hello! Could you please please tell me what width Sao has and what distance is between strings
Hi Rudebway! Welcome to Bachido! 
It depends on the kind of shamisen. For tsugaru shamisen, the width is about 30mm, and the distance between the strings is about 8~9 mm.
Hi Rudebway,
There are three widths of the shamisen sao:
Hosozao = 24.3 - 24.8 mm (nagauta etc)
Chuuzao = 25.7 - 26.3 mm (kouta, jiuta, tokiwazu, kiyomoto, shin’nai)
Futozao = more than 26.4 mm (Gidayu)
Kyle wrote already about tsugaru shamisen.
Hope this will help you.
Thanks a lot!!!