Any Wide String Spread at the Saddle on Rainsongs?
 

If I can sell a couple of wood bodies I might finally join the CF ownership group.

Does Rainsong make any 6-string guitars with a string spread at the saddle greater than 2-3/16" (the Al Petteway sig) ?
Nothing on the Rainsong website or ads, and past emails with Rainsong were not helpful. Elderly told me the newer Nashville/Vintage models were 2-5/32".

I know you can get 2-1/4" as standard from Emerald.

I prefer a neck with good depth, 1-3/4" nut minimum, and 2-5/16" or 2-3/8" string spread. I have fairly wide hands and play bare fingers - no picks or nails. I can handle narrower and low profile, but far prefer the deeper and wider configurations.

I guess I could get a 12 string and remove the octaves.

Thanks in advance for any info.

I could swear I've asked this question before (or have read it a few times here on AGF), but RainSong only has one string spacing and it is 2 3/16".

Thanks steelvibe. That's what I thought.

I tried to have them use their 12 string neck or anything else that they could come up with to give me a wider nut and more spacing at the bridge but Rainsong wouldn't budge. It was then that I ordered an X20 with 1-7/8" nut and 2-5/16" at the bridge. Like you, it's almost entirely bare fingered, fingerstyle playing for me.

Hi Mark

I brought out the callipers and measured the N2 standard neck on my H-DR/T.

At the nut:
- thickness: 22.2 mm, 0.876”, 7/8”
- width: 44.6 mm, 1.752”, 1 3/4”
- string width: 38.8 mm, 1.528”, 1 17/32”

At 12th fret:
- thickness: 23.6 mm, 0.931”, 15/16”
- width: 54.7 mm, 2.153”, 2 1/4”
- string width: 47.0 mm, 1.850”, 1 7/8”

At bridge:
- string width: 56.0 mm, 2.207”, 2 3/16”


The N2 neck is a medium D shape with a flattish fretboard and squarish (not rounded) edges that I find easy to fret without over squeezing.

The 2 3/16” bridge spacing is almost 2 4/16” so I’m OK.

Because of square edges there seems to be room to widen the string width by 1/16” + 1/16” without playing the E strings off the sides of the fretboard.

Some folks just notch the saddle to get a bit more width.

If needed, choose a good guitar tech who can fill the pin holes with epoxy and re-drill. You can read about this at Frank Ford’s frets.com.

String width at the nut can be widened by replacing with a blank Tusq nut slotted to taste.

(BTW the $75 tobacco burst finish (metallic medium copper + dark copper) is gorgeous and a great option. And no cost options are the NS 24.9” neck (same profile as N2), and the N1 shallow profile neck.)

Cheers.

.

Hey Jim, we think alike. I contacted them some years ago with the same request and received a brief reply of "no". I was wondering if they had released any newer models with wider spacing since then.

Casualmusic, thanks for taking the time to do those measurements. I work sometimes with epoxy and fiberglass with vinyl ester resin so a bridge job is a possibility. Also appreciate the N2 description.