neck width has nothing to do with hand size!

[patticake]

i keep reading threads here and elsewhere where people feel they should get a narrower neck because they have small hands. a lot of them don't find wider necks uncomfortable, or don't even know the nut size on their current guitar.

so for the record, folks, i am a 5' 3" female with normal hands for my height. that means i have small hands. i not only dislike playing narrower necks or very shallow necks, but they hurt my hands and wrists. i am very comfortable playing for hours on a guitar with a 1 3/4 or 1 7/8 nut, and if only seagull put that original s6 neck on a parlor, my life would be very happy indeed.

there's more to neck size than hand size. in fact i played a standard sized classical when i was 5' even, and i had no problem. neck angle, profile, depth and shape and radius affect my playing, but for a neck to be too wide for me, it would have to be pretty darn wide. your posture, the shape of your hands, that has a lot more to do with it than hand size. i promise.

thanks for letting me get that off my chest

[JimR]

Originally Posted by patticake

i keep reading threads here and elsewhere where people feel they should get a narrower neck because they have small hands. a lot of them don't find wider necks uncomfortable, or don't even know the nut size on their current guitar.

so for the record, folks, i am a 5' 3" female with normal hands for my height. that means i have small hands. i not only dislike playing narrower necks or very shallow necks, but they hurt my hands and wrists. i am very comfortable playing for hours on a guitar with a 1 3/4 or 1 7/8 nut, and if only seagull put that original s6 neck on a parlor, my life would be very happy indeed.

there's more to neck size than hand size. in fact i played a standard sized classical when i was 5' even, and i had no problem. neck angle, profile, depth and shape and radius affect my playing, but for a neck to be too wide for me, it would have to be pretty darn wide. your posture, the shape of your hands, that has a lot more to do with it than hand size. i promise.

thanks for letting me get that off my chest

I beg to differ!

[leftync]

I think neck profile is underrated as an ergonomic factor. Martin is the only company I know of that describes in detail and lists its neck profiles. i got lucky finding the used Larrivee I play now b/e until I saw it, I didn't realize the profile was slimmer than the current Larrivee neck. I ended up trading a newer Larrivee for an older one (higher model, deal included cash).
In another forum recently I noted that I find it more comfortable to play on a sofa a bigger guitar with a slimmer neck profile than one smaller but with a thicker neck profile.

[Matt Mustapick]

I've learned to play classical guitars, electric guitars, and all kinds of acoustic guitars and I'm comfortable on all of them. I think I know why...because I've learned to play them!

People of all kinds of hand sizes are capable of learning to play double bass and mandolin too.

I understand preferences and take customers' requests very seriously. Why shouldn't a custom guitar be just what you want? That said, I think a lot people would benefit if they changed their thinking from "I can't" to "I simply haven't yet", because there's an enormous and obvious benefit to being comfortable playing a wide variety of guitar necks.

Then there are the exceptions...injuries, anomolies, etc. My sympathies are with anyone who has insurmountable bio-mechanical limitations.

[cotten]

I agree with you Patti, for some people, anyway. Not so much for others. No two people are alike, so I don't think it's really possible to say that no one's hand size affects their guitar neck preferences. I get your point, totally, but I've known people with big hands who felt physically cramped on smaller necks, and people with small hands who, even with good position, posture and flexibility, were not physically able to hold a first position D chord and stretch their pinky up to the 5th fret of the first string.

So, yes, you make a good point. Our hands are amazingly capable of adapting to various neck width, profiles, and even guitar scales. It's a mistake to think that all big hands need wide necks or that all small hands need narrow ones. But I think it's also a mistake to assume much of anything when it comes to what different people might prefer in guitar necks. We're all different.

Some of us are VERY different, but that's another subject entirely!

cotten

[cotten]

Hand flexibility is a factor that I don't often see discussed, but I think it's also a contributing factor in our guitar neck preferences. Many people have no problem in touching their thumb to their pinkie, for instance. I do. Always have. I have rather large palms with somewhat short, wide fingers that aren't very flexible. That means that I find a slim profile neck far more comfortable than the beefier ones that some of my friends prefer.

It also means that while I could learn to play cello or string bass fairly well, I would not be the ideal candidate to become a good violinist. This came from my college strings class teacher, a concert violinist and master strings teacher. On his advice, I chose to play the bass, and was first chair in our college orchestra by the time I graduated.

I definitely agree that we are sometimes too quick to assume that we have to have a certain type guitar neck, but I also think that there are times when there are perfectly good reasons for our preferences.

cotten

[Taylorplayer]

One thing I have learned. The left hand (assuming you play right handed) is pretty darn smart! I can detect even subtle differences in the neck profile on the various guitars I have. I'm not say that I can't adjust to them -- because, after a few minutes I do. Just saying that the difference is there, and I'm very aware of it. The only way it becomes a "deal breaker" for me is when I try to play on a very chunky neck. Others seem to handle that just fine -- but those just don't work for me. Which is a shame, really, because so many of the great guitars just have those baseball bat size necks!

