Nut Size

[Dano Reible]

Ken of Silver Angel has asked me about nut size for my mando and I have only played a couple mandos and don't realy know one nut from another.

What is the advcantage to bigger vs smaller?

I have rather short big fingers but not fat at the tips

Help me out here please so I can at least make a somewhat educated guess at this.

No I don't have a place to try a bunch of mandos.

[Loren Bailey]

Dano,

How does your Eastman feel? Too wide, Too narrow? I'd go from there. I started with a wider board and the better I get (all relative tho) the more I migrate towards narrower widths.

Loren

[John Flynn]

There was a thread on this recently with a lot of good discussion. 1 1/16" is very thin. 1 1/8" is pretty standard for Gibson F-5's, both present and past. A lot of people are going with 1 3/16" now, especially when they have bigger frets. The Sam Bush models and the Mid-Mo "wide neck" options are 1 1/4". I am sure there exceptions, but that is pretty much the range. Unless you already have a strong preference to the contrary, I would stay away from the extremes and just look at 1 1/8" and 1 3/16." If you have any other mandos to play at all, I would measure them and just get an idea of if you like the smaller or the larger. They are not that far apart, so you could even have the builder split the difference and go 1 5/32."

BTW, also realize there are mitigating factors, such as string spacing and neck thickness. I just discovered that one of my mandos actually has a smaller nut width than another one I have, but wider string spacing, although I could easily have that changed. Also, a thicker neck seems to lend itself to a wider nut. It really is personal preference. If you don't have a preference, it makes sense to take the "middle path."

Unlike the previous poster, I have developed a taste for wider in the 14 years I have been playing. I do think bluegrass seems to work better with a thinner neck, though, because of some of the chords that get used, whereas I like wider for old-time and church music, again because of the kinds of chords that typically get used. If I could only have one, I would go 1 3/16." If I had two, I would get a 1 1/8" for bluegrass and a 1 3/16" for everything else. Obviously, Sam Bush would disagree!