Guitar and wrist pain

[Ron]

After months of searching I bought a beautiful PRS 594. My number one for years has been a Custom 22. I'm experiencing wrist pain while playing the 594 and thought someone might have ideas.

My 22 has a wide thin neck and I use 9.5 gauge strings. The 594 of course has the pattern vintage neck and 10 gauge strings. Maybe it's the longer scale or new frets. That's the only differences I see. I have other guitars with various neck shapes and string gauges that don't seem to bother me.

This is a curious thing to me but I'm not giving up on the new guitar. I'm hoping it's just an adjustment phase.

Any thoughts?

 

[Michael_DK]

Have you played the new guitar a lot more than you usually play, for a period of time after purchase, perhaps?

Otherwise, the neck profile is a good guess. And I would expect that it takes some adjustment time. Go slow!

 

[AP515]

Where does the guitar position itself with respect to your body? Is it a different angle than the others?

 

[Ron]

Thanks Michael and AP515!

It's only been a couple nights and normal practice periods. At home I practice while sitting however I have band practice tonight and will stand for that. We will see how that goes.

I'm thinking it's the neck carve and will just take a little time to adjust. It just struck me odd that ithat the pain was immediate. Pain may be overstating it but definitely feel a tightness in the wrist.

 

[grausch]

Might be helpful if you could describe when it occurs, i.e. I get severe thumb pain when playing root-six power chords (12-bar blues chords) on all of my guitars. I can alleviate this by getting more of my wrist under the guitar (raising it on the strap) and I have less of an issue when playing thicker necks.

Try and isolate when it happens and then try and find workarounds. Luckily for me PRS guitars with Pattern / Wide Fat are fine. Gibsons with slim taper tend to be worst.

 

[Atomic]

After months of searching I bought a beautiful PRS 594. My number one for years has been a Custom 22. I'm experiencing wrist pain while playing the 594 and thought someone might have ideas.

My 22 has a wide thin neck and I use 9.5 gauge strings. The 594 of course has the pattern vintage neck and 10 gauge strings. Maybe it's the longer scale or new frets. That's the only differences I see. I have other guitars with various neck shapes and string gauges that don't seem to bother me.

This is a curious thing to me but I'm not giving up on the new guitar. I'm hoping it's just an adjustment phase.

Any thoughts?

I took the liberty of looking your symptoms up on Web MD for you, and it turns out that you're pregnant with quadruplets, and you have pinky toe cancer.

 

[alantig]

I took the liberty of looking your symptoms up on Web MD for you, and it turns out that you're pregnant with quadruplets, and you have pinky toe cancer.

You should have kept scrolling - the full diagnosis includes rocking pneumonia, boogie-woogie flu, and a bad case of lovin' you.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Do you stretch before you play?

 

[sloanthebone]

It could be that the thicker necks just aren't for you. I had the opposite problem. I kept having pain and cramping in my hand/wrist when using my wide/thin necks. Once I switched over to wide/fat/pattern and pattern regular, it all went away. I had to sell some pieces I really didn't want to part with but that's how it goes and I am much happier now.

 

[Ron]

Pregnant - No
Pinky toe cancer - Hope not

Stretch - No. But I had thought of that and will before practice tonight!

I sure hope it's not an issue with the thicker neck! I did play a couple 594s before buying but maybe not long enough for the reaction. I'll give it a little time and see if it improves.

 

[László]

I was watching one of Tim Pierce's videos, and he mentioned that it's important not to put too much finger pressure on the strings; he was talking about it for playing speed, but I found after being more conscious of it that my hand feels better, too.

The other thing is that you're changing string gauges. That might be enough to cause it, as opposed to the neck carve, especially if your hand is cramping up.

It's hard to point to any one thing as definitive.

 

[tonytester]

you should stop hurting yourself immediately and ship the guitar to me, I will thoroughly analyze the situation.

 

[Ron]

Well I stretched tonite before practice and it really helped, not as fatigued or sore after a leisurely hour and half practice. I'm hoping it's just an adjustment phase.

I'm consider going to 9.5s but love the tone I'm getting as is. And I appreciate the offer to analyze the guitar but this bad boy is staying with me for a while!

Thanks all for the input!

Oh and the Tim Pierce reference, excellent point and one I struggle with. Love Tim and Pete Thorn! Watching the episode with Mark Kettieri now. Wow!

Haven't figured out to post a picture. Tried photobucket but my god at the ads. Later, lol

 

[flux]

Haven't figured out to post a picture. Tried photobucket but my god at the ads.

Give Imgur a shot, it seems the most convenient these days from desktop or mobile. (You don't even need to register an account if you don't wish, just throw & go.) Host the image there, and bring the copied URL back here to post.

 

[Tucson Thump]

An exercise my niece taught me.

put your arms down by your side, palms facing back.
now bend at the wrist so that your palms face up.
slowly make a fist.

Helps stretch out those muscles in your wrists and forearms. Worked for me but YMMV.

 

[Stoptail22]

In average, the string tension of your 594 with 10s is 11% higher than the tension of your Cu22 with 9.5s. The biggest difference is on the B-string, which has a 24% higher tension( 0.0115" vs 0.013"). I suggest to use the 9.5 gauge on your 594 too.

 

[bodia]

An exercise my niece taught me.

put your arms down by your side, palms facing back.
now bend at the wrist so that your palms face up.
slowly make a fist.

Helps stretch out those muscles in your wrists and forearms. Worked for me but YMMV.

Thanks for this. I can really feel the stretch.

 

[bodia]

I was watching one of Tim Pierce's videos, and he mentioned that it's important not to put too much finger pressure on the strings; he was talking about it for playing speed, but I found after being more conscious of it that my hand feels better, too..

I'm guilty of this. I feel a noticeable difference when I put some thought into, and actually play with, a lighter touch.

 

[garrett]

I went to 9.5 gauge strings on my 594 and I don't think there were any negative impacts on tone at all.

I also use 9.5 on a Custom 22 and with the extra bit of squish from having a trem on the Custom, the strings feel equally great on both.

I'll also echo the suggestions to watch your posture and how hard you squeeze the neck.

 

[JMaia]

For years I played a PRS SE that has a thinner neck than my PRS S2 Standard. It took me a while to adjust to the new neck, but now it's second nature. Just take some time to adjust to it. Don't push yourself through the pain though.