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Old 10-01-2019, 08:31 AM
Jacob Reinhart Jacob Reinhart is offline
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Default Nut width and finger style

Hi, I often here fingerstyle players say that they prefer a wider nut width. Also , guitars are often advertised as having a wider nut width suited for fingerstyle.
Can someone explain this? I understand how wider string spacing at the saddle may be preferred but why would nut width be any different for strumming, flat picking or finger style?
I play almost exclusively fingerstyle. My 1.75 nut width guitar has wider spacing at the saddle than my 1.8 nut width.
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Old 10-01-2019, 08:46 AM
vintageom vintageom is offline
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It is a matter of personal preference, accuracy, comfort and "feel".

Players have different finger and hand sizes and varying finger tip sensitivity and varying muscle memory. Players have varying fretting and fingering skills. Some players are like fretting machines and rarely miss while others are not as consistent, thus needing more space between strings to play cleanly.

For every example of a huge-handed player that cannot accurately fret a 1 11/16" nut width, you can find those that do it routinely and accurately. Depends on the player.

Some players like to fret over the top of the neck for F chords with their thumb, for instance. A narrower nut width allows a smaller hand to make the reach cleanly.

My take on your questions.
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Old 10-01-2019, 08:47 AM
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I finger-pick on all my guitars, nut width makes absolutely no difference to me. Neither does the spacing at the saddle - as with any skill, practice makes perfect.

The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.
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Old 10-01-2019, 09:07 AM
vindibona1 vindibona1 is offline
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I can imagine that folks with fat/wide fingers would have an easier time with wider string spacing up at the nut. But for the rest of us, beyond being used to what we get used to, I have wondered the same thing. Until getting my first Taylor just a few years ago I have never had a guitar with anything other than a 1 1/16" nut. Most common electric guitars have even narrower nuts and folks don't seem to have a whole lot of issues getting around playing all sorts of styles. Chet Atkins didn't seem to have any issues at all, did he?

While my playing is still a work in progress, I find that when I play my wide nut Taylors I need to stretch a bit more before playing I eventually get settled in. And then switching suddenly to a narrower nut guitar it takes my fingers some time to readjust to the spacing (or vice versa). I think for fingerstyle I almost have to give the nod to the narrower nut. But I've started working on bluegrass technique and do find that I tend to be more accurate with my Taylors. I'm not sure if that's saddle or nut string spacing. I've never taken the time to compare string spacing at the saddle.

Edit: One more thing... The neck profile and depth seems to make a difference as well. I think a lot depends on how the neck fills up the hand as well as how wide the spacing is.
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Old 10-01-2019, 09:12 AM
MrErikJ MrErikJ is offline
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I prefer a 1.75" nut width as it just gives me a little more room in the open position for left handed licks and the A major chord. I don't tend to pay too much attention to string spacing as standard seems to fit me just fine. For me, it's kind of a combination of the nut width and neck profile. My old Guild has a 1 11/16th nut width and a very shallow profile and it feels fine. My Yamaha LL & LS16 has a chunkier neck but a compensated curve in the thumb-side and a 1 3/4 neck. I also like how it plays and feels.

As long as the guitar doesn't "Fight" me, I'm not too picky, though I prefer 1.75" for all purposes.
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Old 10-01-2019, 09:33 AM
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I'm a longtime player but I've only been fingerpicking for about a year, so I'm still just a little beyond a beginner at that. I don't find nut width to matter a lot, but I do find string spacing up around the saddle pretty important.

I currently have three acoustics (two pretty nice ones and one that's not bad but was quite inexpensive and the difference is justified) that all have 1.75" nut widths. The two nice ones use pretty much all of the nut in the string spacing and both have 2 1/4" string spacing at the saddle. I love fingerpicking on both. The less expensive one has a lot of space outside the two E strings at the nut and has just under 2 1/8" spacing at the saddle and it feels notably cramped for my right hand for fingerpicking. Maybe if/when I'm more accomplished, it won't matter as much, but at this point I find the difference quite noticeable. If I play that one for a while, I can pretty much adapt to it, but it's just not as comfortable.

