I am curious to find out the general size of guitarists hand’s so I wanted to create a little poll.
The way of finding your result I am suggesting is quite simple: place your index finger on the 5th fret and stretch your pinky as far as it goes without taking your thumb off the back of the neck and retaining the abilty to do some pull-off’s and hamer-ons. For me the result is going from 5th fret to 12th on a strat sized neck without any discomfort but going to 13th breaks everything.
Share your results and find out how big your hands are)
P.S. Don’t break your finger’s while doing this. Going a fret higher won’t give you money to go to the doctor.
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I can do 1st fret to 12th
…on Mandolin
On my Ibanez I could do 5th to 11th comfortably.
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I’m something of a giant and 5th to 12th is as far as I can get. I can almost get 13, but not quite. I don’t really do the whole Rusty/Shawn Lane style massive stretches so hand size has never really been an issue for me, I find stretches more of a helpful thing on piano.
I play 25.5" scale length guitars.
I can comfortably span from the 5th to the 12th fret, index to pinky, on any string provided I don’t need to fret with the middle or ring finger on any of the frets in between. If I have to fret with the middle or ring finger, it’s uncomfortable and I can’t do it on every string.
I can play Shawn Lane type diminished triads on any string as low as the 6th fret without any discomfort. I can push it down to the 5th fret, but it’s not very comfortable. I can also play augmented triads beginning at the 11th fret without any discomfort. I can push it down to the 10th fret, but that’s not comfortable either.
I can play 3 note per string pentatonics anywhere on the neck.
I don’t remember seeing Shawn Lane stretch further than what I’ve been able to manage. My hand span isn’t huge, but my hands are flexible and my fretting technique accommodates the stretches I can do well.
Not sure of my limit here, but I play a lot of chords with larger reaches.
Just wanted to include that you do get the best reach by having the neck angled up relative to your body (if you’re standing, having the neck and guitar relatively high rather than the low-‘Slash’ style angle) and having the thumb loose and on the back of the neck, free to move around to where it needs to go.
You can sometimes bypass some of the above by slouching or crunching down, or bending your wrist a lot, but it’s really not healthy.
25.5” scaler here. I can do 5 - 12 on any string but I don’t see myself applying that musically with any sort of reliability
I can only do 11th and even that is a real stretch
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Looking at the results(from here and other forums with the same polls) I think I’ve created a little theory of mine but I’ll have to ask my guitar playing friend to come by to check it. In my opinion the size of the stretch you can get is not defined by the length of your fingers as much as the maximum angle that your finger can go from it’s neutral/strait position. And looks like it is pretty much the same for all people.
P.S. I’ve got really hyped up to see Troy’s results)
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5th to 10th here, can sort of make it to 11th if I raise the guitar to about chin height. Guess it’s time to look into tapping.
25.5 scale
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Hi all,
5th to 10th on a Les Paul scale length guitar.
And even that is not that comfortable. I can try to reach the 11th or 12th fret but I would be holding the guitar in a ridiculous position.
I’ve seen people who spent a couple of months with the instrument executing better stretches than me. I came to accept that I am anatomically limited to do big stretches. Even though my hands are not particularly small. I am 5 feet 10 which is pretty standard I guess.
It’s a pity because that’s why I only play Les Paul style guitars, even though there are some Ibanez models that I really like.
I still love the instrument. But sometimes it sucks not being able to play some licks…
Cheers
For more consistent result, as well as fretting vs picking hand result it’s interesting to check on a piano keyboard. My left (fretting) hand can span 1 octave and is 1 key higher than my right hand (index to pinky).
To me what I call the ‘grab span’ is more important practically than the horizontal stretch. I can do most why I need horizontally. But having bigger hands comes handy (pun intended) for certain playing, muting with the thumb etc …
I could do D to F#/Gb or C to E a Major 10th on piano
Check this one, it’s funny… and teaches you some riffs!
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I can do 5-10 in a sort of functional way, 5-11 with discomfort and 5-12 with a lot of discomfort (not really usable)
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I feel like a better name for this thread is “Can you play the pull off lick in Tornado of Souls?” (17 to 10)
10 to 17 is a small stretch. It is something similar to 5 to 10 stretch which is an sort of an average as I see from the results of the poll. 10 - 21 and onwards requires stretching and bigger hands but I think everyone can do 10 17
Django Reinhardt 5-8
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And yet…
10 to 17 is a small stretch. It is something similar to 5 to 10 stretch which is an sort of an average as I see from the results of the poll. 10 - 21 and onwards requires stretching and bigger hands but I think everyone can do 10 17
You’d be surprised there was a thread on UG I think where people were insisting it had to be tapped because no one would play it “with a crazy stretch” like that.
Hi Tommo. I’m a newbie to the Cracking The Code forum, and late-comer to this thread. A while back I did some really geeky research into the anthropometry of Django’s hand which I’m happy to share and might (possibly ?!) be of interest to some folks on this forum. Check out page 6 of the “Additional Info” document for mind-numbing detail derived from photogrammetry! I have to comply with the publishers’ copyright restrictions, therefore please only use the attached for private study and don’t re-post. Thanks for your understanding, Best wishes.Prosthet Orthot Int-2014-Wininger-0309364614523173.pdf (699.2 KB) ProsthOrthoIntl_AddtionalInfo DjangosHand_2015.pdf (302.0 KB) Djangos Hand_BMJ_w_refs.pdf (238.9 KB)
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