adorshki
Reverential Member
THAT's a very good question, and I don't know, but it makes a lot of sense and it's what I assumed as well.
Westerly did offer 2 most common widths: 1-5/8 and 1-11/6, and the occasional and much less common 1-3/4.
I should make a distinction between "variations" within thousandths of the spec width, which would easily be explained by what you're describing, as opposed to examples where a different "standard" width was used for some reason on some models, like some mid-80's G37's that got 1-5/8" nuts as opposed to the 1-11/16 spec, and several high-end dreadnoughts from '93-'94 that have 1-3/4 nuts installed either as part of a batch or maybe simply to make the size available for folks who wanted it?
Never seen an answer for that.
I'm gonna blame it on the fact that everybody's got different size hands and finger lengths and it's not always the nut width alone, but also neck profile that can make an "awkward" nut size easier to play.
I'm gonna guess you've got relatively large hands since those seem more adaptable to all the variations you describe?
I've got relatively small hands so just wrapping fingers around a neck has its limits.
Also, typical playing techniques can be impacted by the string spacing dictated by the nut.
For example I get used to doing certain things on the dreadnought that require more attention to play cleanly on the F65ce, and vice-versa, especially when it comes to scales.
Your motor memory just expects things to be in a certain place, unless one's used to adusting to a given guitar almost instantly.
For me it takes about 5 minutes.