RaySachs
New Member
So I'd never given the location of the leg cut in an electric guitar (or acoustic for that matter) a single thought in my reasonably long life. I've mostly played strats, teles, and semi-hollows and the leg cut never caused me any issues or gave me any reason to think about it. I'd played a really nice Ibanez Les Paul knockoff back in the late '70s / early '80s, but I was skinny as a rail and mostly played standing up back then, so never gave it a thought. Then in March I bought a 594. Awesome, amazing guitar. Love it, love how it plays, love how it sounds, just absolutely love it every time I pick it up.
BUT...
I'm in my 60th year and a little round about the mid-section these days, and I play seated about 99% of the time. And the 594 is the least comfortable guitar I've ever encountered for seated playing. Which has made me think about this for the first time ever. And it's the location of the leg cut, which is significantly farther forward on the body than on the other guitars I've owned and played. Which moves the guitar to the right when resting on my leg. Which pulls the picking area further to the right and all parts of the neck further to the right, and which makes it notably tougher to get to the upper frets since I have to reach around my belly in a way no other guitar has ever made me do.
I thought I might be a little crazy so I asked about this on a couple of forums (I'd mentioned my early impression of it here in my NGD post) and a number of other people have had the same issue with various guitars. And the primary culprits seem to be Les Pauls, some PRS models (I think someone mentioned just 22 fret models), and various oddly shaped, less common guitars. It's not a PRS specific issue but a number of people noted they'd had PRS models (and Les Pauls) they'd otherwise loved but ended up not keeping them because of this issue. I'm nowhere close to bothered enough to sell the guitar - I love it waaaaay too much - but at least this confirmed for me that I wasn't crazy, that this was real, but just something I'd never encountered before.
I've gotten a lot of advice to move the guitar to my left leg and play in a classical position, but I've tried that at various times in the past and recently and that's not happening. I've been doing this a long time and I'm comfortable with right leg playing and I'm not gonna change my whole approach now.
So, anyway, I've mostly adapted. I sort of unconsciously pull back on the butt of the guitar with my forearm as I move up the neck and that pulls the neck away from my body and makes it easier to reach the upper frets. It's not a huge problem. I'd really stopped noticing it for a while during the honeymoon period when I was basically playing ONLY the 594. But now I'm playing other guitars as well, and I notice it and am mildly annoyed by it again every time I pick up the 594. Then I play it and I forget about it, but it's there...
So, in case anyone else here has this issue, someone on another forum posted a link to a website where an Italian guy has come up with a bracket that fits in the leg cut of most electric guitars to change the position of the guitar by an inch or two if you need it. It's still in the early stages of a Kickstarter campaign and I have no idea if it'll ever get off the ground, but it definitely looks like something I'll try if it ever comes to market. I don't know if it'll work in practice but it looks like it should and, for me at least, will definitely be worth a try. If it can improve the ergonomics of an otherwise perfect $3000-4000 guitar, I hope to get to try it. Hopefully it's OK to post a link since I don't think this guy would in any way be a competitor of PRS, but instead could make various PRS models more workable for some people. So, here it is, with all of the usual disclaimers - no affiliation, not even a satisfied customer since it doesn't exist yet, but a product I'm looking forward to trying...
http://www.guitarscientist.com/performaxe/
-Ray
BUT...
I'm in my 60th year and a little round about the mid-section these days, and I play seated about 99% of the time. And the 594 is the least comfortable guitar I've ever encountered for seated playing. Which has made me think about this for the first time ever. And it's the location of the leg cut, which is significantly farther forward on the body than on the other guitars I've owned and played. Which moves the guitar to the right when resting on my leg. Which pulls the picking area further to the right and all parts of the neck further to the right, and which makes it notably tougher to get to the upper frets since I have to reach around my belly in a way no other guitar has ever made me do.
I thought I might be a little crazy so I asked about this on a couple of forums (I'd mentioned my early impression of it here in my NGD post) and a number of other people have had the same issue with various guitars. And the primary culprits seem to be Les Pauls, some PRS models (I think someone mentioned just 22 fret models), and various oddly shaped, less common guitars. It's not a PRS specific issue but a number of people noted they'd had PRS models (and Les Pauls) they'd otherwise loved but ended up not keeping them because of this issue. I'm nowhere close to bothered enough to sell the guitar - I love it waaaaay too much - but at least this confirmed for me that I wasn't crazy, that this was real, but just something I'd never encountered before.
I've gotten a lot of advice to move the guitar to my left leg and play in a classical position, but I've tried that at various times in the past and recently and that's not happening. I've been doing this a long time and I'm comfortable with right leg playing and I'm not gonna change my whole approach now.
So, anyway, I've mostly adapted. I sort of unconsciously pull back on the butt of the guitar with my forearm as I move up the neck and that pulls the neck away from my body and makes it easier to reach the upper frets. It's not a huge problem. I'd really stopped noticing it for a while during the honeymoon period when I was basically playing ONLY the 594. But now I'm playing other guitars as well, and I notice it and am mildly annoyed by it again every time I pick up the 594. Then I play it and I forget about it, but it's there...
So, in case anyone else here has this issue, someone on another forum posted a link to a website where an Italian guy has come up with a bracket that fits in the leg cut of most electric guitars to change the position of the guitar by an inch or two if you need it. It's still in the early stages of a Kickstarter campaign and I have no idea if it'll ever get off the ground, but it definitely looks like something I'll try if it ever comes to market. I don't know if it'll work in practice but it looks like it should and, for me at least, will definitely be worth a try. If it can improve the ergonomics of an otherwise perfect $3000-4000 guitar, I hope to get to try it. Hopefully it's OK to post a link since I don't think this guy would in any way be a competitor of PRS, but instead could make various PRS models more workable for some people. So, here it is, with all of the usual disclaimers - no affiliation, not even a satisfied customer since it doesn't exist yet, but a product I'm looking forward to trying...
http://www.guitarscientist.com/performaxe/
-Ray