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I plan on building a nylon string guitar, but with features similar to a steel string - call it a jazz nylon if you like. I need to understand why a classical guitar has such a wide fingerboard? Maybe I'll compromise on 2" at the nut. Thought I'd get this cleared up before I do anything.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

They don't all have a very wide neck. It's somewhat of a modern convention, substantially based upon the prejudices of Segovia, who had hams for hands.

The factors which determine neck width are two-fold: the vibrational arc of the strings, and the space required between strings for the fingers to achieve clean playing. Each hand is different: we all have different thicknesses and lengths of fingers.

Many guitars have 52mm wide necks, at the nut, while historically the width was often much narrower. Torres regularly used 49mm, and his little SE117 uses 47mm.

You'll also see a lot of conversation now about introducing radius to the classical guitar fingerboard. So even that taboo is opening up.

Oh, and if you're going to build a nylon string guitar, that world is pretty much universally metric. Get a good measuring tool that uses metric and just get used to it. A numbers just a number, and a line on a measuring tool is just a line.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Because Segovia had sausage fingers ...... everyone was building guitars in hopes he would play them.

I think it was just to get the clean chord shapes - you need all the strings to ring out while fingering difficult shapes - and because Segovia had sausage fingers ....

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

You could experiment with different nuts on a guitar you already have. I tried nylon strings on my steel-string guitar, and its 1.8" (46 mm) nut and radiussed fingerboard with low action were almost ideal for me. The only thing I wanted to change was to use the same spacing for all strings.

I made some temporary nuts from a piece of scrap plastic, for that guitar and my classical. On the classical, with its wider bridge, I found that I liked about 0.29" center to center and about 0.15" from the center of each E string to the edge, which adds up to 1.75" (44.5 mm). But judging from your photo, I'd say my fingers are shorter than yours and maybe a little thinner.

Because in classical music the notes are bigger.
-C

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Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

The extra width makes for more space between the strings which makes chording a bit easier ;fingers do not comein as close contactwith another string.
Also the loose nature of the strings makes pulling the high e off the f.b very easy.
That's why there is more space from the high e to the edge of the f.b. than the low e.

Mike

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Mike Collins

This would be a good topic on a more classical oriented forum, maybe I or Douglas could open it at delcamp's.
I am not so sure that it is simply Segovia's influence. The music played on classical guitar has evolved a lot in difficulty, so did the demands on clean playing. Hear a recording by a master and you might be amazed at how clean it is. Achieving this equals an incredibly amount of hard work, and a cramped FB is not helping.
Even for steelstring playing where this is less of an issue, fingerpicking guitars have usually a wider FB, right?

And as Mike mentioned, a lot of the neck width is wasted for clearance, without it trings go off the FB quite easily.
The most used nut dimensions are a bit over 2" (52 or 53mm) with 1 2/3" string spacing center to center (42 - 43mm) - so there is a LOT of clearance.

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Build log

As Mike said, the slacker strings tend to push off to the side more easily. Also, slacker strings require higher action to get a decent dynamic range, and that means you'll need more space to get your finger tips in between them.

I've made a few nylon string guitars with narrower nut widths, at the request of customers. If you get below about 42mm (1-3/4") they tend to come back in a few months wanting the neck made wider. That's HARD to do. Better to err on the wide side, since it's relatively easy to carve it down.

42 mm is 1.65". That's the nut width on my homemade travel guitar. For me, that's perfect for steel strings, but too narrow for nylon.

P.S. - Ricardo, since you called it a "jazz nylon," are you interested in more frets than a standard classical? We're discussing that now at the other forum. Maybe you have some thoughts on that subject?

I made mine 1 15/16" at the nut. I built it to play same sort of style you're planning it for. I really enjoy it and it's comfortable to play. The only thing I would do different is thin down the bass side of the FB a little more than I did. I'm surprised more finger style players aren't building them. They're a lot of fun.

Good Luck,
Danny