mr newhaven Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Hello Everyone! I figured I'd lament and tell you all a very sad tale... I have always been in love with Gibson Acoustics...they sound awesome...look awesome...feel awesome...and are awesome! one in particular caught my eye...the Arlo Guthrie LG2 3/4 guitar. i had a few 3/4 guitars from various manufacturers and found the size ultra comfortable to play... at the time I had an L-00 and it was a bit bulky for what I was looking for...so ultimately I sold it...and about 9 months ago I picked this up instead! The sound on it is great! It has a nice old timey bluesy sound...and it is LADDER BRACED! when i first got it I played it all the time... and because of it...my electrics...including this... sat dormant in my music room! after owning this little gem for about 9 months...i've come to a conclusion... the 1.575 nut width is just too narrow...by a hair for me to be comfortable playing it for a long time... the neck profile is great...the tuners work beautifully...but that nut width is really getting my hand all cramped up... i tried lighter gauge strings thinking it might take some of the pressure off...but alas...I just dont think i can fake it anymore... i love the sound but what do you guys do when you just can't make it work? part of me wants to salvage it and just set it up for slide...and open tunings...but im not that sure if thats the best use of this guitar... part of me would rather trade it to a forum member for like a used j-45 or L-00 or something with a little wider nut width... have any of you ever bought something/loved something soo much but finally realized that you bought it with your heart and not your head?? any suggestions?? thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Sorry to read your sad story. Have you thought to contacting Gibson Montana about a custom job on a Guthrie - wider nut. Maybe you can sell what you've got and save up for it. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Who hasn't. Good example, you own an MIJ Rosewood Tele, I owned an original '69 Fender rosewood Tele. For whatever reason, I loved that guitar. But the bottom line was it weighed as much as a boat anchor. It ended up sitting in the case while my '58 Tele remained my main player. But I just could not bring myself to part with the rosewood Tele (back then I had no idea they would bring the kind bucks they do today). The solution - a trade. It ended up going for the 1960 J-200 I am still playing to this day. It was a worthy sacrifice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr newhaven Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 I have thought of it... I really am a fan of the 3/4 size...and the voice on it is great! but in my opinion once you start talking custom shop you are talking time and money similar to like a Legend L-00... I am just bummed because minus the nut width...its a phenomenal guitar! sometimes my height (6'3") isn't as much of an asset as i'd imagine! :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr newhaven Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 excellent point as usual...zombywoof! im not in the habit of buying guitars to sell...i take my time...figure out what i cannot live without and then jump on it the second i see it. the LG2 was one of those guitars...before i bought it i gambled on the nut width but figured it was only slightly smaller than the L-00 i had...while that may be the case..."slightly smaller" can mean the world of difference... i was just throwing out the idea to first of all share my boneheadedness with all of you... also i wanted others who made the same mistake (buying something and trying to make it work) not to feel as bad about it... it also doesnt help that i am developing an unhealthy obsession with Red and Green label Yamaha FG acoustics... *i just got a 72 Green Label FG 130...and it sounds great...and further proved to me the difference the nut width can make... thanks for the feedback gentlemen...and potential ladies! misery loves company you know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onewilyfool Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 MR. NEWHAVEN, I know exactly what you are talking about. I've bought on emotion before, mainly because it looked sooooo good, visually, and forced my mind to think, "The sound will improve over time", or "I'll get used to the size of the neck/body/size" So my weakness is visual will over-ride judgement sometime, so I have to watch out for that. Luckily, I managed to sell my "mistakes" without losing too much money. I just chalked up the monetary losses to "education" and now I don't make the same mistakes again......I feel for you, but the main thing is that NOW you get the guitar you want and you are happy. I'll bet a store like Fuller's could order you an LG-2 with your desired neck size and it wouldn't cost much more than what you paid for that one. Also, tastes and nut sizes change over time, perhaps a vintage LG-2 from the times of the wider necks and nuts is out there? I'm not familiar with the guitar, but the Gibson archtops went through many incarnations of nut width, and perhaps the LG-2 did also....good luck in the hunt!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maninblack Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 I have the opposite problem with a custom shop cocobolo/adirondack Advanced Jumbo. It is a glorious, massive sounding, super charged instrument. Just an absolute monster in volume, responsivness and tone. I've never heard anything quite like it. I pined for it for it for years and finally sold my standard AJ (which was killer) and pulled the trigger. (Thankfully the shop kept it off the floor - so nobody knew about it) The problem: a 1 and 3/4 nut. After 20 minutes or so my hand gets a little tired. After an hour my hand quits. On an 1 11/16 nut I can play for hours on end. When I would play it in the shop it was usually for 10-15 minutes at a clip. I didn't know how big a difference these fractions could make. Right around that same time I bought a Collings D2HBaaaA with a 1 3/4 nut. I have the exact same problem and it is also a ridiculously nice instrument. Lesson now learned. I won't even demo a 1 3/4 nut for fear I'll fall in love only to have it break my heart. For now, I'm sitting tight. I just can't let this magical box go. What I'd give for slightly bigger hands. Good luck with your Arlo. I actually bought one for my son's first birthday. He's only 2 now, so we have a ways to go. I like to take it out of his closet now and then and give it some love. Such a fun, lively little guitar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr newhaven Posted July 21, 2010 Author Share Posted July 21, 2010 thanks so much for the responses guys! i agree with everything you have said maninblack and onewilyfool... are there uses for my guitar? i am sure they are! can i get over the neck? i have been playing it for 9 months so yeah definitely... but now the seed of doubt is planted...bar chords and what not are easy...fingerpicking takes a bit more precision...and the sound isnt the issue at all...so when i close my eyes and strum a few chords it sounds heavenly... i kept thinking...i am finding this difficult but it will improve my technique playing on a less forgiving guitar... *i am a