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Xenedis

Active member
Joined
Mar 27, 2026
Messages
38
Location
Australia
My guitars of choice of recent months have been my EBMM Lukes.

As many owners of Lukes would know, these are so comfortable and easy to play.

Yesterday, I decided to have a look at some of my Fender Strats and my Gibson Les Paul Standard. I have not spent much time on either guitar type lately, so whilst looking at them, I had a bit of a play.

Both guitar types felt decidedly strange! I had become so used to the smaller (but comfortable, for me) nut width on the Lukes that the Strats in particular felt large and wide.

The Les Paul's neck felt like a baseball bat. (Mine is a modern Les Paul Standard '50s with a thicker neck.)

I have read on numerous occasions that people find the nut width of the Luke (and associated string width at the lower frets) small at best or too narrow in the worst case; but for me, it is comfortable, and is more movement-efficient when soloing up and down within a given set of adjacent frets. It just took less effort to play a particular run on Luke than it did on the Strat.

It stands to reason that any other guitar type will feel strange for a while after spending more time on a different guitar type.

How do others feel when switching to a different guitar type?

Do you find that it takes some time to get re-used to another type after spending a while on one type?

Do you find that you play better or worse when switching?

For those who are gigging, do you take different guitar types, or two (or more) of one guitar type?

As for EBMM guitars, the only kind that I have played is the Luke, so I am not sure if other models have narrow nut widths.

It is good that we have so many choices. In my case, I have the three guitar types that I want: Fender Strat, Gibson Les Paul and EBMM Luke. While the Strat and Les Paul are polar opposites in pretty much every way, the Luke, while intended to be a hybrid of the best of a Strat and a Les Paul, is still sufficiently different in feel and playability to those other types.

I love my different guitars, but at the moment, I am loving playing my Lukes most of all.
 

bradleye

New member
Joined
Apr 2, 2025
Messages
2
Location
usa
My guitars of choice of recent months have been my EBMM Lukes.

As many owners of Lukes would know, these are so comfortable and easy to play.

Yesterday, I decided to have a look at some of my Fender Strats and my Gibson Les Paul Standard. I have not spent much time on either guitar type lately, so whilst looking at them, I had a bit of a play.

Both guitar types felt decidedly strange! I had become so used to the smaller (but comfortable, for me) nut width on the Lukes that the Strats in particular felt large and wide.

The Les Paul's neck felt like a baseball bat. (Mine is a modern Les Paul Standard '50s with a thicker neck.)

I have read on numerous occasions that people find the nut width of the Luke (and associated string width at the lower frets) small at best or too narrow in the worst case; but for me, it is comfortable, and is more movement-efficient when soloing up and down within a given set of adjacent frets. It just took less effort to play a particular run on Luke than it did on the Strat.

It stands FNF to reason that any other guitar type will feel strange for a while after spending more time on a different guitar type.

How do others feel when switching to a different guitar type?

Do you find that it takes some time to get re-used to another type after spending a while on one type?

Do you find that you play better or worse when switching?

For those who are gigging, do you take different guitar types, or two (or more) of one guitar type?

As for EBMM guitars, the only kind that I have played is the Luke, so I am not sure if other models have narrow nut widths.

It is good that we have so many choices. In my case, I have the three guitar types that I want: Fender Strat, Gibson Les Paul and EBMM Luke. While the Strat and Les Paul are polar opposites in pretty much every way, the Luke, while intended to be a hybrid of the best of a Strat and a Les Paul, is still sufficiently different in feel and playability to those other types.

I love my different guitars, but at the moment, I am loving playing my Lukes most of all.
I definitely notice an adjustment period when switching between neck profiles and nut widths. After spending time on slimmer necks, thicker Les Paul style necks always feel huge for the first few minutes, but then my hands adapt again pretty quickly.
 

DrKev

Moderator
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
7,674
Location
Somewhere between Paris, Dublin, and Buffalo
Back in my gigging days I used to switch back and forth between guitar and mandolin all night long. Totally different in scale length, nut width, neck thickness, profile, weight, string layout, and different tunings too (guitar in 4ths, mando like a violin, in 5ths) and I never even thought about it. So part of my brain says "switching between any two instruments is never a problem - you learn your instrument and you just play". Same going from guitar to bass. So should guitars that are relatively similar be a problem?

Between my Silhouette Special and my Cutlass, yes the neck on the Cutlass is in a slightly different place relative to my body and the Cutlass has a soft V at the nut, and I still prefer the slightly shorter headstock on the older Music Man models. I notice those things every single time I switch from one to the other, but after a few seconds I don't care.

On the other hand, I pick up my own old Strat, the whole guitar just feels wrong and the headstock is ridiculously too long and I have to put the guitar back in its case and hide it in the basement and I don't even feel guilty. Just, no, it's all so badly wrong! 😂

And then there is other people's guitars (usually clients'). While I have a strong preference for 1 5/8" nut width and 10" radius fingerboard, I don't notice it much playing other people's guitars. Kind of like a fart across the room, part of your brain knows something is wrong but it's not to the point that you're fully conscious of it. All the other differences I just don't think about at all, I guess because I don't have to care beyond making sure the setup is right.

tl;dr I guess it all depends on context. 🤷‍♂️
 
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