Question for you players with smaller hands

[ohiopicker]

I have small hands, and three of my guitars Martins) have the Modified Low Oval neck, which is the most comfortable for me. That said, my two Gibbys have the advanced response necks, and they are manageable.

[Br1ck]

My 70 Guild D 35 is perfect, but I play my 65 Epiphone Texan with a 1 5/8 too, and a Martin 1 11/16 fattish neck and a Martin 1 3/4 MLO too. If I could afford a Gibson banner J 45, I'd deal with a baseball bat neck. I don't let hand size dictate playing much of anything.

[Graylocks]

I played an Ovation and a Yairi WY-1 for years. Before that a Guild D-40. 1 11/16" necks all. i thought my transition to a Santa Cruz OM Grand 1 3/4" would not be a problem. Turns out it was and I won't bore you with the details of my guitar neck journey of the last 5 years.

LSS, neck profile was more of an issue than nut width. The 1 3/4 Traditional neck on my Collings feels wonderful and the biggest difference between that and my original OM Grand is the slimmer C profile.

The 1 11/16" C neck i had SCGC build into a Custom OM Grand feels pretty good but the guitar sound is way, way different. I am now working with SCGC to either replace the neck on my original OM Grand or shave it down.

[Birdbrain]

Having small hands doesn't mean anything! It doesn't even mean you need a pencil-necked guitar. My own short fingers have trouble curling around the neck and hitting the strings dead vertical. That's what I need to do to fret notes cleanly, because my fingertips aren't violinist-thin, either. I'd tried to play narrow necks for decades, always getting discouraged at my sloppiness. Until one day when I was out shopping for a friend, not myself. That's when I first tried a 1.80" Seagull neck. Now I prefer 1 3/4" nuts.

[Jwills57]

Hi, DaveYo--I have a kind of funny story about this topic, which is near and dear to my heart as I have exceptionally small hands for a man. I was at a week-long workshop one summer, and one of the guest performers who gave a workshop was Muriel Anderson. She played her tunes on a classical guitar, which had the standard classical guitar dimensions, which means the nut was a bit over two inches. She played flawlessly, a very amazing and fluent guitar player. At the end one of the other students asked her what the secret was for playing the way she did with her having such small hands. She just said something to the effect of "Practice, practice, practice. And learn your fret board so you can find voicings that work for you." That advice has always stuck with me. I've actually learned to appreciate the advantages of a wider nut spacing, because it just seems to make getting around the fret board quite a bit easier for me.

[KDepew]

I am a fan of the Martin dreadnought junior myself.

[s2y]

Originally Posted by Birdbrain

Having small hands doesn't mean anything! It doesn't even mean you need a pencil-necked guitar. My own short fingers have trouble curling around the neck and hitting the strings dead vertical. That's what I need to do to fret notes cleanly, because my fingertips aren't violinist-thin, either. I'd tried to play narrow necks for decades, always getting discouraged at my sloppiness. Until one day when I was out shopping for a friend, not myself. That's when I first tried a 1.80" Seagull neck. Now I prefer 1 3/4" nuts.

I think it means the ergonomics and technique have to be a lot tighter. I spent a lot of time playing 6 string basses in bands. The ergonomics of the bass needed to be good and my left hand technique needed to be on the money or it hurt.

[s2y]

Originally Posted by Jwills57

Hi, DaveYo--I have a kind of funny story about this topic, which is near and dear to my heart as I have exceptionally small hands for a man. I was at a week-long workshop one summer, and one of the guest performers who gave a workshop was Muriel Anderson. She played her tunes on a classical guitar, which had the standard classical guitar dimensions, which means the nut was a bit over two inches. She played flawlessly, a very amazing and fluent guitar player. At the end one of the other students asked her what the secret was for playing the way she did with her having such small hands. She just said something to the effect of "Practice, practice, practice. And learn your fret board so you can find voicings that work for you." That advice has always stuck with me. I've actually learned to appreciate the advantages of a wider nut spacing, because it just seems to make getting around the fret board quite a bit easier for me.

I would guess Muriel Anderson took formal lessons, which involved proper technique. Practice makes permanent.

[Italuke]

Originally Posted by s2y

Have you taken lessons with someone who teaches technique? It's rare that you hear of anyone complaining Taylor necks are too wide.

Exactly. Last I bothered to look there were plenty of Taylor 1-11/16 nuts.

[Chipotle]

I don't think neck *width* matters much with small hands. 1/16" makes a difference in feel, but not in stretch, so to speak. I don't have large hands, and I prefer a 1-3/4" nut, especially for fingerstyle.

What does make a difference is scale length. I find it much easier to play a short scale guitar (24.9" vs the "standard" 25.5"), although I can certainly play a standard scale without any issue. With a shorter scale, you'll gain those fractions of an inch that you don't have to stretch. It can make challenging fingerings a lot easier.

[ricfreak]

I have small hands as well as chronic trigger fingers. So I turn to ukuleles until I get better

Alternatively, my Ric 325 are quite comfy for me too.