bit all thumbs at the moment so the feedback i get is great when i mis finger a note...cause its immediate...BUZZZZZZ... im in a fortunate position in the sense that i can absorb this as a loss without sweating too much...im not rich or anything like that...but i had this budgeted and paid for so its not going to cost me to keep it... i guess im at the point where i feel like im coming to the end of a summer romance! like in the beginning it was all honeymoon...but then reality set in and i realized that summer doesnt last forever and eventually i will have to part ways... it isnt about the money...its more about the guitar... in a perfect world i would love to do a straight up trade for something...or in the case of your woody guthrie sj maninblack...a trade and a few hundred dollars! hahaha but for right now...in the case with the humidifier it shall stay... i have a 72 yamaha thats taking my attention for now... thanks again everyone for listening to me rant and making me feel a little better!! its really appreciated! *that was part of my intention to get father and son guitars...the arlo and the woody...i have always been enamored by sj's...the super jumbo looks a bit clownish to me...i know they arent...its just the impression i get unfortunately! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onewilyfool Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Here is the last refuge for keeping a guitar......use it ONLY for slide.....lol.....Get the nut raised, and learn to play blues with slide...I've often thought this way, before finally admitting my mistake, and selling or trading the guitar. Then the narrow nut doesn't become such a problem, cause you have less "fingering" to do. It is strange, I have big hands and fingers (and you KNOW what they say about big hands.....big hands.......big gloves) and I can play my friends J-45 ('64) which has a neck like an electric, very easily, and another friend has a Epiphone like David Rawlings, which has a narrow neck, and I can't play it at all???!!! Both have similar width (1 5/8") So, I'm not sure what is going on. Mr. N., you might want to experiment with the string spacing at the nut, try widening the string spacing to the point JUST before the strings start to slip off the edge of the fret board. Another trick is to only play with a capo. As you capo up the neck, the string spacing becomes wider!!! Those small body guitar really sound good with capo too, very percussive, great for blues, rag, folk......don't loose hope!.....sigh......Hopefully this will work out for you.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr newhaven Posted July 21, 2010 Author Share Posted July 21, 2010 thats a great ideal onewiley! ill talk to my luthier tomorrow about replacing the nut with one that has a slightly widened string spacing? great point... thanks again... keep them coming everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAMELEYE Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 I have one of these too, and since I also play a lot of uke (and a little mando), I don't find the rather narrow neck much of an issue. Think of all the "big hand" guys and gals who play mando, fiddle and uke. Neck size doesn't seem to matter to them. Since guitars like this tend to be something we pull out occasionally instead of being one's regular go-to, maybe it all comes down to just getting used to it. Ce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tennroots Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 I have one of these too' date=' and since I also play a lot of uke (and a little mando), I don't find the rather narrow neck much of an issue. Think of all the "big hand" guys and gals who play mando, fiddle and uke. Neck size doesn't seem to matter to them. Since guitars like this tend to be something we pull out occasionally instead of being one's regular go-to, maybe it all comes down to just getting used to it. Ce[/quote'] Excellent point, I play mandolin & ukulele as well as guitar. I usually find there's too much string space to span with my fingers and it takes time to warm up to the guitar. Adam Steffey, David Grisman are pretty big boys and they get around the mandolin fret board quite well me thinks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tw2_usa Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Nut width is master, it's true. I love my Martin, the only acoustic I own, but the neck is just a bit too narrow. My hand tiring is not a problem, but I've played enough Gibson's at shops now to know that I need a wider nut width, but 1.75 is too wide. The modern standard Gibson nut width (+/- 1.72) is perfect for me. The good part is being able to recognize the problem. I had grown so frustrated making the same errors on my Martin, errors that simply don't happen when playing a Gibson. At least I know that I don't have to put extra time into my technique, since it's a size issue, not a technique issue. I also am 6'3"... Not only guitars, but dozens of amazing automobiles I will never own due to sizing. I say bite the bullet and let her go since, in my experience, this 'problem' does not go away, and ultimately the frustration of poor nut width size trumps all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre S Posted August 9, 2010 Share Posted August 9, 2010 That is one beautiful guitar... I wish I had one, I always meant to get a smaller acoustic, my Martin OM is a tad too wide (the body) to be comfortable....and the 25.5 scale length is a pain at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilliangirl Posted August 9, 2010 Share Posted August 9, 2010 The neck/nut width on my J-185 is too big. I have a heck of a time playing it. But I loved the sound of the guitar so decided to just tough it out for now. If I ever have to sell this guitar because of the nut width, I'll be devastated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre S Posted August 9, 2010 Share Posted August 9, 2010 The neck/nut width on my J-185 is too big. I have a heck of a time playing it. But I loved the sound of the guitar so decided to just tough it out for now. If I ever have to sell this guitar because of the nut width' date=' I'll be devastated.[/quote'] I love the sound of my Martin (never tried a Gibby acoustic though ) but if I play it for too long, my fingers become swollen. I've made a serious attempt not to press to hard when I fret, but I don't think the 25.5 scale length is for me. When I do get another acoustic chances are it will be a body style similar to that of the guitar above.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rambler Posted August 9, 2010 Share Posted August 9, 2010 Hate to be a bearer of bad tidings but even with open tunings, you need to be able to hit some fretted notes and chords, as well as keeping a bass line going, so if its not working it std tuning, it likely wont work in an altered one (been there with my late 60s J50). Breaking up is hard to do, but new loves lie ahead. Best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincentw Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 surprisingly boomy volume from the few I have played...great guitars if you can live with the string spacing. but of course, that's the point of this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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