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having an issue with guitar neck width….
My hands are made for blue collar work and/or boxing so my hands are thick and my fingers aren’t long. Trying to use a Alvarez Acoustic/Electric that I bought from a FB post. having an issue reaching certain notes like “G”. My ring finger keeps muting the 5th string, can’t get that arch needed. Are all guitar neck widths the same or are they different and what’s a good model with a thinner neck that would help me? Thank you
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7 Replies
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I can’t recommend a guitar for you because I am not all that familiar but I do know not all guitar necks are the same width. My classical Ephiphone is much wider than my Martin or my Taylor GS Mini. If you look on line at a guitars specs it usually says the neck width and length.
As you play and stretch you will find your hand becomes more flexible. It takes a while but it happens. And it is not uncommon for your 5th string to get a little muted in a G Chord. Try the full 4 finger G and it happens less.
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@zman – Acoustic Guitar necks come in all kinds of widths, typical widths are 1 11/16″, 1 23/32″, 1 3/4″. More importantly, Neck designs also run the full variety of shapes (e.g. Oval, Modified Oval, C, V, Modified V, Low Profile, etc.). All of these variable affect fingering depending on your hand and finger size. In my own case, I have a medium size hand, but short fingers (an especially short pinky), so I gravitate to the 1 11/16″ modified low oval necks.
Suggest you stop in at a local guitar store and try a few different styles out to see what works best for you.
Not sure I follow your G chord problem. Would think your ring finger is either on the 1st string, 3rd fret or 2nd string 3rd fret with pinky on the 1st string 3rd fret. Don’t see how your ring finger is muting the 5th string unless you are not using the index and fingering with your middle, ring and pinky (which is legit if you want to use the index in other ways.
Hope this helps
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@zman – I ran into a similar problem last night while working on fingerstyle. I had taken my Taylor 416 to play at church service and was working on Freight Train afterwards. The first 2 measures are a C chord and I kept muting the D string off and on. If I strum a C chord I’m fine but moving my index and pinky was causing a slight shift of my ring finger.
Today is my day to check guitar humidifiers so I got out my calipers and measured the nut on each guitar. My Taylor has the narrowest nut @ 1.6″ while my Yamaha A3M almost 1.7″, my Yamaha 12 string is 1.8″ and my classical is just over 2″. Looks like the A3M is going to be my fingerstyle guitar.
One solution you might look at is getting a 12 string and remove the octave strings. Sweetwater Sound has entry level 12 strings starting @ $219
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@zman I think my hands are similar to yours. Here is what Zager Guitars told me. They offer two nut widths and an unconditional 30 day return policy. . .
We have 2 sizes 1 11/16 and 1 3/4 but our string spacing, neck shape and taper, fret size and shape, fret board radius, lower string heights and much lower string pressures make our guitars feel quite a bit different than other guitars with similar dimensions. We’ve had players come from entirely different sizes who actually prefer ours once they play one.I recently posted a video about measurements on our facebook at https://www.facebook.com/zagerguitars/videos/347245432604781/ We ship the 1 3/4 as this is what the majority of our customers want but if you want the 1 11/16 just let me know when you place your order and i will make sure you get that size.
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@zman I agree 100% with @ChuckS. So many neck profiles. I’ve purchased way too many guitars because I thought they sounded great, which they did. They didn’t fit me however and now I’ve been selling them off. Two things to me are most important. How the neck profile fits your particular hand, and how comfortable the body is. Do this. Rest the guitar neck in your palm, facing up, with the natural curve of your palm cradling the neck. Now wrap your fingers around the fretboard. Your middle finger should cover the sixth string. If it is just touching the sixth, you will struggle making a good curved arc with your fingers. Try a number of them. You will be very surprised how each one fits your hand. Then the body is next. I liked the sound of the large dreds. Not comfortable for me to play for a long time though. I’m currently looking for a used Martin 000-18. I’ve played a few and this one really fits me well. Taylor necks seem to fit me good as well. Good luck.
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hey @zman , I’m guessing you are pretty new at guitar playing? The issue you are describing is very common for new players, regardless of the length or thickness of fingers. Lots of guitar players have short and big fingers…. As Albert said, you will gain flexibility and span as time goes to your practice. I would not advise you to spend lots of money buying new and expensive guitars just because they have a narrow neck, they can have other negatives with thicker fingers muting adjacent strings… But by any means, do go to try some at guitar stores and speak to sales advisers.
There are warm up exercises and stretches you can do to help getting your fingers more flexible, try to do them before your daily practice and with time and patience you will be pleasantly surprised 😉
Good luck
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@zman All these tips are spot on! Warming up and stretching have helped me quite a bit. Tony has a good course here at TAC land… Skill Courses/Getting Started/Daily Stretches for Guitar. Good luck :)!
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