve to be on the list weren’t covered here.

The following short-scale guitar buyer’s guide will help you sift through other options if you wish to go further into your research. Thus, allowing you to find the perfect short-scale electric guitar for you.

Pickups

There are loads of pickups on the market. You have to ask yourself if you are looking for the single-coil jangly twang or a humbucker’s mid-range punch.

Some guitars like the Vintera 60’s Jaguar HH and Jackson Dominion come with switchable pickups that give you both flavors. However, these guitars will usually get into a more premium price range, but the flexibility is well worth it.

Single coil pickups often have more noise associated with them. So if you are playing through higher gain amplifiers, be aware that you will have lots of extra noise that comes with the guitar. As the name suggests, Humbuckers help reduce/eliminate that 60-cycle hum and help keep your high-gain tones sounding crisp and clean.

Body Shape

While body shape often boils down to personal preference, there are some things to be aware of when looking at the best short-scale electric guitars for your needs.

First, most electric guitars have a solid body. Solid-body electric guitars are more durable, have good sustain, and often have less body depth. This makes them feel less substantial in your arms. This can make playing the guitar sitting down uncomfortable. Still, it often makes playing them with a strap standing up a better experience.

Hollow-body and semi-hollow body guitars will have more depth and body to the guitar’s sound. However, you may get a guitar that is more likely to feedback when played with lots of gain. These body shapes are snugger in your arms but could be too bulky and uncomfortable for guitar players with smaller frames.

Are you looking for a kid that is more suitable for a kid?

If you need an electric guitar that is smaller than the guitars on this list, then you should check out my article “The Best 1/2 Size Guitar for Your Musical Kiddo in 2024“

Neck Shape

The neck shape is crucial for your comfort when looking for the perfect short-scale guitars for your needs, especially for the small hands of women and children.

Most modern guitars come with some variation of a C-Shape neck. The C-Shape neck is great for guitar players with smaller hands as they tend to be more shallow and suit most playing styles.

Bridge and Tremolo System

Having a whammy bar is a super fun thing on your short-scale electric guitar. However, if the tremolo system is made with cheap parts, having one might be more trouble than it’s worth.

They can quickly go out of tune, and changing the strings can be a little more difficult for new guitar players.

Fixed bridges often provide more tuning stability, are easier to maintain, and generally, keep the guitar’s price more affordable.

However, if the other hardware, such as tuners, are of low quality, then fixed bridges will also come with their fair share of problems.

You must consider your needs as a player when deciding whether a fixed bridge or floating tremolo system is right for you. Just know that if you go with a cheaper short-scale electric guitar, you will most likely need to get it professionally set up. You may also have to replace some parts to ensure the guitar plays as best as it can.

FAQ

The most common questions about short-scale guitars answered.

What about short-scale bass guitars?

If you’re on the hunt for an awesome short-scale bass guitar, I’ve created the perfect resource you should check out here.

To Recap

So, what is the best short-scale electric guitar for small hands? In my opinion, the Fender Vintera 60’s Jaguar HH is a great option. It’s lightweight and easy to play, with a flexible tone perfect for indie, rock, and pop music. It also looks incredible!

Thanks for reading, and I hope this article has helped you find the perfect short-scale electric guitar for your needs.

Happy playing!