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Old 10-16-2009, 11:12 AM
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devellis devellis is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: North Carolina
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When I worked as a bank teller just after college, I could grab a roll of dimes and tell if it had too many, too few, or the tight number of dimes in it. A dime isn't very thick, relative to the overall length of a full roll, but anyone who's handled those rolls for a while can feel the difference instantly, without thinking about it. If you've got a good sized dictionary in your house, open it in the middle and run your finger over the location of the page numbers. On many dictionaries, you'll feel a distinct bump, caused by the microscopic layers of ink occurring in the same location on page after page. The thickness of the ink layer, relative to the thickness of a page, is pretty small but its cumulative presence on every page is clearly discernible. Our hands are extremely sensitive thickness detectors.

I have a really nice 1979 Taylor that's in phenomenal shape. It's sounds and plays really well but rarely gets played. Why? Well, probably primarily because I find the dreadnought shape a bit off-putting. But also because of its 1 11/16" neck. I can play it, and can move from it to a larger neck or vice versa without too much re adjusting. But I just prefer the feel of a wider fingerboard. Even 1 23/32" feels better (although how much of that is nut width per se versus neck profile and other factors is hard to say).

If I had to, I could adapt to 1 11/16" but I just prefer a somewhat more generous fingerboard. When you're fretting a string, the proximity of your finger to the adjacent string can be pretty darn close. Even a whisper of extra room can make a difference in how cleanly the notes sound. Guitars and guitar playing involve fairly narrow tolerances in general. A little bit can mean a lot.
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