Gear Review: Durango Guitar Works Contender (with video)

The Contender, now named "Shorty"

When I first got the Contender in the mail, I didn't know what to make of it. Was it a kid's guitar? A travel guitar? A beginner guitar? So I played it for a few weeks as my main guitar to find out.

DGW specializes in short scale guitars. The Contender has a 24 inch scale, compared to traditional Fender (25.5 inch) and Gibson (24.75 inch) scales. This scale puts the frets closer together, so it's easier to make some of the stretches necessary to play scales or more complex chords. It also decreases tension in the strings to the point where light gauge strings (9s) feel extremely loose. Less tension makes it easier to bend strings and it also makes heavier gauge strings feel lighter. The Contender I got feels like it has 10s on it but it's as easy to play as any of my other guitars strung with 9s.

After unpacking it, I immediately noticed the quality of the guitar. It is extremely well made. I couldn't find a single blemish in the finish, which in this case is a nicely done two-tone sunburst. The neck was even more impressive. Usually affordable guitars made in China have poorly finished necks, but the Contender is obviously made in one of the better Chinese factories because the finish and fretwork are exemplary. The fret ends were finished so well that I was able to slide my fingers up and down the sides with some force behind them and still not feel any sharp edges. The finish itself is a nice satin finish, which according to their Web site is gunstock oil, and it has 22 medium frets.

The hardware is also very solid. It has a Strat-style hardtail bridge (which I love as I'm not the biggest fan of tremolos) with a string-through design, a volume and tone control with metal knobs and a three-way blade switch. The pickups are Wilkinson AlNiCo humbuckers which are a surprise at this price range. They aren't the most powerful pickups - they can do metal, but they aren't happy about it - but they have a nice vintage tone that's perfect for classic rock or even country. I don't know if it's the pickups or the construction - it has a three-piece alder body and a bolt-on maple cap neck (maple fingerboard on maple neck) - but some of the tones are almost Strat-like, especially in the middle and neck positions.

Shorty is much smaller than Triumph

The body isn't contoured like a traditional Strat but instead it has a slightly carved top and a back contour that runs around the entire body. This makes it pretty comfortable while resting against your body, but not quite as nice as a Strat. Still, with the body being quite small - about 2/3 the size of a traditional Strat style guitar, as you can see in the picture on the left - it's comfortable for sitting and standing and it's extremely light. The only drawback to this lightness is that it's slightly neck-heavy. Not as bad as a Gibson, but there is some neck dive when standing.

Speaking of Gibson, the neck reminds me a lot of a Gibson neck. It has a pretty wide profile, wider than my Strat. It's definitely a wide C-shaped neck and with a 12-inch radius feels a lot like a Les Paul from the 50s. Despite this, it's still very easy to play, largely because of the shorter scale.

I was enjoying my time with the Contender but I still didn't completely understand it. I spoke with Jimmy Carabbia, founder of DGW, and he put the guitar into perspective. The Contender was designed not to be a student guitar but to be another option for those wanting to play guitar. Carabbia comes from the world of BMX bike racing, and he compared the Contender to a custom race bike. You buy a race bike to fit you, and if traditional guitars don't fit, you need another option. His goal is to educate people about scale length and give them another option. There aren't many 24-inch scale guitars available, and the micro guitars from Squier and Ibanez have a 22.5" scale which causes tuning and intonation problems. He attended a NAMM show and realized there was nothing like the Contender available anywhere, so DGW was born.

The best example he gave me, though, was Brian May from Queen. He's a big guy - about 6'2" tall, although he's probably 6'6" with his hair - but his famous homemade Red Special guitar has a 24-inch scale. So although the Contender would make a good guitar for younger players with small hands, it's obviously a guitar for anyone who just might prefer a smaller scale guitar.

The Contender is the end result of one man's quest to build a guitar that fits him. Because of his racing past, his hands have been damaged and the shorter scale better suits his limitations. The Contender is just the first step. In the future, Carabbia plans to add a Tele-style guitar to his lineup as he has received many requests for one.

As for the current Contender, the more I played it the more I liked it. The neck took a little time to get familiar with, both the scale and the thickness. I had been playing Triumph, my new Ibanez RG, and I was used to the thin Wizard profile and the standard 25.5 inch scale. But after a while, I really started to like the Contender. It has a different sound and feel and quickly became the guitar I picked up most often, and not just because I had to write this review. I decided that I couldn't send it back, so I bought it. The fact that it had a sunburst finish, the one I think looks the best, had a little to do with it, too. That's probably the best outcome to expect from a review - I liked it so much that I made it my own.

It may not be for everybody, but the Contender is a guitar that anyone buying a new guitar should consider. It fits the mold for a beginner/child's guitar very well, but it is also a viable alternative for anyone who may want a guitar but doesn't like traditional scale lengths. The Contender is available directly from Durango's Web site, so if you're interested check it out.

For additional info and some tone samples, please watch the supplemental video below.