80s set neck Chaps -- 2 shape variations?

[narad]

Sorry if this has been covered or is old news, or even hallucination on my part 😄 

I was looking at the Chap that Vai is about to auction off, and something about the body I really liked, yet from the rest of the specs, was clearly a sort of 85/86 era Chap.  From my pov, the newer redesign has the best body, but the older ones are set neck, a plus, and have a much nicer headstock design.  So here I am staring at this guitar that seems to have bits of both, but I can't quite tell if it's my imagination.  Here's the guitar, just so you know what I'm talking about:

Minus all the Vai stuff, this is what I'd really like in a Chap.  So I start to wonder if this was a one-off for Steve or something.  When I see the old Chaps, they seem stretched out, like this:

 

From teh jack plate it's obvious that the relationship between the bridge is different.  So here I was thinking that was it.  Then I just noticed:

Here the body looks shorter like the Vai model.  So I was thinking maybe it's the scale length -- maybe the Vai one is 25.5 like his Ibanez's, but it's listed in the ad as 24.75.  So now I'm just at a lost.  Chap experts -- are there two variations?  If so, is this based on the year they're made or some other spec?

 

[Dave Scepter]

Yes the Chaps came in 2 different scales... normally the ones with the 3 mini switches where short scale and the ones with the blade switch where the longer scale... I may be a bit clouded regarding the switches but they do in fact come in 2 different scale lengths perhaps it's bolt on vs set-neck... it's too early 😴 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Dave Scepter

[narad]

3 minutes ago, Dave Scepter said:

Yes the Chaps came in 2 different scales... normally the ones with the 3 mini switches where short scale and the ones with the blade switch where the longer scale 

Just to clarify, that faded white one above though is listed as short scale, the same as the red one, yet the bodies seem different to me.  If it was scale, I could see that hte bridge position just spaces everything out and gives that impression.  Maybe it's just a listing error?

[Dave Scepter]

5 minutes ago, narad said:

Just to clarify, that faded white one above though is listed as short scale, the same as the red one, yet the bodies seem different to me.  If it was scale, I could see that hte bridge position just spaces everything out and gives that impression.  Maybe it's just a listing error?

White one looks like a long scale to me vs the short scale pink guitar 

[narad]

Actually my eyes just hit on that the fretboard comes down further on the faded white one, so when I match them up in photoshop, it does appear to be a different scale.  So I guess it is just a mistake in the sales listing for that particular guitar that was throwing me for a loop.

[scottcald]

Mine with 3 switches is 24.5” scale. 

[VECTOR]

On 11/5/2023 at 2:07 PM, narad said:

Just to clarify, that faded white one above though is listed as short scale, the same as the red one, yet the bodies seem different to me.  If it was scale, I could see that hte bridge position just spaces everything out and gives that impression.  Maybe it's just a listing error?

I think the picture with the red one is shot with a wide angle lens and the white one with a normal or tele lens. Wide angle lenses stretch parts of the taken pictures and cause the impression of an other shape. You can try this with your smartphone camera if there are three seperate lenses are built in. So I don't think the bodies are different.

[narad]

1 hour ago, VECTOR said:

I think the picture with the red one is shot with a wide angle lens and the white one with a normal or tele lens. Wide angle lenses stretch parts of the taken pictures and cause the impression of an other shape. You can try this with your smartphone camera if there are three seperate lenses are built in. So I don't think the bodies are different.

 

Yea, bad angle for comparison.  But here's another one, similar vibe as that red one:

 

 

I couldn't put my finger on it originally -- the jacks seemed positioned differently but I didn't feel it was conclusive.  But now it's obvious to me when you just look at where the fretboard ends in relation to the cutaways.

[ZR]

I have a 25.5" chap custom; set neck, all flame maple body, ebony board, boomerangs etc. but I always thought the 24.75" scale chaps looked better to me. 

[Dave Scepter]

1 hour ago, narad said:

 But now it's obvious to me when you just look at where the fretboard ends in relation to the cutaways.

I always look at where the trem is located