Customer looking for an steel string acoustic guitar with an extra wide neck

[Steven D. Wilson]

Not really a repair question, but I recently I installed a wide (1 7/8" I think) Warmoth neck on MIM Fender Strat for a customer. He is in love with the width, and would like to get an acoustic with a similarly wide neck. I do not know of any, and hoping someone else might. His budget is around $750 to $1K. He was even thinking a 12 string might work if he removed the extra 6 strings. Thanks for any ideas.

[Ned Knepp]

A 12 string neck might work but one of the problems that I've noticed with using a 12 string with only 6 strings is that you are trying to drive a top braced for 12 strings with only about half of the tension and power. In short, I think the guitar's sound and power suffer because it was not designed to be with this much reduction in tension.

I don't know if anyone makes production guitars with intentionally wider necks so it may be that a neck swap is in his future.

[Steven D. Wilson]

Thanks Ned,

I had the same thoughts about using only 6 of the strings on a guitar built for twelve.

He just plays around the house, so it may not be an issue.

Also if the guitar had a pickup it could at least be loud.

I did find that Sweetwater allows you to search by nut width.

It appears many of the Seagull guitars have a 1.8 inch nut.

The Warmoth neck was 1.87" - so these are just a tad bit narrower.

I am going to recommend he try one of those.

Thanks again!

Steve

[Dave O'Heare]

You might try this Seagull -- 1.9" nut. I *think* that this is the widest nut you'll find on a production steel-string; bonus is that it's a really good-sounding guitar.

[Steven D. Wilson]

Thanks Dave!

That is indeed a wide nut. Seagulls in general are a bit wider than most, but this one takes the cake so far.

I have had the pleasure of seeing Peppino several times and have been quite impressed. I will show this to my friend, but it may be out of his price range. Thanks again.

[Hesh Breakstone]

Just went though this with a client.  A Seagull as mentioned already and then pop the f*ctory nut and replace it with a bit wider spacing if that is desirable to the client.  Worked great for our customer.

Worth noting that our client is not thrilled with the tone of the Seagull though and even though I rarely comment on subjective stuff I tend to agree with my client that the Seagull is..... uninspiring....

[Steven D. Wilson]

Thanks for the info, Hesh!

[Dave O'Heare]

Hmm--I find that a little odd. I don't have any relationship with Seagull/Godin, but most of the guitars of theirs that I've played have been fine.

One thought, though; they do seem to take some amount of breaking-in to sound good. 

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

In the tradition of giving answers to questions not asked, I always thinks of the Martin D-28S, D-35S when it comes to wide necks. These are the 12 fret Dreadnaughts with slotted pegheads. A current one will be out of your customer's budget, but worth it (assuming the guitar and your customer get along). These things can be as loud as a piano and with tone.

as an aside, these "S" models were first made for EU Wurlitzer in Boston, where I used to work. They were based on the first Martin dreads (12 fret) and had either slotted or solid peg heads. The ones made for Wurlitzer were labeled "SW". When they got popular,, Martin put them into regular production.

Once again, an answer to an unasked question.

[Steven D. Wilson]

Thanks Joshua. Appreciate the info and a bit of history.