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Old 10-17-2009, 01:26 AM
Idaho John Idaho John is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: In rural Idaho
Posts: 1,142
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Quote:
Originally Posted by patticake View Post
i was surprised - nay, shocked! - to discover last june that yes, that little bit of difference makes a huge difference to me. funny thing, but when i was first planning to buy a yamaha fg730s, people on this board warned me about the neck, and i thought "how much could such a little difference matter?" and went ahead with the yamaha. i ended up trading it for a seagull original s6 with great relief.
I went through something quite similiar. I had a guitar that I was comfortable with for strumming and single string runs but...when I started learning to fingerpick I just could not get my fingers to chord properly and ended up consistently dampening the strings (I don't know what other term to use - thud?). The nut was 1 11/16th. I decided to get another guitar to focus on fingerstyle and went into a local dealer who had a nice sunburst acoustic that I "just had to have," but...1 11/16th. Got it home and had the same problems. Hard way to learn.

After some dedicated playing time at several other dealers in my area, I finally found that 1 3/4 works just right (or right now) for me. 1 7/8 was too much and I could not move my thumb over the top and consistently make some of the chords that go with country blues and the old nut width wasn't working. So a process of elimination.

I have so much more to learn, but as with Patty, I have made some mistakes along the way to find what works. And that is what matters to me...that it works and I can play with some comfort. That perception of comfort makes practice seem easier...and more attractive.
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Idaho John

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