Solved Guitar for people with big hands? I'm not the same guy askin about small hands!!!

[EpiSGpl8r]

Ok here the reason i ask. My dad who happens to have big hands wants to play guitar. He tells me he has a hard time chording electric and acoustic guitars. Now i've noticed he's getting better at changes between chords and playing them alot smoother, i know when i play a chord for the first time ever its akward and i mess it all up, but i'm wondering if after playing the chords over and over his fingers start to form the correct way not hitting or muting other strings... if this is common let me know, and what u or someone u know has done to fix it... thanx.

 

[jimistone]

jimi hendrix had the biggest hands of any guitar player i've ever seen and he did ok on a strat.

 

[64Firebird]

Is he one of those guys with fingers like tree trunks? My dad has fingers so big that he could fret 3 strings with only one finger and that's just the tip! If this is the case he's going to have a hard time playing single line licks in the way most of us think of them. If he love playing the way most of us do, I'm sure he'll work something out. We all have weaknesses to work around.

 

[M.Brane]

My hands are pretty large and I have no problem on my Gibsons which have tighter string spacing than Fenders. I did try to play a Rick 12 string once and couldn't chord very well on it. I can't deal with mandolins or violins either.

 

[stonepiano]

Dude. one name.... look for Richie Havens. The guy literally had a bunch of bananas for fingers. He played acoustic mainly, though.

Actually, I'm not helping much here, am I? I just had to add that.

His hands looked waaay bigger than hendrix. Looks like he's playing a mandolin.

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hi, tell him to try a classical guitar. The necks are wider usually.
fitz

 

[64Firebird]

Dude. one name.... look for Richie Havens. The guy literally had a bunch of bananas for fingers. He played acoustic mainly, though.

Actually, I'm not helping much here, am I? I just had to add that.

His hands looked waaay bigger than hendrix. Looks like he's playing a mandolin.

Have you ever seen Richie Havens perform? He frets everything with only one finger, his thumb.

 

[jimistone]

if you watch videos of hendrix playing its easy to see why his melodic rythem guitar work is so hard to emulate. he chorded with his thumb (the top E and A), and his index and middle fingers (the other 4 strings). that freed up his ring finger and pinky to do all the melodic things to complement his chords. you HAVE to have gigantic hands to do that. Eddie Kramer said to this day he's never seen another guitar player do chord work like that.

 

[Bighand]

Strat!

[]

 

[stonepiano]

Have you ever seen Richie Havens perform? He frets everything with only one finger, his thumb.

YEAH. AND IT LOOKS LIKE A TWO OF MY FINGERS.

 

[EpiSGpl8r]

thanks alot guys i'm sure this will be a big confidence boost.. if u have more suggestions keep um comin.. otherwise see u in other posts..

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

f you watch videos of hendrix playing its easy to see why his melodic rythem guitar work is so hard to emulate. he he chorded with his thumb (the top E and A),

jimistone, can you explain how he used his thumb on the E and A strings, since he played an upside down right handed strat. Left handed.

 

[64Firebird]

He could switch to playing bass. Tommy Shannon of Double Trouble has the biggest hands I've ever seen on a human.

 

[jimistone]

"jimistone, can you explain how he used his thumb on the E and A strings, since he played an upside down right handed strat. Left handed."

he (or his guitar tech) cut a new nut and strung the guitar like a left handed guitar...the big strings on top. I have read that hendirx could play either way with a right handed guitar strung right handed or with a right handed guitar strung left handed. I have seen alot of video footage and photographs of jimi hendrix and i have never seen him using a right handed guitar strung for a right handed person (which would be backwards for a left handed person)...the hand painted white strat he burnt and destroyed at monteray may have still been strung right handed...but he basically just strumed wild thing and some wild whammy bar work and burnt the sucka (the black strat he used for the bulk of the gig was strung backwards)
thats why feder put a left handed neck on the jimi hendrix "voodo strat" to give a right handed player the unique sting path and tension of a strat neck strung backwards..(the pickups are flipped around and the back pickup is offset like a left handed guitar on that model too)....its supposed to give the right handed player some of that jimi voodo...but the "voodo was in hendrixes hands, not his string path...

now albert king is a different story i have never seen him play anything but a right handed guitar strung for a right handed person and turned upside down. thats how albert got those insane bends...the little E was on top and he was pulling down on it...instead of bending up (thats why i really respect SRV he bent the little E up and got those step and a half and 2 step bends...on a 13 gauge E no less) no wonder he tore the tip off his ring finger once a week.

