String spacing with 43 mm nut width and a 2 1/16" spaced bridge?

[t.coyle]

Hello,

I was wondering about the string spacing on a 7/8 s style warmoth with a warmoth installed 43 mm nut width and a 2 1/16" spaced bridge. Particularly how close the high e string is to the edge of the fretboard. I hate when high e string is to close to the edge of the fretboard and the string slips off. Are there any of you with warmoths that have 43 mm nuts and 2 1/16" spaced bridges that could chime in on this?

Thanks.

 

[Cagey]

To answer your question directly - those dimensions match most of my guitars, so I measured a few that are out on stands right now and it appears that there's roughly 3mm of fret outside the 1st and 6th strings. But, that's a gross measurement. You also have to take into consideration that the frets are bevelled/dressed, so not all of that outboard fret is really usable.

Now for the ass-beating.

Unless the string is very close to the edge, pushing/pulling strings off the neck is usually indicative of poor technique. One of the better things I did about 100 years ago was take about 6 months of lessons from an old jazz player who was pretty serious about the whole thing. I didn't learn anything I expected to (which is one of the reasons I stopped going to him - stupid me), but I caught a lot about technique. The guy was an animal about form. To hear him talk, if you didn't hold your fiddle right and have your hand properly positioned, you may as well take up drums because you were never going to be a guitar player.

But, boring as he was as a teacher, the guy was an amazing player. Up to that point, I'd never seen anybody up close play like he could. So, I took what he said to heart. He practiced what he preached. Thumb behind the neck, fingers square to the 'board, use all fingers, one to a fret, etc. Tiresome stuff and very failure-prone at first, but invaluable. Takes a long time to make those habits your own because they mostly feel unnatural, but the payback is tremendous.

 

[t.coyle]

Thanks for the advice on technique, although I do not think that is the problem.

I probably did not make my question clear enough. I have 8 guitars and I only have string slippage problems on one of them. An 80s Peavey Patriot, I bought it unseen online which was a mistake. The frets themselves are very low and the bevel starts on the high and low e right where you push down the frets without any vibrato or bends so its a 50/50 chance of the string slipping off the fretboard.

I was worried about string spacing because it is similar in specs to the 7/8 s style guitar. It is a downsized 24.75" scale s style guitar with 23 frets and it has a 43 mm nut and a fender spaced 2 3/16" heel width but it has a vintage 2 7/32 string spacing. I guess I should have asked With the narrower 2 1/16" string spacing and beveling not being so extreme how often do others with similarly specs on their warmoth using decent technique experience string slippage?

Also I meant to ask about warmoth pre cut nut spacing with these specs specifically. I know I could have a custom nut made with slightly narrower string spacing to help with possible slippage but I was hoping to have a pre cut corian earvana nut installed by warmoth.

Thanks and sorry for not being more clear.

 

[Cagey]

I bought a neck from Warmoth about 4 years ago with a 1 11/16" (43mm) Earvana nut that went on a guitar with a Wilkinson VS100 vibrato bridge that measures out at 2 1/8" (54mm) string spacing. A quick peek with the caliper says I've got about 3mm of useful fret on the outsides of the low/high E strings pretty much the entire length of the neck. I can't really imagine wanting more than that. Thing plays like a dream.

Incidentally, Warmoth cuts their nut slots quite well so you don't need string trees, but they are a little shallow because they don't know what the end user is going to be comfortable with. So, if you're picky at all, you may find you'll have to take the thing somewhere for setup.

 

[Cagey]

Here are a couple shots (please forgive the quality) of the guitar I mentioned above, so you can sorta see the distribution...

 

[t.coyle]

Thanks for the info and pics cagey, that looks like plenty of room for me.

 

[croquet hoop]

Do you have more pics of this particular guitar, Cagey? From what I can see in those two pics, it looks really nice.

 

[Cagey]

Unfortunately, my photo files are pretty disorganized, but here are a few older ones I could find...

The body is a chambered piece of Swamp Ash topped with the figured maple you see. Wilkinson VS100 vibrato, Dimarzio Area 58, Area 61 and Fast Track pickups. The neck is black Ebony over Koa, with a curly Koa laminate on the face of the headstock. Schaller mini-lockers, Graphtech Earvana nut, gold 6100 frets, vintage tint gloss poly finish.

The controls have been through some changes since those shots were taken. At one point, I replaced the chrome toggles with gold ones for appearance's sake, but I've since got another pickguard with a 5-way blade switch in place of the the three toggles. Originally, they were just on/off toggles so you could get any combination of pickups + all off, which gives 8 choices rather than the typical 5. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's not as practical as one might imagine.

 

[croquet hoop]

Thanks for the pictures, it really looks great.

(and sorry for th thread-jacking)

 

[McGuyver]

To answer your question directly - those dimensions match most of my guitars, so I measured a few that are out on stands right now and it appears that there's roughly 3mm of fret outside the 1st and 6th strings. But, that's a gross measurement. You also have to take into consideration that the frets are bevelled/dressed, so not all of that outboard fret is really usable.

Now for the ass-beating.

Unless the string is very close to the edge, pushing/pulling strings off the neck is usually indicative of poor technique. One of the better things I did about 100 years ago was take about 6 months of lessons from an old jazz player who was pretty serious about the whole thing. I didn't learn anything I expected to (which is one of the reasons I stopped going to him - stupid me), but I caught a lot about technique. The guy was an animal about form. To hear him talk, if you didn't hold your fiddle right and have your hand properly positioned, you may as well take up drums because you were never going to be a guitar player.

But, boring as he was as a teacher, the guy was an amazing player. Up to that point, I'd never seen anybody up close play like he could. So, I took what he said to heart. He practiced what he preached. Thumb behind the neck, fingers square to the 'board, use all fingers, one to a fret, etc. Tiresome stuff and very failure-prone at first, but invaluable. Takes a long time to make those habits your own because they mostly feel unnatural, but the payback is tremendous.

You forgot to mention his ass-hattery that wore off on you, also.