Hello again!
I'm working on a four stringer... does anyone have any thoughts on neck width?
I measured and found the 1 1/2" neck works mathematically. Un sure if it lends itself to playability.
Up til now I've only made three stringers.
As always thank you for any input.
You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!
Replies
I know some of the St.Blues guitars come at 1.5" neck because I was checking with them because I have seen guys finger picking those with no problem. I think it would work fine for normal size hands. The unit I have is only 1 3/8" for a four string and I will admit I had to do some adjusting to set it up to finger pick but, it works at 9mm distance between the strings and very little to spare for the outside of strings 1 and 4 but it works great. I will always go for the 1.5" and no less for any other units I buy or try to build.
None of my guitars have frets. It's slide only for me. I too have trouble finger picking on narrow string spacings. So I make all my strings 1/2" apart where the neck meets the neck. I like the neck about 1/4" bigger on each side for a neck width of 2" at the box on a 4 string. Lately I've been tapering the neck slightly to 1-7/8" at the head.
1/2" seems to be the smallest dimension between strings that I can comfortably finger pick. Like George Thorogood, I never figured out how to use a flat pick.
Fred
I might be able to train myself to finger pick with strings narrower than 1/2" spacing. But, I'm building the guitars from scratch, why not make it what works comfortably. There are enough playing basics and music theory challenges without unnecessarily adding another one.
My two string bass, which I dearly love, has 3/4" spacing. I would not change the string spacing on it.
Fred
Love my other 1 1/2" 4s but I think my fat fumble fingers would appreciate the extra space
Never heard of her?
I belong to the "Wing it" school,
I have fret marking stick and the willingness to make lots of mistakes!
Ha ha, I belong to the school of "get right first time" but still make mistakes.
Taff
That sounds great. I am sure the 1.75" should work great for you. Do you have any plans for the 1.5" neck? After rechecking mine it looks like it has a good bow in it from the 7th to the 17th fret. When I got it about 2 weeks ago it was fine and looked pretty straight. Also, it looks like the neck is really closer to a 1 3/8" instead of a 1.5". Not sure what to do. Trying to contact the builder to see what we can work out.
The neck on my CBG is running about 1.45" almost 37mm at the nut but, the strings are very close so I feel I just need to move the nails that make the separation and then make a new tailpiece to hold the strings the correct distance apart. I think the neck width is fine for a 4 string for me but, the string spacing is just a little too close. I think it was built more for chording and slide with an open tuning. I would like to be able to do a little more finger picking but the spacing is just a little too close.
1.5 inch is my standard four.
I've made several with 1.5" necks. I've decided they are too cramped for me so the next one is going to be 1.75". I love the wide spacing of the three stringers so we'll see how it goes. : )
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next