PT66 wrote:
If I tune down my long scale guitar a half step and capo it, will it sound like a differant guitar?
No, it will sound like your long scale guitar tuned down a half step with a capo on it. Your guitar may sound slightly different, but it is simply what that particular guitar will sound like with that particular setup. As the other members have pointed out, there are a lot of variables that come into play. Maybe if you had one guitar body and two necks, one with a short scale and one with a long scale, the two necks being otherwise identical (which is, of course, an impossibility), you might be able to somewhat compare the affect of scale length on tone. But even doing this wouldn't imitate reality because a luthier would alter too many other variable heavily linked to scale length (bridge placement and differences in bracing that would inevitably change in relation to bridge placement, etc.).
Additionally, when builders talk about hearing a big difference in tone from guitar A with ___________ (insert variable here: a long scale, made from wood X, etc.) to guitar B with (a short scale, made from wood Y, etc.), know that generally they have years of experience trying to decipher very subtle tonal differences in darn near everything (just ask how many folks have knocked on a hardwood coffee table to hear its taptone
). To folk that don't spend as much time worrying about such things, tonal differences between even extremely tonally different guitars (like Maple compared to Brazilian) seem to largely go unnoticed. Most things in life are relative. The perception of sound is certainly one of those things. Aaron