Fingers too fat for the 1x2 neck -- anyone else?

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on July 16, 2010 at 6:58pm

You can add a 1/4" fretboard to the top of it and make the neck a little thicker, this may help you out some.

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Permalink Reply by Brendan deVallance on July 16, 2010 at 8:41pm

I was at home depot recently and bought a piece of Oak threshold wood. Plenty long and about 6 inches wide. With this you could cut it down as wide as you need. I plan on cutting several necks from this one piece which was under $10 US.

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Permalink Reply by Mungo Park on July 16, 2010 at 9:26pm

I think it seem mighty small but if you look at a store bought guitar you will see the strings are looking very close toghether, I thought mine were too close but you have to use just the tips of the fingers straight down onto the string. BUT hey their are no rules, make it as big as you need, since it is custom build build it to fit the player.
Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Pruett on July 16, 2010 at 10:33pm

I'm fully in favor of spreading out the strings to make them easier to deal with. I have been spacing three strings out as far as they will go on a 1x2 so my fat fingers stop hitting all the strings at once. They are a good bit wider than standard guitar spacing, and even a little wider than bass string spacing - but I can actually hit one string at a time this way.

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Permalink Reply by Roger Morin on July 17, 2010 at 4:45am

Don't worry about it I also am a big man, I wear a size 14 ring, thats many sizes more than most men. After you gey your cbg built and play around with it it will feel just fine. The 1X2 felt the same way to me also at first. Now I have some even smaller and they fell alright.

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Permalink Reply by Roger Morin on July 17, 2010 at 4:47am

Roger Morin said:

Don't worry about it I also am a big man, I wear a size 14 ring, thats many sizes more than most men. After you gey your cbg built and play around with it it will feel just fine. The 1X2 felt the same way to me also at first. Now I have some even smaller and they fell alright.

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Permalink Reply by Joker on July 17, 2010 at 8:28am

hmm, Mongo love cbg's. LOL. All kidding aside I felt the same way the first time I built one. I guess I got used to it because I still play 2 cbg's with those sized necks. I think like MichaelS said if you add a fretboard on top it will give the neck a thicker feel

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Permalink Reply by Mungo Park on July 19, 2010 at 10:41pm

If you just round the back of the neck with a router or file the more square neck will be bigger ans it takes more "reach" to get your hand around it. I tried on a store bought banjo and the neck was really rounded on the back and felt really small. When I measured it it was might y close to a inch thick.
Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Harrison on July 20, 2010 at 12:11am

Scotty, I have large short fat fingers. I have seen some pretty big guys play the fiddle and uke. Maybe you could get use to it. But the big advantage of building your own instrument, gunstock or custom thing is you can make it any old way that makes you happy.
Bob:)

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Permalink Reply by Mark Werner on July 20, 2010 at 12:01pm

Many "regular" guitar players prefer wider necks. Classical guitars typically run well over 2", some nearly 2 1/4".

Feel free to go as wide as you like!

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on July 20, 2010 at 2:07pm

I make mine 1 3/4" wide with a 1/2" space between the strings. Works well for me with thin fingers but I'm sure it would be good for larger fingers.

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Permalink Reply by Scott L on July 20, 2010 at 11:22pm

The "1 x 2" you find at the hardware store has actually dried down to 3/4 x 1 3/4 or there bouts. It's no longer a 1 x 2 by the time it gets to you which I think is pretty crummy because that it what it says on the label. I guess it's just an accepted thing at pretty much every chain HW store. You are paying for less than what the label says so if you really want a 2 by 1 you will have to buy a bigger piece and rip it down to the size you want.

I'm on my first build too and I've decided to just deal with it. My fingers are pretty long but not too chubby so I actually have perfect guitar hands. If you look at a regular acoustic you will notice the strings are pretty close together anyway.

Hope this helps, good luck with your new build.

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