PS -- patticake -- I'm jealous that you can handle most any neck size and nut width! Maybe I just need to try harder...

[dragon1952]

I guess you can't really make a blanket statement about neck widths or profiles and hand/finger size regardless of which side you take. It depends on what style you play and what chords you attempt, etc. Lots of people can get by with different styles, partial chords, playing chords in different positions, etc.

[James1971]

i have no problems playing pretty much any sized neck, and I suppose I have reasonably large hands. Thin and/or narrow necks give me a sore left hand after a while though, and eventually cramps.

My strat is the SRV model with the chunky neck and that suits me just fine. My national reso has that triangular shaped neck profile like the old old guitars, and that took some getting used to. Once used to it its a great shape though.

[mmmaak]

neck width has nothing to do with hand size!

I think that's a little extreme; it definitely has something to do with hand size, but how much depends. It would be more accurate to say that a combination of factors like nut width, string spacing at the nut, string spacing at the saddle, neck profile and neck width at the 12th fret determine compatibility with an individual's hands.

[Harmonycat]

Originally Posted by patticake

i keep reading threads here and elsewhere where people feel they should get a narrower neck because they have small hands. a lot of them don't find wider necks uncomfortable, or don't even know the nut size on their current guitar.

so for the record, folks, i am a 5' 3" female with normal hands for my height. that means i have small hands. i not only dislike playing narrower necks or very shallow necks, but they hurt my hands and wrists. i am very comfortable playing for hours on a guitar with a 1 3/4 or 1 7/8 nut, and if only seagull put that original s6 neck on a parlor, my life would be very happy indeed.

there's more to neck size than hand size. in fact i played a standard sized classical when i was 5' even, and i had no problem. neck angle, profile, depth and shape and radius affect my playing, but for a neck to be too wide for me, it would have to be pretty darn wide. your posture, the shape of your hands, that has a lot more to do with it than hand size. i promise.

thanks for letting me get that off my chest

Neck width is not the only contributing factor to what makes a neck uncomfortable to play. Increased thickness, deeper profile, and all things that make me have to stretch to play fatigue and cramp my hands, wrists and forearms quickly.

I can play thinner necked guitars with faster less meaty profiles for very long periods of time with no discomfort at all..

I was a bass player and leaned towards the thinner Jazz style necks, vs the Precision style "chunk of wood" necks. I could barely finish a set with a P-bass but could play a Fender Jazz bass in my sleep all night long.

I really liked Gibson EBOs and EB3s, which are essentially Gibson SG lead guitars, that are basses with very slim necks like Hofner Beatle basses. I can play them as fast as a lead guitar, because they have short scales as well.

We are all built differently, and I find it tiring to play a Parlour guitar for any length of time, because I am so hunched over trying to play it. I am very broad accross the shoulders and muscular in my upper body. My arms do not suit small guitars, or SD-12 guitars.

On the other hand I started playing Jumbo acoustic guitars for the first two years of play, and find Dreadnaughts to be small guitars.

Some ppl on the other hand find both of those too big to be comfortable for them. Many prefer smaller folk guitars....I for one do not.

I think Seagulls are fine instruments but I find that they just do not fit me.

Different strokes for different folks.

[ScottAllyn]

I'd say that technique has more to do with it than anything else. Just watch some videos of Su Meng - she has tiny hands but totally shreds on a classical guitar with a nut width that makes even my 1-13/16" width look narrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pnt4ls9cAU

That video gets out of sync before very long, but it's probably because the camera just can't keep up!

My own technique is rather sloppy, so I'm more comfortable with a wider spacing so that my fingers aren't always bumping into adjacent strings!

[patticake]

it's probably not a matter of trying harder. maybe trying just to play a wider neck for a couple weeks - chances are you'll find a comfortable position. after all, if you're used to playing a narrow neck, your finger muscles and the muscles involved wth the posture of your hand, will need time to adjust. also i find my entire body changes position a tiny bit to play a narrower neck. you may find the same.

Originally Posted by Taylorplayer

PS -- patticake -- I'm jealous that you can handle most any neck size and nut width! Maybe I just need to try harder...

[jacothedog]

Originally Posted by JimR

I beg to differ!

Jim - that doesn't give us much info! Is the paper 8 1/2" wide? 11" 17" ..or is that 3" x 5" card stock? LOL

[ewalling]

Another issue with the wider necks, particularly the 2" nut width on a classical, is the kind of music you play on the intrument. When I bought my first calssical around three years ago, I began learning some classical pieces transcribed by Douglas Niedt and the kind of stretches involved in some of the pieces were formidable. I've heard that many classical transcriptions can be like this. Anyway, I ended up selling the classical (a Raimundo) and compensating by trying crossovers. These didn't give the richness of sound of a true classical and recently I bought an Orpheus Valley Fiesta. It still has the 2" nut width but the neck profile, as someone has already mentioned, is less bulky, which makes it easier. I also stay away from pieces that include huge finger stretches!