Nut Width and Guitar Scale

[Steadfastly]

For me it doesn't matter what the scale length is. A 1 3/4" or 1 7/8" nut is necessary for my large hands and fingers.

[musicman1951]

Originally Posted by DukeX

1 3/4 or larger on all acoustic guitars for me. Scale makes no difference.

I am the same. I can play the narrower neck without going into mental spasms, but it makes me a little unhappy.

[vindibona1]

Originally Posted by robj144

I'm a little confused to how you connect width and length. To me, they are completely independent.

I agree. Up near the nut how would one differentiate and change in feel that scale length might present. So many factors involved. Not only nut width, neck profile must be factored in as well. And while we often talk about fat fingers needing a wider nut (which I get) we must also consider finger length. I kind of had a mini epiphony yesterday...

I am not a bluegrass player, but have been working on one of Tony Polacastros demonstration licks and trying to build speed with it. I've got three guitars out now that I'm cycling through. One is a Taylor 614ce (standard neck 1.75). Second and Alvarez Yairi with 1.68 and very slim C. Last a Martin D35 with 1.68 and soft V neck.

To cut to the chase the Martin was the most comfortable for this and the Yairi the least. These two had the same scale length, same nut width. The Taylor fell in the middle in terms of speed and comfort but I felt that the small additional reach required took more effort to get the same speed.

As I'm trying to speed through the lick I had the same sensation in my hand as if I were playing a big fat violin. And violins as you know are built for speed (and talk about narrow nut width!). Strings comfortably spaced close together and thickness in the right part of the neck where I could leave my hand more open and relaxed as I fingered the notes. The extra relaxation is where I think the extra speed came from that was a bit more of a challenge from the other two guitars.

And then there is chording. With cowboy chords the Martin's soft V wins hands down. The opposing force to my fingers comes from suppport of my palm rather than my thumb is less present in the Taylor and much less present in the Yairi. For bar chords I'd consider the Martin and Taylor pretty much even, but only because the action on the Taylor is lower. The Yairi doesn't give my hand the support it needs because I have long fingers, even with a low action the thumb pressure required to oppose the string tension is more than the other two (Yairi strung with SC light tension strings).

Bottom line: Nut width cannot be considered without considering neck profile. And then hand shape and finger length is integral. And obviously one with thick fingers needs to consider the string spacing for comfort but cannot overlook the other two components.

My 02¢ worth