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hmmm, that contradicts everything I was led to believe. Sorry, but I could have sworn he played as I described. Boy, learn something new everyday. Thanks
fitz

 

[jimistone]

hell...i learn something everyday too. when i was a teenager i thought he played upside down too...but when i started looking at pics and saw the movie "jimi hendrix (the motion picture) i realized he just reversed the strings. i have read that he didn't really have a "favorite" guitar...didn't look for pre-cbs strats (67 thru 70 was the heyday of the cbs takeover). he was said to like brand new strats right off the shelf of any given music store...just stock. left handed strats weren't in plentiful supply back then like they are now...so...if he grabbed one it was a righty.

 

[EpiSGpl8r]

not to be a dick but all this hendrix shit has nothing to do with a suggestion towards my post.

 

[TheGuitarMan]

1) Find a 2x4
2) Attach strings and electronics.
3) Play.

Seriously though, I agree with 64Firebird. Bass would suit him better. But if he really wants to tough it out, I would consider a custom job...or glue two necks side by side and make a nut for it!

 

[sjjohnston]

A few random thoughts:

- Yeah, Hendrix may have played a right-hand guitar, but he strung it backwards. So far as I can tell. And I've heard that he would just walk into a music store and take the first half-dozen strats they handed him. Supposedly. Who knows. He did have really big hands, though. It's pretty obvious if you've ever seen a movie of him playing.

- It's not that hard to fret just the E string with your thumb. I can do it, and I don't have big hands at all (yes, while also using the rest of the fingers coming around the other way). I couldn't come close to fretting two strings, though. On the other hand: how often do you want to fret the E and A string at the same fret? Kind of a weird chord shape.

- More to the original question -- there are two main dimensions in which fingers can be big: long and fat. It would seem to me that long fingers are pretty much an unalloyed advantage. You might tend toward a longer-scale instrument, though: like a Strat instead of a Les Paul. String spacing shouldn't really be a problem.

Fat fingers are an advantage in some ways and a disadvantage in other ways. On the plus side: it should be easier to fret two strings with one finger (like the 4th & 5th strings in a standard E-shaped barre chord). On the minus side: it may be harder to avoid fretting two strings with one finger. Here you might want to get wider string spacing. Unfortunately, the string spacing doesn't vary much, with two exceptions: 12-string guitars and classical guitars.

- Bottom line, though, is I think big hands would generally be an advantage in playing the guitar. So much for that excuse.

- I'm stunned no one has taken this thread in a more prurient direction.

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

how often do you want to fret the E and A string at the same fret? Kind of a weird chord shape.

Hi sjjohnston, I do this all the time. Heres examples
5th on the bottom, Root on A string,(Actuall just a second position D chord) or sus 4ths/11ths.(A on Estring/ 5thfret is root,D on A string)
I use the E and A strings for maj,min 3rds, 6ths and a myrid of other voicing/inversions. Heres just a few examples. Transpose to 12 keys and you can interprete the 60 chord system with 2 & 3 strings.
Like this Dm chord F(1st fret, E string min3rd), open A(5th) openD(root)
or Gdom7 F(1st fret,E string= b7th, B(2nd fret Astring=maj3) (b5 interval)
or Gmin7 F(1st fret)E string= b7, Bb(1st fret Astring=min 3)
There are mucho inversions in those 2 strings.
fitz
BTW, once you transpose them to all 12 keys, move them to the other sets of strings and you will begin to see relationships. Expecially in the blues.