Why String Fanning on Electrics?

[yem]

Let me clairfy - I've never played guitar and I base that statement only on what I've seen. They don't look fanned to me. I can see that's not correct now.

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[FunkMetalBass]

I would actually prefer parallel strings on even a 6, wider at the nut and narrower at the bridge. Then I could get my fingers side by side for playing chords near the nut and have faster more comfortable technique at the bridge. But then i'm unconventional!

I've played around with as little as 14mm at the bridge on a 6-string with a Kahler, and man does it get tight for traditional fingerstyle playing. However, I found it was very nicely suited to tap and pick styles.

More important than the string spacing, in my opinion, is the between-string spacing at the bridge. If it's not consistent, I feel it. It's especially noticeable on my 8-string where the space between thickest strings is only 11mm and the space between the thinnest strings is about 15mm. If anything slows me up when doing runs across the strings, it's that.