Why all all affordable Breedlove guitars have a narrow neck ?
 

Every time I stop by a local music store, or at a Guitar Center, i can't help being seduced by the tone of Breedlove guitars. But I never owned one. Because, unless I decide to spend an average 2k, more or less, on Oregon made models, all affordable Breedlove guitars, including parlor and orchestra models, have a 11/16 neck. I can understand the choice of narrow necks for dreadnoughts or for their line of beginner Discovery guitars, but I do not get why they continue to disregard the offer of a 1.75 neck for their line of Pursuit guitars and other series built in China. It looks to me that they are going in the opposite direction of the actual trend: most Alvarez and Ibanez orchestra and parlor models in the $300/500 price range have a wider neck... Mr. Breedlove, are you listening ? ;)

Believe or not, not every one wants the wider neck/nut width. Maybe Breedlove is trying to appeal to those that do not.

Personally, I think guitar companies would do well to offer both widths, routinely.

Ditto to PRS.

Breedlove is owned by 2 Old Hippies, Tom Bedell being the face.- you may want to aim your . Grimace his way. In the extremely high quality Bedell line of guitars ($2-10k), literally every model was 1 11/16 including parlor guitars. The feedback and pushing from Artisan Guitars in TN especially had them finally make some guitars with a wider nut.

I glean that the company has an institutional bias toward 1 11/16 nut AND, as is wise in manufacturing, it creates efficiency when you can build the same neck for use on multiple instruments. The more options and setups you have, the more expensive things are.

Clearly they recognize that they have an audience for the wider nut in the upper end lines built in Bend, but I can see why they’d not make the change, at least for now, on the imports.

Starting to see a lot of low-/mid-line Breedloves among proficient local players who could easily afford a more expensive (read "Big Three") instrument... :guitar:

I think there's a connection here... :cool:

Here's the "straight poop" on the nut widths:

Until last year, ALL the Breedlove guitars made overseas had 1 & 11/16ths" nut widths, while all the guitars made in Oregon, USA, have 1 3/4" nut widths. This has been the standard since 2012 when I moved to Corvallis and got acquainted with the Breedlove line. My favorite store in town is Bullfrog Music, and they are a "Breedlove Dealer of Distinction" (or something like that!)... Kurt Dietrich sells a LOT of Breedlove acoustics, both the imports and the American builds.

He actually has Tom Bedell's "ear" about some things, and in 2017, he asked about the narrower nut widths on the Asian-built Breedloves... and voila! In 2018, all of a sudden, you could find a few of those imports that had a 1 3/4" nut width... not all, but some.

Good luck finding one in Michigan!

Personally, I wish more companies routinely had a 1 11/16" nut width. It's my preferred width for sure.

My Korean-made Cascade concert had a 1.75” nut. I believe the Pro series concert did also.

There are many great buys for used ones like the above or Oregon-made used ones with1.75” nuts that are well under $1500.

Which of the imports have the wider nuts. I usually browse every few weeks to see if they've made any changes to nut width and haven't ever noticed any. I'd love it if that were the case.

Check the Breedlove site under pre 2018 archive. As I mentioned above, the Cascades have a 1 3/4" nut. I sold my mint Cascade C25/cre for $800 which was an excellent Korean built instrument. I also now see the Pro series (not listed in the archives for some reason) also has the same nut width. The Pro series were also made in Korea and are almost identical to the Oregon-made American series.

With some searching you should be able to locate either of these well under $1000, or better yet, a used American or Oregon series in excellent condition also under
$1000 to slightly more, depending on their condition like one of these:

https://reverb.com/marketplace?query...ove%20American


Good Luck

They don't. I'm a Breedlove player and have never played a Breedlove with a small nut. Maybe the old import line did. I've never played them.

Isn’t this what Taylor has been doing as well with their sub-300 series (layered b&s) guitars with 1-11/16” nut width?

Yep. The old Pursuit line of import guitars had a 1 11/16th" nut. Those were discontinued 2-3 years ago but are available a few places like Amazon for a great price for anyone wanting a very nice acoustic-electric guitar. Some, like the level 1 guitars, are all solid. Others are laminate back/sides. Very nice but not anywhere close to the current, all-U.S. made, tone enhanced Tom Bedell or the custom-build Breedlove instruments.