Post by thinline72 on Apr 18, 2024 10:58:41 GMT
Hi all,
In a spirit of other recent discussions around preferences in strings, gauges, materials etc., I thought I'd create a thread about string spacing, nut width and their combinations!
I mainly play fingerpicking, so I tend to like more a wider string spacing and a bit wider nut width (1 3/4" instead of 1 11/16"). My National Trojan and Atkin acoustic have 58mm string spacing with 1 3/4" nut width. I've recently acquired a cool Harmony H68 archtop which also has 1 3/4" nut width and a bridge with adjustable string spacing set to ~58mm. To me, it seems to be a very good and comfortable combo. And, as far as I know, it's also a pretty common and popular combo?
On the other side, my MM Blues has a "modern" 52mm string spacing with 1 3/4" nut width. I believe 52mm has been very popular on all types of guitars, especially with 1 11/16" nut width. So I've put "modern" into quotes as I'm just not sure if it was that common on resonators back then? Anyway, it works great with it, but I'm thinking of increasing it to 58mm in line with other 1 3/4" nut width guitars I have.
I wonder what are your preferences and reasoning behind them? Any feedback would be much appreciated!
P.S. Sorry for mixing imperial and metric systems in the post. I grew up with and have a perception only for the metric system, apart from the nut width measurements which I guess are predominantly put in inches even these days. So I thought I'd use the most popular measurement system for them.
In a spirit of other recent discussions around preferences in strings, gauges, materials etc., I thought I'd create a thread about string spacing, nut width and their combinations!
I mainly play fingerpicking, so I tend to like more a wider string spacing and a bit wider nut width (1 3/4" instead of 1 11/16"). My National Trojan and Atkin acoustic have 58mm string spacing with 1 3/4" nut width. I've recently acquired a cool Harmony H68 archtop which also has 1 3/4" nut width and a bridge with adjustable string spacing set to ~58mm. To me, it seems to be a very good and comfortable combo. And, as far as I know, it's also a pretty common and popular combo?
On the other side, my MM Blues has a "modern" 52mm string spacing with 1 3/4" nut width. I believe 52mm has been very popular on all types of guitars, especially with 1 11/16" nut width. So I've put "modern" into quotes as I'm just not sure if it was that common on resonators back then? Anyway, it works great with it, but I'm thinking of increasing it to 58mm in line with other 1 3/4" nut width guitars I have.
I wonder what are your preferences and reasoning behind them? Any feedback would be much appreciated!
P.S. Sorry for mixing imperial and metric systems in the post. I grew up with and have a perception only for the metric system, apart from the nut width measurements which I guess are predominantly put in inches even these days. So I thought I'd use the most popular measurement system for them.