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Hi all
I recently sold a rather lovely Comins GCS-16-1 as I couldn't get past the tight string spacing, particularly at the bridge. Spacing there was around 51mm (maybe towards 52mm max). The nut width was pretty tight too, similar to my strat at around 42mm.
In contrast, my Martin 000-28EC has a 57mm bridge spacing and my Stratocaster with its vintage tremolo bridge is 55mm.
There was no trouble playing the Comins with a plectrum, but for fingerstyle (especially with 13 gauge strings) it was just too cramped for my large fingers. A great shame as it sounded fantastic.
I know Eastman have 1 3/4 nuts but Im not sure the bridge spacing is that wide. Does anyone know of commercially available, production level instruments with wider spacing, especially at the bridge, for fingerstyle? Could be archtop or semi-hollow.
Thanks in advance.
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01-15-2022 09:04 AM
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You can always re-slot your existing bridge for a wider spacing, or replace it entirely with another bridge to accommodate wider spacing. If it's a bridge with individual saddles you can possibly replace just the saddles and re-slot them for a wider spacing. I've done that several times with various guitars over the years. It's not always easy to find tunomatic type bridges that don't come pre-slotted though but they do exist. Similarly with wooden bridges you can either re-slot them or just replace it entirely.
Sometimes there can be an issue with the strings aligning over the pickup pole-pieces but in my experience it hasn't been a deal-breaker.
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When we were building guitars we offered a finger-style spacing. It was 1 13/16 at the nut and 2 3/16 at the bridge. Coincidentally, someone posted an FYI on the for sale forum on this site for one of them being sold on the used market right now. I have nothing to do with the sale so please don't think of this as spam.
EDIT: Sorry, both the post and the Reverb listing appear to be gone. Perhaps it sold.
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Originally Posted by jazzmanstever
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Originally Posted by Humbuckr
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Originally Posted by Caboverde
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Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
Yep, it sold! Hopefully someone here got it!
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Originally Posted by marcwhy
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Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
Wow, that's exciting news!! Please keep us informed!
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In many cases, the standard 50 mm humbucker pole piece spacing drives the neck taper and string spacing on factory electric guitars regardless of the 1-11/16” or 1-3/4” nut width. My archtop with wider string spacing uses humbuckers with bar pole pieces to allow for a 1-3/4” (44.5 mm) to 2-3/16” (55.6 mm) bridge spacing.
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Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7
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Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
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Strange...I've always found the spacing of the comins, as well as the benedetto and eastmans, to be the widest among the most popular jazz guitars. My comins gcs1 has a much larger spacing than the standard gibson for example..
and it's the same arm of the gcs16-1...
besides being quite robust, not thin.
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What should I specify my string spacing at the bridge to be on a newly commissioned archtop to accommodate finger style playing?
The pick up will be a Kent Armstrong 12 pole (USA) floater. The guitar will only have a single pickup.
Should it be the same as my Martin HD 28? Or will that not be optimal on an archtop?
I play mostly with hybrid picking. But I also play just with a pick.
Thanks
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Much of my guitar playing had been fingerstyle on acoustic (flat top) guitars. I prefer a wider string spacing, with my favorite being my Huss & Dalton 12 fret 00 with its 1 7/8" nut (built before they went to their current 1 3/4" nut) and 2 5/16" saddle string spacing. This guitar is (to me) essentially a steel string version of a classical guitar.
However, in recent years, my focus has been solely on solo chord melody. For that, I find that a narrower string spacing of an archtop to be better because I am often fretting two adjacent strings with the same finger.
For me, 1 23/32" nut seems a good compromise between 1 11/16" and 1 3/4". So my point is to carefully consider what you intend to play. On my archtop, I still play fingerstyle, but my chording needs are distinctly different from what I would do on an acoustic playing fingerstyle. I haven't measured the saddle spacing on my archtop, but it seems to be typical for an archtop.
Note again, though my archtop is essentially acoustic with a small floating pickup, when I refer to "acoustic" in this post I am referring to a flat top acoustic.
Tony
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Originally Posted by tbeltrans
The normal 1 11/16 nut size works fine for my small hands when playing chord melodies on an archtop. However, the spacing by the bridge is a bit cramped for me when I play chord melodies. I was looking for guidance on slightly wider spacing at the bridge on an archtop.
And on a side note, boy do I love your Citation. So jealous ;-)
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Originally Posted by charleyrich99
As for Joe Pass, when I saw him play, he usually had an Ibanez archtop, though I don't know the model. The string spacing seemed typical for an archtop, so I would guess that to be a 1 11/16" nut and typical saddle string spacing. He would switch between pick and fingers. When using his fingers, he would stick the pick in his mouth, so I don't recall him using hybrid picking technique (i.e. pick between thumb and index finger and the other 3 fingers playing fingerstyle).
Tony
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Originally Posted by tbeltrans
You've got to consider nut width too though, as a mismatch can bring the strings a bit too close to the fretboard edges, as can happen with vintage spec strats with the wider spaced tremolo bridges coupled with a 42mm (or less in some cases) nut.
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Originally Posted by Humbuckr
I need to be able to push my fingers easily between the strings on the right hand and not unintentionally mute strings with my left. Hopefully this will do the trick.
Hope this helps!
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Originally Posted by jazzmanstever
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Originally Posted by Saxophone Tall
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Originally Posted by RJVB
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Originally Posted by Saxophone Tall
(I also have no idea what that Eastman is capable of, acoustically.)
The only alternatives are Lora / Wu (which is a "maybe" anyway, since their website lists 2" nut guitars but not 62-3 mm string spacing (at RH) ones, much less than that, like 57 mm max if I recall correctly
Wu should be able to make you a 62-3mm-at-the-saddle guitar. The difference with his usual models should be small enough to obtain it with just a wider ("overhanging") fretboard rather than obliging him to carve a very different neck. Ask you luthier next time you see him; mine has confirmed that he has already widened the fretboard on guitars before. You can also calculate (or sketch) for yourself how much wider the end of the fretboard has to be to go from 57 to 63 mm at the saddle.
EDIT: I've been wondering lately about fretboard (or rather, saddle) radius and fingerpicking. I'm not at all convinced that the usual radius is irrelevant for finger picking. Using free strokes it puts the next lower string in the "after-stroke" path of your fingertip for the treble side of the saddle, and the next highter string in the downward part of your stroke on the bass side of the saddle. This, rather than LH considerations, could be the reason why classical guitars typically do not have a radiused fretboard.
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Did you ever have to make up your mind?
Pick up on one and leave the other one behind
It's not often easy, and not often kind
Did you ever have to make up your mind?
Problem solved:
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