Guitar Neck Ergonomics For Hand Issues

[acpken]

Like many other 'older' musicians, I have some fretting hand issues. I have been searching for a long time for a guitar neck that is actually comfortable to play for long periods without pain.

Have any of you ever built a neck specifically for people with hand issues, or have any ideas on how to design necks to accomodate them?

Thank you,

ken

[westhemann]

Oh man,good luck.I have had fretting issues for years now and trying to come up with a solution is extremely individual.I have had over 60 guitars at one point and out of all of those only two are comfortable.One is a Japanese Ibanez Sabre(93) with the original Wizard neck and the other is a KXK custom V.

More important than the neck profile(for me) is how the guitar sits.A guitar has to feel low enough at the picking end and high enough at the fretting end,so it needs to be slim enough through the body to comfortably fit my own personal contour while balancing well enough so the headstock stays about shoulder height while standing.The further I go towards the high frets the more uncomfortable I feel through the wrist,and if a neck is too thick my middle finger tends to lock up and become useless....a bad neck profile only affects one finger for me,but a bad position affects my entire wrist.

My advice is to play as many as you can until you find one that's good for you,then buy it and keep it forever and never play another one.

[curtisa]

Have a look at Strandberg's Endurneck profile. Supposedly designed to encourage relaxed wrist muscles in your fretting hand at any point on the neck, although if you're the kind of guy that regularly employs the Hendrix-thumb-hooked-over-that bass-strings technique it would probably be quite uncomfortable unless you forced yourself to "retrain" your left hand.

[RestorationAD]

+1 on Strandberg

Look at Rick Toone's trapezoidal neck profile as well.

+1 on guitar positioning.

Google ergonomic guitar and read until your eyes bleed.

[Ripthorn]

I actually prototyped a neck profile that was quite comfortable. The contour was constantly changing along the back, supporting the thumb where it sits for me at all points along the neck. Of course, thumb position will differ at the same point depending on what I'm fretting, but on the whole it was pretty comfortable. How I did it was I took notes of where my thumb tends to sit on the rear of the neck when playing at just about every fret. Then I translated that into a continuously flowing asymmetric neck carve along the back. I only did it on a prototype, but thought the idea showed promise. I just haven't been building as rapidly as I would like, so I haven't done a "real" guitar with it yet.

[demonx]

From my observations, its the width more than the profile as on a wider neck the hand doesn't have to close up as much. Profile does also have effect though.

I myself have issues with my hands and fingers. Not as bad as some, but I'm constantly having to stretch out my tendons and ligaments, sometimes even grabbing the steering wheel of my car ill get a jolt of pain and have to stretch them out.

Try playing a seven string guitar, much wider neck. It'll suck for a week or more until you get used to avoiding the string, but once your brain accepts that its there, then think about your fingers and if it relieves the issues somewhat

I think you'll be surprised.

[westhemann]

Actually,my hand issues started after trying to switch to a seven string.

Hand issues are very individual.What works for one person is not going to work for another.Not sure why that isn't extremely obvious,since obviously hand sizes,finger lengths,and finger widths are all so different.

That's why I waste no time on "ergonomic" neck profiles.

[pauliemc]

trapazoid neck.

I have them on 2 guitars, one at home & one in the workshop. The flat profiles tend to make for a more stable playing platform, less of the continuous adjustment you have on a more rounded neck to stabilise your thumb. I can play for literaly hours on the one at home & still be fine.

The relativly large radius on the wizard necks from Ibanez do a sligtly similar thing, bigger radius feels flatter.

Do as RAD advised. Read up on Rick toones TNP neck, & look into Strandbergs necks aswell.

[acpken]

Wow.

I'll be busy for awhile - got some readin' to do.

ken

[Sancho Marino]

If I play just about anything other than an old Wizard profile my hand cramps up in no time at all. The wide flat area on back of the neck fits my problems as good as it gets....

[curtisa]

This recent conversation got me curious enough to try out a trapezoidal neck profile. I took the neck off my old Buster-caster and hit it with the scraper for 30 minutes or so to give it a flattened back about 3/4" wide up the middle of the neck, and angled sides starting at around 45 degrees at the nut and tapering off to maybe 30 degrees or so at the heel.

The results are interesting. It definitely feels odd initially, but you do get used to it fairly quickly. Hooking the thumb over the bass side of the neck is actually more comfortable than you'd think to look at it. Certain note runs across strings tended to put the pad of my thumb on the edge of one of the trapezoid corners, which was a little bit like having a pebble in your shoe. Maybe this is where skewing the trapezoid along the length of the neck would be more useful? For all I know it could be poor lefthand technique on my part though. Playing up on the higher frets was definitely easier, particularly on the bass strings where the fingers are reaching across the full width of the fretboard.

The trapezoid edge on the treble side of the neck had no benefit to me. I never position my thumb on that side, and the rest of my left hand makes very little contact with that surface while playing, so flattening it off was redundant.