Small hands and fingerstyle spacing??

[Larpy]

Don't overlook the depth of the neck. I prefer 1 11/16" width necks, but with a shallow neck, 1 3/4" is fine.

In fact, when it comes to necks, I think depth is more important to me than width.

I once owned a 1949 Martin 000-18 with a skinny-width 1 11/16" neck, but the depth of the neck was like the thick end of a baseball bat. Playing that guitar was sheer torture until I had the neck shaved.

[sinistral]

Here’s a recent custom with 1-11/-6” spacing: NGD Martin D-14 Custom (42 style)

If that’s what suits you, that’s what suits you. But before signing off on the commission, I would want to be triply sure that that is what works best for you. Same for string spacing and neck shape.

[canuck7]

Originally Posted by fitness1

I have pretty small hands for a 6 footer - I've always been most comfortable on 1 13/16 and 1 7/8 steel and full 52mm classicals....with 2 5/16 and 58-60mm saddle spacing, respectively.

What many people don't realize is - when your fingers are shorter, they can't come in on a steep angle and land in the proper place as easily as folks with longer fingers. Increasing the space between the strings allows for a more shallow angle to work.

Just my two cents....

Hit the nail on the head...it doesn't matter whether you're a fingerstyle player or picker, or... What matters is what kind of chords do you play and how you finger them with your fretting hand. So, with short fingers and less range of motion of the phalange joints, you have to come in with a shallower angle to fret, and wider string spacing at the nut allows you to do that without muting the nearby strings. It turns out that even large handed people like me (although I have relatively short phalnages) still come in with a shallower angle to the fretted string because my joint range is less than what I would like, and thus a wider string spacing allows you to fret the whole chord and not get any nearby string deadness. If you're playing songs with fingerings that stretch over 5-6 frets, the wider nut also allows cleaner fretting.

If you're a first position chord person (what some people call 'cowboy chords'), the narrow nut works fine for most and with smaller hands the narrower nut width is a blessing. I guess the first 70 years that Martin was around, most of the acoustic steel string players were cowboys!

[musicman1951]

Originally Posted by s2y

I'm in the process of finalizing specs for a cedar SJ. Builder says he sells the wider 1 3/4" nut and wider bridge 90% of the time. Pretty sure everything I own is 1 11/16" and I can't say that I feel like I'm lacking.

Short answer is the obvious one: get what feels comfortable.

I agree that you should try a 1 3/4 guitar, and sometimes I think the string spacing makes a bigger difference than the nut. My concern is that if you usually play the smaller nut the 1 3/4 is bound to feel strange/uncomfortable for a length of time. If you can't borrow one, try to find a music store that will leave you alone for 45 minutes with a guitar.

But it could easily be a fools mission, you know what you own and like.

[89bruin]

Unfortunately, this is a question only you can answer although many have done a good job pointing out the variables to consider. I don’t have large hands and prefer 1 & 3/4. I once thought my hands were too small to accommodate a traditional classical neck but after really getting into classical I find the wide neck and string spacing advantageous for many pieces. After extended sessions on my Cordoba C10 1 & 3/4 feels positively skinny 😏.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by s2y

I'm in the process of finalizing specs for a cedar SJ. Builder says he sells the wider 1 3/4" nut and wider bridge 90% of the time. Pretty sure everything I own is 1 11/16" and I can't say that I feel like I'm lacking. Anyone else with small hands that is perfectly comfortable with the standard 1 11/16" nut?

Hi s2y

I taught fingerstyle guitar locally for 40 years with hundreds of students. I always played their guitars during each lesson to understand what they were experiencing, and to monitor their action and condition of their guitars.

While I was playing their guitar for a couple minutes, they were playing my guitars (all 1¾" nut). In 40 years, nobody complained about the 1 ¾" nut versus their 1¹¹⁄₁₆" fingerboard width.

BUT, when they upgraded to better guitars, most went to 1¾" nut or larger.

My best students had the smallest hands/fingers.

Muriel Anderson (classical player who plays a 2" nut) has very small hands and no problems getting around the fingerboard.

Wider necks give more room to maneuver when people graduate from playing cowboy chords and begin fingerstyle picking and working around the neck. They also do a lot of selective muting of strings.