nut width question

[tippy5]

Originally Posted by Mike1111

It is interesting that fingerstyle players usually prefer something on the wider side and yet many jazz players seem to be comfortable with both pick and fingerstyle on narrow necks.

Yaeh and mando players, with 8 strings and tiny nut widths, do it too. Just need to angle the fingertips in more for the skinnier string spacing. Not classical hand posture.

I have had great success having my tech make a new bone nut for a Martin CS Eng/Claro Walnut , 00 size guitar.
WE used the next in, string spacing, from the stock Martin design with the Stew Mac string spacing ruler.
It was around 1.5" string spacing with allowed a margin of more room for the tips next to both fret board edges. So much faster!

I am seriously considering doing this to my Goodall cutaway aloha model due to it's price relative to my Presentation (bling) grade Goodall.
Speed is speed. Clean hitting notes is also critical.

[73Fender]

Which came first, fat fingers or wide nuts? Yes I am afflicted.

[Rockin2Slowly]

I'm not going to bother reading through all the posts. I am just going to say "Lucky you." I'm sure given enough time most could...and do...adjust to different nut widths. As a beginner 1-5/8 is too narrow for me. 1-11/16 is better. I practice with my Pono which is 1-3/4 because I can do chords better on that nut width without muting a lower string than I can on the narrower widths. The 1-5/8 is horrible for me with many chords. I tried an S6 Original at 1.8 and it was even better although reaching for the low E tells me I probably wouldn't want any wider.

I have a week between lessons to learn enough to not embarrass myself...and I still embarrass myself at times. I don't need the added aggravation of over or under reaching strings or muting strings....which still happens even though I am sticking to the one guitar. You can imagine the trouble I'd have if I threw the other two guitars into my practice sessions. I feel that once playing becomes second nature for me then playing a guitar with a smaller nut width will be easier to accomplish.

In my case I may not live long enough to reach that goal, so I am considering selling my two guitars with 1-5/8 nut widths even though I enjoy the sound and looks of the Goya and the looks and versatility of the Swede. The Swede can sound beautiful through my amp, but the amp adds another dimension to learn. I originally set it for clean and didn't touch it afterwards. Unfortunately it hasn't been played in over a year.

[wayfaring]

I lost a tip of a fretting finger and now it has a wide foot print (can a finger have a footprint?), at any rate I see a guitar that I might like and if it's a 1 11/16" nut I move on, the 1 3/4" is so much better for me, after reading this thread I feel I'm in good company

[tonyo]

My experience was that starting with 1 11/16 nut width was very difficult. Once I got a guitar with a 1 3/4 nut width, the speed of my learning increased and it was noticeably easier and thus more rewarding.

After about a year of playing, I tried someone else's guitar with 1 11/16 and struggled to play it.

About another year later, I was able to switch between 1 11/16 and 1 3/4 with relative ease.

1 3/4 width was well worth it and made enough of a difference to rave about it.