Different string spacing at bridge

Playing Technique
#1

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For example: The Felipe Conde Al di Meola model has a string spacing at the bridge of 59 mm, and the Ovation Al di Meola has a string spacing of 54 mm.

At the end of the day, are you slower on the wider string spacing guitar?
(I searched for an answer on this topic but couldn’t find anything about it)

I do know that bigger or smaller hands/fingers make more differences in how it feels, but I just am very curious what other guitar players do think about this topic…

I can imagine that the tone is more articulated and bigger on a higher quality acoustic with wider string spacing, but more difficult to change strings fast.
Or if you practice long enough, will there be no difference anymore between different guitars…?

#2

I believe Fender guitars and Floyd Rose bridges are 53mm, so does it make sense to just stick to that for uniformity of all guitars? :thinking:

#3

To add more confusion…

  • vintage Strat neck ~42mm nut and 56mm at last fret, bridge ~56mm string spacing
  • modern Strat neck ~43mm nut and 56mm at last fret, bridge ~54mm string spacing
  • Ibanez RG neck ~43mm nut and ~58mm at last fret, bridge ~54mm string spacing

So there seems to be a modern trend/paranoia about strings slipping off the fretboard? Wider string spacing seems to be more common on acoustics intended for finger-style, and classical guitars I think.

I have no idea about speed and I don’t have big hands… I prefer 42mm nut width, but I prefer 56mm spacing at the bridge. Especially when using fingers. That rules out just about every bridge on the market for me :man_shrugging: For a counter anecdote, Jeff Beck probably has bigger fingers than I do and uses a modern 54mm trem.

I’m currently using a BladeRunner trem with bits of plectrum wedged between the saddles to make it 56mm, but I may return to a standard vintage style trem.

(sorry I didn’t answer your question at all)