Hello,
I was watching yesterday the Fender Japan site and i saw few stratocaster models with 24.75" scale length.
Then i try to find 'em in a European stores, but it was very hard and the most of 'em say that only by order these guitars come to Europe.
I understand the policy of the Japanish factory and the import/export issues BUT!
Why don't you have these models available from the US factory, Mexican or even chinese (under the name Squier)?
The 24.75" scale length has a lot of virtues and for some players is what they prefer more.
I don't want to go further and talk about pickups, bridges etc so lets just stay to the point where is the stratocaster in 24.75" scale length.

William Sats.

A 24.75" Strat would be interesting. Like a Les Paul...

Just curious William, what is it that you like about the 24.75" length? String tension / bending? Fret spacing? Tone?

Fender will make them when the believe they can make money on them. They don't think they can, and they're probably right.

Curious; why do you want one?

Decreasing the scale length on a Strat will seriously affect it's tone. It's not going sound like a Strat anymore. People who buy Strats generally want them to sound like Strats.

I have a Gibson scale Squier Strat from Japan, made in the mid-'80s.

Not the OP but I also have an interest in a 24 3/4" scale Strat. Why? I have ongoing left hand issues that are making it more and more painful to play as I get older - and I had "2 strikes" against me going into this guitar thing: I'm left handed but play right handed and I have pretty small hands to begin with. I've kind of "retired" my 25 1/2" scale guitars.

However, let's face it nothing feels like a Strat or a strat-styled guitar. Once you're used to them playing an LP-style guitar just doesn't cut it. Sure I realize that a short-scale guitar isn't going to 100% sound like a Strat, but the feel is hard to give up. Now it might be better to get that strat-shaped short-scale guitar built with a mahogany body and neck and load it with 2 soapbar pickups so it "feels" Stratty while being tonally closer to say a Les Paul Special so you don't miss that intrensic to the Strat sound that partially comes from the longer scale length.

Well well!
The sound will not be affected if the scale is smaller, because you can always "balance" the tension with thicker strings. For example, if you're used to '9s on a std 25.5", you can get the same feel with 10's in 24,75" so the "quack" effect as well.
Also, if you want to have the same fretboard length but in smaller scale you can add 2-3 more frets et Voila!

For me now is the fret spacing that matters because it makes the instrument more easy to play, specially for musicians like me, where i have to play 3 hours every night for 150 days/year and study 4-5 hours (almost) daily.

I played a Pawn Shop Mustang at a local store and I was rather impressed. I think it actually has a 24" scale length with 22 frets. It has two humbuckers but quite a few switches and I think you can dial-in a single coil configuration. To my ears, I was able to extract a nice Strat-like tone from it. But, the Pawn Shop Mustang doesn't look anything like a Strat...

Yup, shorter scale can make it easier to play. Certainly a good reason for going to the 24.75 length.

But, it will significantly change the tone, which cannot be made up for with heavier strings. Yes, you can get the "tension" the same by going to heavier gauge strings, but you can't get the same tone.

Hm...
Since i haven't play any of these Japanese Stratocasters, i can't realy tell, but i don't think that it'll be too hard to get the sound as you can always change the stock pickups to get a better/different sound as close as possible to the 25.5" ones.

Incidentally, few videos on youtube shows these guitars and to my ears they sound pretty good, but this is only my opinion and my ears through my monitors

If anyone here has an expirience with any of these models, it will be good to have his opinion.

Just do a Google search for "affect of scale length on tone" and you'll find plenty of information.

Again...not saying don't do it if the shorter scale's going to be more comfy for you. And you'll still have a single coil sound, but scale length is one of the major contributors to the Strat sound.

You're probably aware that Warmoth will supply you with a short scale neck for your Strat.

I believe that Warmoth - and maybe others - make a replacement short scale Strat neck...

You probably didn't get the point here.
As i wrote in my first post, my question was:



And it goes -pretty much- to Fender.
Actually I was expecting an official answer from someone who works at Fender, of course all your answers are welcome and i understand your point for the tone, but my question was a little bit different.

Try out a Jaguar or Mustang. Closest thing to a short scale Strat.

Fender made a Strat-O-Sonic a few years ago, which was a Strat with a 24.75" scale, P90s or humbuckers, stop-tails, and finishes that were like Gibson's see-through cherry or TV yellow with mini pickguards. They didn't take off too well, but I thought they were nice.

I don't want a different strat to any other thing than the scale. The rest (all the bold above) are not stratocasters.