Subject: neck width of classical guitar vs. steel strung guitar
Author: tysteelDate: 14 Jul 2008
After playing a nylon strung classical guitar today at a shop, I have
a question to ask of those who are familiar with guitar making in
general who can provide insight.
Why is it that steel strung acoutic guitars have slimmer necks (or
should I say... smaller frets) than their classical nylon strung
counterparts? Why aren't don't steel strung acoustics generally made
with the same kind of jumbo-sized frets (and neck width) as is the
case with many nylon strung classical guitars?
Something that I noticed while playing a nylon classical guitar is
that, because of the fact that the frets are larger, certain chords
such as the small F are much easier to play than they'd normally be on
the typical steel strung guitar. At least for me, anyway. On a
steel strung guitar, I would have to roll my index finger on its side
so as to sound all the notes of the little F chord clearly.
However, because of the bigger frets on the classical guitar, I don't
have to worry about such "finger gymnastics" in order to get all the
notes of the chord to ring clearly.
It would seem that playing certain kinds of chords would be much
easier if the steel strung guitars had similar necks as the classical
guitars I've seen...less chance of accidentally muffling adjacent
strings on the fret board.
Are there guitars designed for steel strings that have the same kind
of neck width and fret size as the classical acoustic guitars, and do
a lot of players prefer to play them over the standard steel strung
acoustic? I haven't seen any steel strung acoustic guitars like
that.
I once heard of an nylon classical guitar that was also designed to be
strung with light steel strings. I recall seeing old concert videos
of Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull playing such a type of guitar. It was
a Martin, but don't recall the exact model # off the top of my head.
But I don't think I've seen anything similar at the local music
stores, but maybe I'm not looking in the right places,
tysteel
<castlebrav…
RichL
