Official Luthiers Forum!

OK I finished my 1st (see post) now for the 2nd. I was thinking of useing a little bit shorter scale to make playing easier. I have a friend who has rhmeumatiodal arthritis and his martin is kind of hard for him to play. I still want to do a dred style but was thinking a shorter SL would be easier to play. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I have both arthritis (from an old injury) & carpal tunnel, so I think I'm qualified to chime in on this one.
I designed a guitar for myself which minimizes the strain on my left wrist & hand. It has a relatively short scale length (24.9"). This works much better for me than 25.4" SL...
It's surprising that such a small difference in scale length makes such a big difference in playability, but (for me, at least) it does.
My guitar is also designed to minimize the amount I need to bend my left wrist. It is the bending forward of the wrist that causes me difficulty. It has twelve frets to the body & the waist is set quite high, so when I play with the guitar on my leg, the reach is much shorter than with my old standard 14 fretter. When standing & using a strap, the short upper bout helps to bring the nut closer to my body.
I can play my guitar for hours, but when I pick up a 14 fret dred (or similar), my left hand is out of commission within ten minutes.
Low action is the other major factor for playing comfort. Adjusting the neck width can help some players too. A wider neck seems to be easier to play as age stiffens the finger joints.
One of the great things about a custom built guitar is that the builder can tune the geometry to fit the player.
Good luck building an instrument your friend can play comfortably. I know how frustrating it is to not be able to play because of a minor physical disability.
Dan

You might consider a J-35 style gibson. They traditionally had a 16" body and 24.9" scale. Very interesting instrument.
-C

_________________
Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Try playing with a capo on the 1st fret for a while, that is a greater scale shortening than going from 25.4 to 24.9 but the comfort level is increased. I also know several players with bad hands that tune down 1 fret then capo at the 1st so they are still in tune with other players and the lower string tension also helps.

Fred

_________________
Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

I have seen good reviews about custom shaping the neck...asymmetrical/trapezoidal design. I don't recall where I read about it, so can't give proper credit for the idea, but I did something similar with my first and it proved to be great on the hand. I think the basic idea was to shape the neck to accommodate the hand of the player by making the profile at the high E string thinner, and thicker at the low E. This changes the distance the wrist has to bend to get the fingers where you want them.

Hope I described that well. LOL

-Matthew

Anyone know where I could get a template or drawing of this kind of neck shape? I have to do a new neck for the one the truss rod broke through and I wouldn't mind giving this a try.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Steve-
You could try contacting LuthierSuppliers, though I didn't spot an asymmetric template when I had a quick look there. (I have a few of his templates- pricey but good)
The Warmoth site has one asymmetric (Wolfgang) on the 'back contours' page - interesting page for electric neck contours and dimensions.
Let us know what you turn up.
Cheers
John

Yes, I've use one of Tracey's neck templates. I agree, pricey but good, especially if you're trying to duplicate something you don't have access to.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I think I found some of the articles I read about this (one link below). I ended up making mine freehand and it came out good, but was definitely more suited to my own hands. How to tailor one for someone else...oh my that would be a challenge.

Oh...and I have no clue if there are any patent things to be concerned about.

http://www.ricktoone.com/2007/11/trapezoidal-nec.html

Thanks for the link. It looked interesting with a quick look. I'll study this more as I get this new neck ready for carving.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"