can my fingers be too big

I try and play an acustic/electric Ibenez and being a very large person 6'8", I find it very hard to fret without touching other strings, any solutions or shoud I give up playing?
Also have a shallow body ovation same prob.

I just recently joined Guitar Tricks. I played (sort of) the guitar for years and just recently picked it up again. I find that my fingers have grown larger through the years. (I've worked with my hands for many years). I bought an electric guitar and I find that I am constantly muting strings when I'm playing chords because of big fingers. I asked a long time musician and owner of a music shop about guitars that maybe have a wider fretboard. He suggested that I buy an electric 12 string guitar and take off the octave strings because the fretboard is wider.
12 string electric guitars aren't just everywhere but I did find a lot on E-Bay. They ranged in price from $200.00 to thousands of dollars.
I'm not ready to buy another guitar but if I scrape up the money for another I plan to look into a 12 string electric.
I met some nice guys who own a guitar shop in Weatherford, TX and one of them has a 12 string Richenbacher for sale for over $2,000.00. If I was a better guitar player I might consider it but the guitar gods would probably strike me down if I took the octave strings off a 12 strung Rick.
An accoustic 12 string should have a wider fretboard and you might consider that.

Have you tried long enough for your fingertips to start to harden. If they are still soft, maybe they are spreading out when you press the strings. That should get better all by itself. Also, make sure that your fingernails are as parallel to the strings as possible. If you consider a cross-section of your fingertip, its not round, its probably kind of a rounded D shape. This can be a challenge for some of the chords.

I have been playing/practicing for about 15 months. I remember it seeming impossible to correctly play the open D chord without muting the G or E when trying to hit the B. I didn't change anything in strategy but now I can throw it on there with relative ease.

Have you considered bass?

I've recently bought a chinese BC Rich Warlock

It wasn't that expensive and it has an incredible wide neck

Originally Posted by: bain888I try and play an acustic/electric Ibenez and being a very large person 6'8", I find it very hard to fret without touching other strings, any solutions or shoud I give up playing?
Also have a shallow body ovation same prob.

Give up playing? No, I say. Just need to find a way around it.

Can you do it with the equipment you currently have? Hard to say, there are some wonderful guitar in the market that I just won't play because the neck is not a good fit for me. Though I'm 6ft tall, my hands are not that large if just pretty average sized. So, I know that some guitars aren't workable for me.

That said, if you are a beginner, the hitting of other strings is part of the experience and learning of guitar. If you're fingers are very long, that is an advantage and not a shortcoming. Players in rock like Paul Gilbert have very long fingers and are fantastic players. Chubby fingers? Roy Clark had some pretty chubby fingers and Roy could wail.

The point is, fingers are the initial enemy of all guitars players and you should not get down on your self because it's a bit frustrating right now.

To help though, you may want to consider a different guitar. Necks are not all created equal and you probably would want a guitar with 1 13/16 neck (Martin, I think, does some). Also, the neck radius does play a part too. If you have longer hands, having a thinner neck profile (beck to front) gives you less girth to hold on to. For me that is better but for you, maybe not as much.

Thing is, I wouldn't give up so much as a I would go looking for that neck that is more comfortable for you but also understand that you do have to learn past a certain amount of sloppiness in your playing until you can fret cleanly too.

Originally Posted by: GramboI've recently bought a chinese BC Rich Warlock

It wasn't that expensive and it has an incredible wide neck

http://bcrich.com/warlock_pack.asp

Thx u every 1 that posted a reply i see some great advise ...will let u know the outcome

Thanks for the replies to bain888. This is exactly what I was looking for as well.

Hi, re big fingers, i've also got big hands/fingers, I struggled for years with various guitars until i found out that a few guitars are made with a wider nut, typically 1 3/4", 1.8" or 44/45mm instead of the 1 11/16" normal nut (I think), and they often call them fingerstyle guitars (epiphone masterbilts, takamine, martin, the top of the line yamahas etc all do wider necks). I sold on my washburn and yamaha acoustics and searched for a seagull acoustic (solid woods made in canada), got a nice 2nd hand one (they are all around the 1.8" and known for a wider nut). I got it set up nice by an actual luthier (someone who actually makes acoustic guitars for a living) and haven't looked back. For an electric strat you can get wider necks from warmoth online, they even make a jumbo wide neck for a strat. I hope that helps, I know there are a lot of folks who say it makes no difference etc, I don't care if it's all in the mind, I'm a lot happier and enjoy playing my wider neck guitar. All the best, Mike :)