Guitar necks do make a difference

[seagreen13]

I have spoke with several guitar players who suffer hand discomfort and pain of some kind in their fingers or thumb. I like a thin neck. I have a Godin Session which has a very ergo neck which I am now finding out after practising and playing for many many hrs. I purchased a B.C. Rich which I like and play from time to time. In the month of may I started to play the Rich my usual practice time of 2hrs every day this axe also has a narrow neck after 4 weeks I was starting to get discomfort in my thumb area and my fingers never had any trouble like this before. So I continued playing and the pain became worse so much it was all I could do bar chords at the 4 and a half week mark it was getting bad stopped playing for 2 days went back at it with the Rich same thing so I quit the rich went back to playing with my Godin after day 2 of playing my hand felt a bit better after after day 5 was feeling a lot better after day 6 pain was completely gone. The moral of the story is a guitar neck can obviously make a difference. How many of you out there could be suffering from hand issues due to the type of neck on your guitar and don't even know it.

[JOLLY]

Thankfully, I've never had that problem, and I hope I never do. However, it seems like when I've read of other people going through this, the thinner necks are what caused them the pain.

[ErikH]

I ran in to this with an American Standard Tele. I could've swapped the neck but it was too good of a Tele to do that and risk it losing the mojo. I like fat necks myself. Thin necks bother me.

[solspirit]

Welcome to the forum.

Yes, yes they do.

[Mincer]

Bigger necks cause pain for me, like in 15-20 minutes. I stop playing after that.

[Phantasmagoria]

I don't really find that necks make much of a difference to the way I play, though I guess I do have a preference for thinner shreddier necks in general. They do play faster for solo's and there's easier/more comfortable top fret access. Some necks do cause a bit of pain/discomfort afterwards in my fretting hand though (thumb joint). Not even sure which ones/types those are...guess i should check that out..

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

My best neck is my Jackson warrior. Super slim, super comfortable.
I also love the Dean V necks...
Truth be told I'm not really very picky, I'll play all of them. The 50s Les Pauls aren't my favorite, but I'll play them without too much issue.

[eclecticsynergy]

Lately I've found I often get cramps after playing a very thin neck for more than fifteen minutes or a half hour.
For me a narrow neck is a pain in the ass but doesn't cause any actual discomfort.
I love chunky necks of all sorts, though they sometimes cause balance issues in an SG or Thunderbird.

[nexion218]

While I agree that there are neck and hand shapes/sizes that make for a better match than others (basball bats for small hands or Wizard necks for someone who has finger like ET are prolly not the best fit), I found out through my own ordeal that the discomfort is more likely due to not taking care of our bodies/muscles and bad technique (forcing things instead of resting and playing with tense muscles and body)

I've gotten into this guitar workout spiral the past couple of years and last summer I managed to strain my picking hand so bad that I had trouble pushing down on a liquid soap dispenser as I "successfully" developed both tennis and golfer's elbow... Thankfully one of my online friends from another forum is a physiotherapist and he insisted that he can help me so we did 2 Zoom sessions (he lives in Italy) and boy was I amazed. He showed me a pre playing and after playing routine, both around 15 minutes and I am not touching a guitar without those anymore . All my pain was almost instantly gone and never returned. One of the most surprising things I learned is how the state of our ankles is connected with our shoulders.

In short (and without giving any medical advice) he explained to me that when strained, the muscles and connective tissues become tense to limit the range of motion to avoid further injury. Now until the tissues don't get back (or never had) proper range of motion, the pain won't go away and using the muscles in question will further aggravate the problem. So an easy set of warmup and stretching exercises solved my problem, thankfully.

Now I'm not saying that everbody has the same problem or thtat this is the sole source of their problem. This is just my sotry and food for thought. In a way guitar is like sport: you train your muscles to perform better. One doesn't play football without taking care of their body and muscles, but we, guitar players tend to forget that aspect of our passion. Some pain is OK - no pain, no gain. But we have to learn when to stop and how to take care of our body. Some guys are lucky and never have such problems. I am not one of them and I am thankful that I had a chance to learn how to avoid bigger problems.

[PFDarkside]

Yes, great post!

[Bogner]

I definitely feel that there is something to say for the neck for sure. I also feel that body position, guitar position etc also effect things greatly. The easiest and most comfortable way I have found to play the guitar is the classical positioning. Your guitar should be similarly positioned whether you are sitting or standing as well. When that doesn't happen, it can effect things. Playing style as well (technique wise I guess) matters on the neck size a great deal. If you wrap your thumb over the top to chord at times that is much different in position and feel from a player who most of the time has their thumb tip on the middle of the back of the neck. Thickness front to back of the neck effects things as well. It all matters. The key is finding what works for you and creates the least amount of tension. Tweaking some of the things I mentioned (and some I didn't mention) can make a great deal impact on how you feel and how your body responds to playing guitar.

[Mincer]

Classical positioning hurts my neck when it is cranked to the left like that as I am learning a piece. It favors the right hand rather than the left, and it causes neck pain for me after 10 minutes.

[Bogner]

Classical positioning hurts my neck when it is cranked to the left like that as I am learning a piece. It favors the right hand rather than the left, and it causes neck pain for me after 10 minutes.

That is odd to me. It is the only way (for me) when I am sitting down to play that the guitar seems parallel to my body. If I have a strat style guitar and the bottom curvature of the guitar is on top of my right leg then the headstock is further away from my body and it either tweaks my back a bit along with my left wrist. For me, having the curvature of the guitar on my left inner thigh and the but of the guitar on my right leg the body is more parallel and the neck is slightly more tilted upward. Imagine playing/holding a V guitar while sitting down. Of course doing this I usually prop my foot on something to raise it off the ground. If I were to play the non classical positioned way, then my feet are both flat on the ground. I think the height of a person also matters. Shorter people or people without such long arms can probably more easily play non classical position easier. You have to consider forearm length, torso length, etc. Again, all of that matters.

[Mincer]

I'm not very tall, and no matter if I am sitting or standing, the strap is bearing the weight, not my legs. The guitar stays in the same place, sitting or standing.

[stevenspear]

I have spoke with several guitar players who suffer hand discomfort and pain of some kind in their fingers or thumb. I like a thin neck. I have a Godin Session which has a very ergo neck which I am now finding out after practising and playing for many many hrs. I purchased a B.C. Rich which I like and play from time to time. In the month of may I started to play the Rich my usual practice time of 2hrs every day this axe also has a narrow neck after 4 weeks I was starting to get discomfort in my thumb area and my fingers never had any trouble like this before. So I continued playing and the pain became worse so much it was all I could do bar chords at the 4 and a half week mark it was getting bad stopped playing for 2 days went back at it with the Rich same thing so I quit the rich went back to playing with my Godin after day 2 of playing my hand felt a bit better after after day 5 was feeling a lot better after day 6 pain was completely gone. The moral of the story is a guitar neck can obviously make a difference, more see it here. How many of you out there could be suffering from hand issues due to the type of neck on your guitar and don't even know it.

It was interesting to read all the answers. I also experience some discomfort after playing the guitar, but I'm a beginner and I thought that it should be like that, I thought that if I played the guitar more often this discomfort would pass, now I'm not sure