While being as ancient as I am has many disadvantages (for example, I am now completely invisible to women), maybe there's a silver lining to this cloud: I seem to have learned to be OK with an unusual variety of guitar neck profiles. Or was I born this way? Nature or nurture?
I learned to play on a '65 SG Special with a Slim-Taper neck profile that I've mentioned here before. I've had deep V Martins, C-shaped Fenders, V-shaped Fenders, very fat necks, very thin necks, Taylors and Collings and skinny-as-hell Rick 12 string necks and many more; since 1991, I've owned all of the PRS neck shapes except Wide-Thin, though I now have a Pattern Thin 408 in my small arsenal. All of 'em worked just fine for me. Heck, I've owned a Modulus Graphite bass with a 35 inch scale and a neck so wide that you could land a 747 on it.
What I've found is that while a good setup is absolutely vital, the neck profile is something I get used to in about a half a second.
Since this seems impossible given the many posts I read where folks say they can't get along with one or the other neck profiles, I thought, "Maybe there's something unusual about my hands?" So I looked up a couple of facts. The length of the average adult male hand is 7.44 inches. Mine measures about 8, but it's by no means unusually large. It's a little wider, but not by much (and no jokes about size and girth please, ahem).
So maybe on the larger than average size, but I know a lot of musicians whose hands are larger than mine. And with somewhat larger than average hands, shouldn't I have a problem with a shallower neck? I don't! Nor do I have a problem with a deeper neck. In fact, I hardly notice the difference! This led me to a discovery about myself: size doesn't matter!
In fact, my friends, I am multineckadextrous!
While it is true that I may be a freak of nature, I think it's a blessing. Hand me a guitar, and I will be able to play it as badly as I play any other guitar, provided it has a decent setup!
So, am I alone on this board? Is anyone else multineckadextrous? Or are you all wimpily wedded to one singular sensational shape?
Inquiring minds want to know the answer to this burning question.
I learned to play on a '65 SG Special with a Slim-Taper neck profile that I've mentioned here before. I've had deep V Martins, C-shaped Fenders, V-shaped Fenders, very fat necks, very thin necks, Taylors and Collings and skinny-as-hell Rick 12 string necks and many more; since 1991, I've owned all of the PRS neck shapes except Wide-Thin, though I now have a Pattern Thin 408 in my small arsenal. All of 'em worked just fine for me. Heck, I've owned a Modulus Graphite bass with a 35 inch scale and a neck so wide that you could land a 747 on it.
What I've found is that while a good setup is absolutely vital, the neck profile is something I get used to in about a half a second.
Since this seems impossible given the many posts I read where folks say they can't get along with one or the other neck profiles, I thought, "Maybe there's something unusual about my hands?" So I looked up a couple of facts. The length of the average adult male hand is 7.44 inches. Mine measures about 8, but it's by no means unusually large. It's a little wider, but not by much (and no jokes about size and girth please, ahem).
So maybe on the larger than average size, but I know a lot of musicians whose hands are larger than mine. And with somewhat larger than average hands, shouldn't I have a problem with a shallower neck? I don't! Nor do I have a problem with a deeper neck. In fact, I hardly notice the difference! This led me to a discovery about myself: size doesn't matter!
In fact, my friends, I am multineckadextrous!
While it is true that I may be a freak of nature, I think it's a blessing. Hand me a guitar, and I will be able to play it as badly as I play any other guitar, provided it has a decent setup!
So, am I alone on this board? Is anyone else multineckadextrous? Or are you all wimpily wedded to one singular sensational shape?
Inquiring minds want to know the answer to this burning question.
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