How reaching is your grip (or how thin is yer neck?)

[deeaa*]

Just thought of putting it this way.

Some people prefer a real baseball bat for a neck. Others prefer a thin one. I like a thin one with a V shape so there's something to fill the hand. But I digress. It occurred to me that since the human hands are quite different, maybe there is a common denominator in that perhaps people with long fingers prefer thick necks?

Easy way to check. Just grip your guitar at the neck end and squeeze, take a pic and send here. How much do your fingers reach accross the fretboard to the other side? Is there really a difference? Is there any benefit or downside to having long fingers, at least compared to the fretboard width?

Let's have some pics and discuss to see if there's something to learn from it.

[marnold***]

I don't have my camera handy (har!) but I have tiny little girlie hands. Actually my wife and I have almost the same hand and foot size despite the fact that I'm over eight inches taller than she is. Of course, now my right hand is even shorter.

[FusedGrooves]

What a great thread. I will take a pic asap I'd be keen to see what ppl have to say on this since I have such small girly hands with short short fingers.

[deeaa*]

I also used my cell phone...not really a good camera in any way but it's so easy to use it, always have it with me and taking a snap and sending it to my email is a breeze. Then I can just post it to Picasaweb from my email and it's there. I just wish the phone would have a direct link for sending pics to Picasaweb...well it does have a direct send to facebook link, I _could_ use that too and skip one step...

[oldguy]

When I see people playing 7and 8 string guitars and 5 and 6 string basses I think it's about the ability to adapt.
I switch from my Strat to Tele to semi-hollow to LP copy to my Switch Innovo, and they're all different.
After I play each one 5 minutes it doesn't feel too different.
I can play equally well on each one, despite the different string gauges, neck profiles/thicknesses, shapes, fretwire, etc. (well, at least as well as I'm capable of for my skill level).
I've heard guitar players complain about short, fat fingers, also arthritis, being the reason they couldn't play very well. While there may be some truth to that, I see people who've had bad injuries continue to work on their craft and make progress. Two of our friends right here have done so. They adapted.
So yah, while pics might give some kind of insight, I think it's more about adapting to the environment and working hard to improve.

[FrankenFretter***]

You know what they say about guys with big hands...they wear big gloves!

This isn't my thinnest neck, but you get the [blurry] picture.

[deeaa*]

Alright, finally another picture! And, despite a slightly different finger position, I'd say we have almost identical access across the frets on our guitars. Mine isn't the thinnest either of mine, but the most comfy.

Come on people, post a pic...my assumption is that they will be very very similar though. But it'd be interesting to see if there are any differences. There must be some differences to the sizes of the hands, but I'd venture our choices of guitars would compensate for any size variation. Or maybe it just happens that all guitar players have same size hands ;-) that'd be a weird find. You could start selling gloves sized S, M, GuitarPlayer, Xl or something, LOL :-)

[Eric***]

OK, here's mine:



I think the necks on my guitars seem to be pretty similar, but this is definitely the most shred-y of any of my 3 electric guitars. Not sure if I got the hand position you were hoping for, but I can take a different photo if need be.

[deeaa*]

Yeah that's great...I'd say from this pic it seems you've got a little bigger hand/longer fingers than either FrankenF or me. It's like the hands are getting slightly bigger along the thread actually. It's a bit hard to say as I grip it so I push my thumb way over the neck first while you've both gripped it more naturally, but I'd say my hand looks smaller anyway - at least the fingers seem clearly thinner. I am a pretty lean guy all round.

Now what I'd really like is someone who prefers real baseball bat necks to chime in with a pic of that neck & grip...so far this would indicate I don't like thicker necks simply because my hands are rather thinnish or smallish, but that don't necessarily reflect on people who do like them.

[FrankenFretter***]

I do prefer the smaller, thinner necks. Eric and I both have a preference for LP styled guitars, as well. Maybe we should start stating our glove size as well. I wear XL, but I'm not a big guy. I just have long fingers.

[deeaa*]

.Hm, mine is 10,5 or 11...not sure what that corresponds with...

[Eric***]

To be honest, I don't know what kind of neck I prefer. I just play the things, and sometimes I like them, sometimes I don't. I think string gauge, fretboard radius, and tone impact my opinion of a guitar more than anything. I played a friend's Ibanez once and found the neck to be really narrow, which I didn't like.

Oh, and I don't know my glove size, but considering my height and weight (6'3", 210 lbs.), I'd have to assume it's XL.

[FrankenFretter***]

.Hm, mine is 10,5 or 11...not sure what that corresponds with...

Are those ladies sizes, Dee?

[kidsmoke*]

I've got smaller hands as well, can get by with medium gloves, more often, though, they need to be large.

My Idol has a 1-11/16ths nut, and what I believe to be a slimmer neck. I love it. I've never spent much time with a beefier neck, but I'd be interested.

[kiteman]

Here's mine. Kinda awkward holding it to snap a shot.

[deeaa*]

Well seems clear to me that despite there seems to be even large variation on people's sizes and hands, there isn't very much variation on the actual ability to grip the neck you use however. Seems to me that by some stretching everyone is able to get the fingertips to top of fretboard while reaching pretty much clear across with the thumb.

I believe the glove size here is different from both UK and US, but I gather 10,5-11 is right between medium and XL. But I do sometimes prefer women's gloves in leather gloves because they're made smooth all over with no jutting seams like men's gloves and are a real tight fit...you can even shoot in women's leather fall gloves, but not in men's :-)

[NWBasser]

One issue that I've run into is string spacing. On a narrow neck my big fingertips get bunched up playing open chords and I have issues muting strings that should be open, etc.

I need a bit of fretboard width to fit my fingers on the right strings at the right places.