OT: Luthiers and guitarists, help please

Nov 05, 2011 5 Replies

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Zz Yzx 14 years ago

I'm rigging an old (~1970) Yamaha acoustic finger-buster to play slide. The E-E string spacing on both my acoustic guitars is ~1-3/8". But on all the nut extenders I can find in stores or online, the E-E spacing is ~1-5/8". That won't work, as it'd push the E strings outside the fretboard.

What's the "nominal" or "standard" string spacing on acoustic flat-top guitars? Any idea how to raise the string action? Any sources for a nut extender that'd fit?

Thanks a heap.

-Zz "Zz Yzx" rhymes with "physics"; or " Isaacs" if you prefer.

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Tim Daneliuk 14 years ago

setup for slide, by *raising the bridge*, not the nut.

Some bridge pieces on acoustics simply are a piece of plastic in a small routed groove. In that case, you can just remove the plastic and replace it with a taller one. In the case of my Dobro, the bridge was a fixed height piece of wood attached to the resonator cone. There, a piece of matching sized wood (with grooves cut for each string) was

*glued onto the existing bridge* to raise the action.

You can also do a small bit of adjustment to the neck tension via the nut in the headstock once you have the bridge raised, to even out the clearance along the length of the neck. Do his gently and in small increments or you can snap the neck as the weather changes.

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