Somewhat interestingly (to me at least), when I was shopping for the most recent of my two nice acoustics, I also played for a good while on a similar guitar that had a 1.69" nut width, but the string slots used as much of that nut as possible without having the strings slide off the fret-edges and the spacing at the saddle was still 2 1/4" and I found that guitar just as comfortable for fingerpicking as the two nicer acoustics I have with 1.75" nuts and 2 1/4" spacing at the saddle. And I found it much more comfortable than the cheaper guitar I have with a 1.75" nut but narrower string spacing at the saddle.

So now I pay less attention to nut width than string spacing, mostly at the saddle.
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Old 10-01-2019, 10:19 AM
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Im a long time, hobby fingerstyle player only and I just know my experience. I started on 1 11/16 nut buy my hand told me it needed something wider so I got a 1 3/4, much better but in a little while it "said" again a little more so I got a 1 13/16 and my playing got quite a bit better instantly. I tried playing a 1 7/8 in a store but that was too much.
In addition I bought a 1 13/16 nut, one in a series of 1 13/16 guitars that had a 2 5/6 string spacing and it didnt work for me. I play best with 2 1/4.
I am not saying that is the best but it is for me as a hobby player and it is logical.
Now strumming is a different skill and I find a 1 11/16 works best for me strumming, 2 3/16 string spacing.
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Old 10-01-2019, 11:11 AM
charles Tauber charles Tauber is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob Reinhart View Post
why would nut width be any different for strumming, flat picking or finger style?
As others have said, it is personal preference. Part of what goes into personal preference is what one plays with one's fretting hand, what are the technical requirements.

The term "fingerpicking" can mean many different things from the plucking of individual notes, as in classical guitar playing, to basic Travis pattern picking. It doesn't really mean very much, other than one isn't "strumming" in some fashion. Similarly, the term "fingerpicking" means nothing at all with regards to what one does with one's fretting hand. Again, the fretting hand can be used for anything from holding first-position chords while one "fingerpicks" to playing complex chords with constantly added notes (e.g. "chord melody") to playing specific combination of notes on a variety of strings, such as is often done in classical guitar playing. Much of one's preference for string spacing at the nut has to do with what one is trying to do with one's fretting hand. As a gross generalization, the more complex the demand, the more room one needs, up to a point. That is one of the reasons that most classical players prefer much wider nuts at 2"+.
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Old 10-01-2019, 11:42 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob Reinhart View Post
…My 1.75 nut width guitar has wider spacing at the saddle than my 1.8 nut width.
Hi JR

Saddle/Bridge spacing comes in different ranges just like nut spacing.

Sounds like the spacing of the strings at the bridge of your 1¾" nut guitar is wider than the string spacing on the guitar with the 1.8" nut.

The two main string spacings (2¼" or 2⅝") at the saddle/bridge make no difference to me. I can fingerstyle well with either.

Most guitars I've seen listed with 1.8" or 1.75" or 1¾" are spaced the same at the nut. Actually the only guitars I've seen use the 1.8" measurement at the nut are Seagull, and it comes from them converting from metric to imperial (they are headquartered in French Speaking Quebec, Canada where they use the metric system).

A Seagull with a 1.8" nut spaces the strings identically to a typical 1¾" nut acoustic. When millimeters are converted to imperial measurements, often they are rounded off to decimal points instead of being converted to fractions of inches.

This has misled many a USA experimenter to try to widen the strings at the nut on his/her Seagull thinking they had an extra 20th on an inch of neck width to play with. Not so…





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Old 10-01-2019, 12:48 PM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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I have always been a finger picker since I started playing guitar when I was 16 years old back in 1964. I never paid attention to what the nut width or string spacing at the bridge was. I adapted to the guitar I owned.

