The neck of the instrument is the long, thin portion that houses the fret-board. While smaller-built guitars will typically include the feature of a small neck width, there are many normal-sized guitars that also have a shallow neck. Greg is a busy father and landscaper who finds the guitar to be a big stress reliever. It’s also extremely affordable for the quality, coming in at under $200. Guitars in General. And this 3/4 acoustic is no different. A neck radius that is somewhere between 9” and 15” is a good starting point for small hands. While you want to be balanced and not cause yourself unnecessary pain, this will help get your fingers to a point where they can play those difficult chords and riffs more naturally. Lee Johnson has written for various publications and websites since 2005, covering science, music and a wide range of topics. Thread starter radiohead625; Start date Feb 25, 2012; R. radiohead625 Member. This is the most common modern neck profile: C-shaped necks have a comfortable oval profile that works well for most playing styles. The size of the guitar reduces the scale length, which means the neck is shorter, and your fingers can stretch across more frets. Guitars With Thin Necks for Small Hands. In fact, guitars come in many different shapes and sizes. Remember: the frets get smaller as they go up the neck. If you got some wider that neck allows for your fretting fingers to have more space to maneuver. This is probably the most boring out of my tips, but also the most useful. Learn about his stress-free approach to the guitar by downloading the free resource above. Since the circle is larger, the resulting arc across the fingerboard is flatter — because the width of the fingerboard is the same. This allows for the strings to be close together, but can make fretting one individual string more difficult. So, how can you overcome small hands and find the best guitar to suit your needs? I know these guitars have had a bad rep in the past, but it’s amazing to see how much they’ve improved over the years. Next, keep your wrist just slightly bent inwards. So really, whether or not you buy an electric or acoustic guitar will depend on the style of music and tone that you prefer. The measurement of the fretboard radius refers to the radius of a circle from which a small segment of the circumference equal to the width of the fretboard … Make better use of your pinky finger! Ok, so it only makes sense that necks should come in different sizes to accommodate your size hand. Wide, thick neck profiles can be very uncomfortable for people with small hands to play, meaning that guitars with more narrow, thinner neck profiles will be a much better choice than a neck that is too chunky to get your fingers around. This solid maple guitar is truly a thing of beauty, and anyone who is a fan of the Fender Strat style is definitely going to love this piece. Here are some quick tips that along with right guitar should help you out. The best profile for people with small hands is the “C” profile, found on many guitars that usually have thinner necks, such as the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul and Les Paul Junior. Neck-thickness is measured as a radius, as if the curve on the back of the neck continued around to form a circle. If you don’t regularly stretch your fingers, they will never adapt. Like will someone will small hands prefer a 9 1/2" radius rather that 7 1/2" radius … The Little Martin is a great quality guitar from a classic brand that has never brought anything but excellence. The nut is the small, white rectangle that separates the neck of the guitar from the headstock, which houses the tuning heads. Like I said, this is not a thing that men really want to admit. Yeah, right, you know what I'm talking about! The regular width is exactly 1 11/16″so that’s really what many people are mostly used to. The pinky finger is often the most underutilized asset that a guitar player with small hands has. I had pain all through my fingers and in my wrist, as well. If this has happened to you, you may have wondered: “Are my hands too small to play the guitar?”. Warmoth offers you 3 neck widths and 8 Neck Profile for a combination of 24 neck … As for an electric, I recommend the Fender Stratocaster Squier. Best Budget Option. Messages 1,559. And, being a 3/4 guitar, it’s the perfect size for your small hands! In the end, small hands don’t have to stop you from playing the guitar well. Silversurfer is thinking about making a custom guitar. Radius is a spec I have to really look at. Today, I’m going to show you some tips that really helped me, as well as 5 of the best guitars for small hands that are currently on the market. This will eventually lead to pain, and also slows you down quite a bit. It also offers a scale length of … Guitars … Danny grew up playing anything … Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images. Eveything else being equal, would a smaller or larger fretboard radius be easier to play for someone with small hands and short stubby fingers. Likely, you’ve found that when you’re instructed to use your ring finger in a certain chord or lead riff, you have to make a monumental effort to stretch until you can fret the right note. The scale length of a guitar is measured from the nut of the guitar to the center of the … Fender Modern Player Telecaster Thinline Deluxe. [QUESTION] Fretboard radius and small hands. It’s a personal choice and depends on how and what you play. So, if the lower frets are already small, you’ll have to squeeze into some pretty tight spaces in the higher frets. They are usually not as deep as most U- and V-shaped neck profiles. He studies physics at the Open University, with a particular interest in quantum physics and cosmology. The pattern vintage is my favorite, but I own guitars with the DGT, pattern and wide-fat neck shapes, and they're all comfortable and playable. You don’t want to buy a guitar for kids, or a pink guitar, or one that says Taylor Swift in pretty lettering on it. If you’re looking for the classic Epiphone sound … If you want to accommodate some extra string pairs, the neck width on those 12 string instruments is around 1 7/8″. The radius of that imaginary circle is the neck radius. Any smaller children should get a one-quarter-size guitar. Basically, you’ll be looking for a flat C shape on the back of the neck. I really enjoy the compound neck contour and fretboard, on my 2017 Fender Stratocaster. The neck on the right (Fig. When your arm and wrist are in the right position, it will help your overall range on the fretboard, and you’ll avoid unnecessary pain. But some people (including some very manly men) have picked up a guitar and realized that their hand size made it difficult to play. On the other hand, while Gibson varies slightly, their J-45 acoustic model has a 16” fretboard radius while most if not all of their electric guitar models sit in and a 10” to 12” radius. As a general rule, anyone over 5 feet tall should be able to play a full-sized instrument. Many vintage Fender guitars have a radius of 7.25", whereas most Gibson guitars tend to have a flatter 12" radius… Something else you’ll have to look at is the distance between the frets. How do you get that perfect guitar posture? Well, I used to wonder this as well, but I have good news: There is no such thing as hands that are too small for the guitar! It may seem obvious to many that electric guitars are generally smaller and easier to handle than acoustic guitars. Choose a thinner-necked model if possible. 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