Being primarily a fingerstyle player, I recently went shopping for a "fingerstyle" Martin. I had never played a guitar with a 1 3/4" nut so I headed off to the local Guitar Center to see how they played. One of the first that I picked up was the Martin OM-1. I found that the wider nut makes it only slightly easier on the right hand. There is really not that much difference to me in the feel of a 1 3/4" nut and the standard 1 11/16" nut. So to make a long story short, after about a two week search, I ended up buying a Martin with an 1 11/16" nut. The sound and feel of the guitar outweighted any difference a nut width would make.
My advice to you would be to get out and play some of these wide nut guitars and see what you think. Epiphone has an EF500R and Guild makes a GAD30R. Both are 1 3/4" nuts and sell for less than $1,000.. Martin make an OM-1 that sells for about $900-$1,100 and has the wide nut. I liked the size and feel of the OM-1 but it sounded a little thin compared to some of the other models. Taylor also makes some wide nutters that can be had for about $1,000 new. In my shopping, I only looked at guitars in the $700-$1200 range. I really liked the OM-1's feel but there were just too many other guitars that sounded better.
Good luck to you,
George
Richardson, Texas
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