I did a lot of my guitar playing development on an old Harmony ladder braced 12-string, a model H1270 that I bought in 1966. That guitar had a 2" wide nut but it also had 12 strings.

After about 5 years of playing in 1969 I got a 6-string Martin D-35 with a 1 11/16" nut. I don't think I was even aware of the differences in nut width, I just learned to play it. That D-35 was the only acoustic guitar that I owned until 2002 when my wife bought me a Taylor 514CE with a 1.75" nut width. I wasn't aware of the difference in nut width on that guitar, either.

Some people have really thick fingers where nut width and space between strings really matters. I have fairly slender fingers and finger tips, so I learned to adapt regardless of nut width or spacing at the bridge. Today I have guitars that range from 1 5/8" at the nut to 1 7/8".

I really don't think that playing fingerstyle has anything to do with nut width or string spacing unless you have thick fingers. Then it matters.

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Old 10-01-2019, 01:03 PM
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It absolutely make a difference. Otherwise millions of guitar players wouldn't care and guitar makers wouldn't bother.

Go ask the same question on the Classical sub-forum. YMMV.
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Old 10-01-2019, 01:09 PM
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Wider nut = cleaner playing on fingerstyle/classical type music. There is a trade off with have to stretch fingers out more for some chords. If I was to custom order a guitar I probably would go for 1 7/8".
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Old 10-01-2019, 01:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob Reinhart View Post
...My 1.75 nut width guitar has wider spacing at the saddle than my 1.8 nut width.
I would think that's unusual - in most cases, I'd assume that a wider nut corresponds with wider string spacing....
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Old 10-01-2019, 01:35 PM
Silly Moustache Silly Moustache is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob Reinhart View Post
Hi, I often here fingerstyle players say that they prefer a wider nut width. Also , guitars are often advertised as having a wider nut width suited for fingerstyle.
Can someone explain this? I understand how wider string spacing at the saddle may be preferred but why would nut width be any different for strumming, flat picking or finger style?
I play almost exclusively fingerstyle. My 1.75 nut width guitar has wider spacing at the saddle than my 1.8 nut width.
hi Jacob, it;'s not that fingerstylists prefer "wider" fretboards, but that most guitars since the early thirties have been made with thinner necks to suit rhythm style playing.

Until very recently you could still buy from (for instance) Martin 12 fret designs - 0,00, 000 and dreadnought models with 1 & 13/16" or 1 & 7/8" nut widths providing more string separation for the fretting hand.

A strummer will probably benefit from a narrow string spacing, but a wider string spacing - 2 & 3/4" or thereabouts also facilitates more accuracy for the picking hand.

That is the rationale.

some can fingerpick with ease on a narrow rhythm style neck, and some find the wider neck uncomfortable.

I'm not a great fingerstylist but I find that wider fretboards and string spacing makes it easier for me to flat-pick accurately.
I put this down to a) finding guitars best suited to my style, and b) accommodating my "FFFTS" (Fat Flat Finger Tip Syndrome). note, I don't have long , large or fat fingers - it's just the flat, fat, fingertips.

I doubt that I am (in any way) unique.

In fact, my style only really "took off" enabling me to soar unrestricted to the heights of mediocrity that I've achieved since finding guitar designs that actually suited me.
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Old 10-01-2019, 01:49 PM
vintage40s vintage40s is offline
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The width of the strings at nut and bridge makes a big difference.

Martin dreadnought and Yamaha compact folk:
Narrow at nut, narrow at bridge.
Close strings are tight for some chords, good for flat picking.

Eastman OM:
Wide at nut, medium wide at bridge.
Good for chording, finger picking, and flat picking.

Eastman parlor:
Wide at nut, very wide at bridge (1/4" wider than the dreadnought!).
Great for chording and finger picking, not good for flat picking.

You get used to what you have. I had only the dreadnought for 50 years, learned finger picking on it and not much of flat picking.

But after learning flat picking, and buying four guitars the past 6 months because of AGF, I see there is a big difference in what each kind of guitar does best for each hand.
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