22 frets vs 24?

[Annaxes]

i am no mean play metal but i play anything from raggae and grunge i play rhythm and i was looking at the PRS s2 custom 24 since it had coil taps. i play a lot of barre cords, the neck was fine felt good actually but would this be best for me. I also love the tone of smashing pumpkins but didn't care for the strat. will the 24 custom make a difference?

 

[maxtuna26]

Welcome to the forum!

Well, whichever music you're playing, the 2 extra frets don't matter that much. Tone-wise, the extra 2 frets pushes the neck pickup slightly downwards the scale, giving a very slightly brighter sound. Feel-wize, the 2 extra frets might affect the way you're playing pinch harmonics. The neck pickup position was moved, so it might take some adjusting to find the sweet spot of harmonics. Also, the whole fretboard was moved upwards, so the higher frets, etc. 22nd fret, will be easier to play than the 22nd fret on a 22-fret neck.

Hope this helps! :beer:

 

[MOBirds]

If it feels right, it IS right. You can easily fix tone with pedals/amp/pup swap/etc. - Really difficult to fix feel.

 

[rugerpc]

maxtuna is right - the 2 extra frets pushes the neck pickup closer to the bridge. The effect is some loss of fullness or roundness for the neck pickup - the neck pup on a 24 fretter will sound a bit thinner than it would if it were farther from the bridge. So you start with a slightly brighter tone on a 24 and a slightly darker tone on a 22.

On a 24, there will be a greatly diminished 9th fret pinch harmonic since one of the nodes (where the string is not vibration and thus not moving to produce a signal within a magnetic field) is sitting right over the neck pup. on a 22 fretter, that node is off of the neck pup by as much as an inch. The result is the 9th fret harmonic is noticeably louder on a 22 fretter than a 24 fretter.

Since most luthiers (including PRS) overlay about 2 frets on the body at the neck joint for electric guitars, your finger access to frets 21 and 22 will be easier on a 24 fretter because they are not overlaying the body.

The bridge on a 24 fretter will be farther from the heel of the guitar and closer to the neck because the entire bridge-fretboard-nut scale is laid to only have 2 frets overlaying the body. This leaves more room between the bridge and tail of the guitar. That can be good or bad depending on your personal build and playing style and/or where you prefer your controls.

All of these things are rather subjective for the feel and playability of the guitar and amount largely to personal perferences for the position of things and your desired tone.

The only thing that cannot be easily compensated for is the relative weakness of the 9th fret harmonic on a 24 fretter. Physics is a cold taskmaster.

 

[JMintzer]

Bill, That's the best animation yet!

 

[jfb]

Bill, That's the best animation yet!

It's quite nice indeed. Well done.

 

[BrianC]

24 frets just give me soooo much easier upper fret acces it is my gold standard. I own both 24 and 22 fret PRS gtrs.

 

[László]

The real question is, how high do you want to weedly-weedly?

In terms of musical style, it really makes no difference. The tone's a little different, and that's just a preference thing. And you can get coil-tapped PRSes in 22 or 24 fret models.

 

[]-[@n$0Ma☩!©]

24 frets just give me soooo much easier upper fret acces it is my gold standard. I own both 24 and 22 fret PRS gtrs.

I guess I've never looked to see how much further back into the body the last few frets were on a 24-fret PRS. I always assumed they were the same distance as the 22-fret model.

 

[jfb]

The real question is, how high do you want to weedly-weedly?

In terms of musical style, it really makes no difference. The tone's a little different, and that's just a preference thing. And you can get coil-tapped PRSes in 22 or 24 fret models.

I want to weedly-weedly real high.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I want to weedly-weedly real high.

I'm usually high when I weedly-weedly.

 

[László]

I want to weedly-weedly real high.

I don't blame you.

I'm usually high when I weedly-weedly.

I don't blame you.

 

[Rider1260]

If you look closely at the GIF above on the 24 the whole neck is pushed further from the body so the 22 feels more compact but the 24 really puts the whole middle part of the neck in easy reach from say the 5th to the 15th fret ALSO on a 24 the frets are closer together since you have 24 in the same 25" scale.
To be honest the only guitar that matches my CU24 neck tone is my 408 neck tone.
for the most part I am a 22 fret guy but the CU24 is a really special guitar.

 

[dsenoj]

The frets aren't closer together on a 24 than a 22 as long as the scale length is the same. The fret distance is determined by the scale length.

 

[rugerpc]

The frets aren't closer together on a 24 than a 22 as long as the scale length is the same. The fret distance is determined by the scale length.

This.

For fret to fret distance to get smaller, you have to reduce the entire scale length.

On a 22 fret guitar and a 24 fret guitar of the same scale length, the space between frets 4 and 5 (for example) is identical on both guitars. The same hold true for every other comparable distance.

Look at my animation above, the width of fret spaces 1 through 22 do not shrink just because you add 2 more available frets.

 

[G-Man]

That animation is perfect. I always felt that the 22 fret guitar felt much more compact than the 24 fret neck to me. Also, since the neck is shorter, do you think the neck will be stiffer and more stable?