Playing on "Wide Thin" profiles coming from strats

[Cory A]

Hey everyone!

I've been playing guitar for about a year and a half now, and I've put in my fair share of time practicing. I've been playing my lovely Strat copy and my dad's Ibanez Roadstar II with a rosewood board almost exclusively. Both guitars have standard C-profile necks.
I decided to finally get a new guitar and researched at great length on what to get. I finally decided on an Orianthi Signature bevel--top SE. It's the most beautiful thing I've laid eyes on, sounds great, and the ebony fretboard along with frets are phenomenally smooth.
However, my hands have been hurting quite a bit when I play for long periods of time. I do my warmups, take regular breaks and make sure my hands are nice and stretched out before going crazy. I like to play some intensive stuff (mostly Van Halen) that involves fairly big stretches and often speed. When playing on my Strat, these things feel fine and I can play them repeatedly. However, it seems to take a fair bit more out of my wrist and thumb to do the same stretches and such. I don't normally play with my thumb over the neck and I know that's a common issue with similar neck profiles (a la Wizard necks and thing 60s Gibsons).
Do you guys have any advice on keeping my hand and wrist in good shape? I'd much rather learn to play properly on this than to let such a beautiful instrument go to waste. If there are any positioning tips, specific exercises or just some wisdom from people that have went through similar experiences, I would love to hear it!
Thanks, Cory

 

[alantig]

Sounds like your issue may be more related to the scale length than the neck profile. I don't know the scale lengths on all of those, but if you're keeping your thumb behind the neck, it seems like that would mostly take the profile out of it. I've noticed that mostly playing bass parts - because of the scale length, I have to change fingerings that are cake on a guitar.

As far as stretching goes, the single best advice I've ever gotten was from Nita Strauss. I had to have trigger finger surgery on the index finger of my left hand - very successful, but there's still some residual stiffness when I sit down to play. At a couple Q&A sessions, Nita showed us the stretch that is in the beginning of this video. It doesn't look like much, but it's effective as hell. Not only for my hands, but also forearms and shoulders (I usually get a nice loud crack out of the left shoulder because I'm a mess). I combine that w/a couple of the rehab exercises from the surgery (usually I only do the index finger), and it's almost unreal the difference it makes. It's not a fair comparison, but it feels like I've already warmed up for 10-15 minutes or more - my hands are loose and flexible.

 

[dogrocketp]

I recently lowered all my guitars about 2 inches with the strap. I suffer from hand pain. Most of it is now gone. The height of the guitar in relation to your hands is very important.

 

[grausch]

I had a fair amount of issues with my thumb cramping up when playing barre chords on a 60s slim taper neck. Googling about the problem led me to this forum and shortly thereafter I got my first PRS with a wide fat profile. Playing that neck was a vast improvement, but I still could develop thumb pain.

Trying to figure out ways to deal with the problem had me trying various neck profiles and I now stick to thicker profiles. Funny thing is that it did not happen with an Ibanez Jem jr with a pretty thin neck, but I only played it in the store for a couple of minutes (it took less time than that with my SG for the thumb to fully cramp up). Unlike @dogrocketp I needed to raise my guitar for a better angle for my fretting hand.

I haven’t had pain in my thumb for some years now, but I am also much more relaxed when playing barre chords. Didn’t realize it at the time, but I was just pressing down too hard and thus having too much pressure on my thumb. Fretting barre chords with less pressure was something that developed over time though.

Give it some time, don’t push through pain, and try to become aware of it when you tense up so you can slow things down and relax.

 

[Black Plaid]

Sounds like your issue may be more related to the scale length than the neck profile. I don't know the scale lengths on all of those, but if you're keeping your thumb behind the neck, it seems like that would mostly take the profile out of it. I've noticed that mostly playing bass parts - because of the scale length, I have to change fingerings that are cake on a guitar.

As far as stretching goes, the single best advice I've ever gotten was from Nita Strauss. I had to have trigger finger surgery on the index finger of my left hand - very successful, but there's still some residual stiffness when I sit down to play. At a couple Q&A sessions, Nita showed us the stretch that is in the beginning of this video. It doesn't look like much, but it's effective as hell. Not only for my hands, but also forearms and shoulders (I usually get a nice loud crack out of the left shoulder because I'm a mess). I combine that w/a couple of the rehab exercises from the surgery (usually I only do the index finger), and it's almost unreal the difference it makes. It's not a fair comparison, but it feels like I've already warmed up for 10-15 minutes or more - my hands are loose and flexible.

Great vid, thanks for sharing!!!