Ok, first impressions with the stock strings tuned down to E:
Remarkably deep, warm and resonant sound. However, the issue isn't with the strings being sloppy, and flapping around. The problem is that, with the vastly lower tension, it's like playing a guitar with a scalloped fingerboard. For someone like me that doesn't have a particularly light touch (37 years of playing electric and steel string acoustic), the tiniest extra amount of extra pressure, over and above what is needed to fret the string, raises the pitch of the note about half a semitone. It sounds like someone fitted the frets using guesswork and a stick of chalk.
You'd need a set of strings specifically designed for a short scale guitar to be playable. Even with a light touch, it's so difficult to play with just the right amount of pressure that the notes alternate between perfect, painfully sharp or just not fretted at all.
I'm going to persevere though.
