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I recently purchased a Martin OM kit to build for my son. It has a 1 3/4 nut and I was wondering if I could change it to 1 11/16 without too many problems. Would I need a different bridge also? My son has smaller hands, just started thinking it might be easier to play for him.

What is the width of the fingerboard at the nut end and at the 12th fret? In the grand scheme of things the 1/16" when spread out over six strings does not amount to much. I've had requests for all manor of nut and bridge pin spacing combinations -- so no matter the guitar will be playable, be it 2-1/8 , 2-3/16, 2-1/4 again you are only talking about 1/8' spread over 6 strings -- five spaces. $.02

I have seen 2 1/4 bridges with 1 11/16 spacing. You can work this down with what you have . I agree with ken it won't matter

It measures 1 3/4 at the nut and 2 1/4 at the 12th fret. This is probably a dumb question , but when some people say a 1 11/16 is easier to play for someone with smaller hands, is the neck and fretboard narrower or is it just the nut?

The nut is just following the crowd --- its the fingerboard that's in the lead. So if you want to build the guitar that is the standard 1- 11/16" wide "at the nut the easiest thing for you to do is get a standard fingerboard from John Hall it will key in on the locating pins in the neck and then all you'll have to do is shave the neck to match the fingerboard profile. Other wise 1/32" needs to be shaved off both edges of the fingerboard.

Thanks so much for the ideas and suggestions. I'm obviously new to all of this. Oh, so I could still use the same bridge even if the neck were narrower?

you can , depending on how much you narrow the fretboard. You can get a 2 1/8 bridge easy enough. Just let me or Ken know . Keep an eye on the 12th fret. Martin usually uses the same spacing for a bridge as the width of the 12th fret.

Thanks John and Ken! I appreciate all the knowledge.

I'm a finger style player and I happen to really like wider fretboards, not as important at the nut as the saddle. Its more the ability to get my fingers and thumb in between the strings. I can tell the difference between string spacing at the saddle immediately.

OM's are usually built with 1-3/4 nuts (and longer scale), 14 fret 000 are usually 1-11/16 and short scale. I happen to have a Martin body and short scale neck, but the bridge was glued on in the long scale location - my delima now is whether to refinish it and put the short narrow neck on it or buy a true OM neck. If you would be interested in selling your 1-3/4 neck (assuming it is 25.4), fretboard and bridge, I would be very interested - PM me if you would like.

Here is the actual differences between OM's and various 000 models

http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.y ... topic/5309

and a discussion about just exactly what you are thinking about

http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.y ... pic/107433

Thanks for the links. I'm trying to read and learn as much as possible. I really want to keep the long scale though. But thanks for the offer.