as some of you may have noticed I've been asking a lot of questions regarding Strats and Partscasters. I most likely will be building my own to get exactly what I want.

my next question is about neck shape/contour/radius and so on.

I do not have large hands like Jimi or SRV had. My hand run on the average to smaller then average size. So I was wondering if there is a neck that I should take a look at that might be a better fit for someone like me?

I know I should try them and see which one feels best. Which I have done. But none really stood out as better then the rest. Although I did really like the way the V taper felt in my hands.

I'm basically just asking if there is one Strat neck that seems to be a better fit for smaller handed guys then others? I'm sure this has been asked before but the search function did not find anything

The question of necks is a complex one. Fenders current C shape is a best of all worlds. If you go too thin your going to ache after a good bitof playing. Those necks are great for speed but offer no long term comfort. Myself despite small hands prefer a thicker neck. In truth have you ever played a neck where you cant reach round it?

All i can tell you is to lose the preconceptions of what should fit and choose what really fits. Try a good few guitars with different neck types.

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No no and no

I agree totally, I have fairly small hands and was always told to stay away from guitars like the SRV.One day i was in the guitar shop and just for the heck of it i pulled an srv down and playedit.I found for my hands it has one of the most comfortable necks.I ended up buying one and love it.I also have 2 modern c necks and they are nice but dont fit my hands like the SRV.Moral of the story, let your hands be the guide and not someone elses opinion.

Well its a yes and no question. I dont have the biggest hands and early on liked a thinner neck but then I got the second incarnation of the Beck strat which is the chunkiest neck on any of my axes and it became my #1. Is it more difficult to stretch-yes. But you also do not get fatigued like on a thinner neck. And also since Fender is making them now and they are a shorter scale which will help if you have small hands besides it is probably my favorite neck though I dont have a Fender model is the Wolfgang. You will find this neck very easy to play and to stretch out on. But it is 3K. There is always that thing about hand size and there is some truth to it as some guys like Paul Gilbert have huge hands and has some licks that would be impossible to stretch out to play with smaller hands. Then you look at Randy Rhoads who looked like he had the hands the size of a ten year old kid and it did not hinder him one bit. But I would advise you to go play a bunch of guitars one day and you will know the right one when you play it.

Scot I asked the same question a while back, and got a ton of good responses. But here's my 2 cents. Go and try as many as you can.

You'd be surprised how a "wide/fat" PRS neck feels vs other shapes. My instructor has small hands, same as mine, and he can play anything. Get yourself some stretching drills. That helps too. Don't go by specs alone try them out.

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I agree that you need to try them all. I've found that the 7.5 radius works best for me. I played a lot of strats before coming to this conclusion and still have a Strat with a 9.25 radius and love it. But the 50's classic series strat with the 7.5 radius just plays smooooth for me. try that one and see how you like it. I think the 60's classic series uses the 7.5 also but not sure.

Go thee forth with openness in thy heart and play thee a Mosrite.

I've got small hands, especially for my height (and it's not true what they say about guys with small... oh, what? they don't say anything? never mind), and the most comfortable neck I have is probably the one on my flamenco guitar -- which has a radius of infinity and a width greater than that of any electric guitar neck.

On the Strat side, I have a 9.5" modern C and a 7.25" baseball-bat C. I find the 7.25" generally feels best to me, because it encourages more thumb-over-the-top-of-the-neck action. I can get more of a "rock grip" on that neck, so I play it when I wish to rock out. Which is often. OK, OK, not that frequently these days, but a man can dream...

The 9.5" I prefer for arpeggiated chords, anything with a few parts that need to be distinct from one another. I find it easier to fret chords so that I'm not unintentionally muting a string with a finger that's fretting a note on an adjacent string.

If I had to choose one I'd probably go with the 9.5" for its versatility (for me), and it's definitely a great neck. But the 7.25" just feels so right.

As everyone says... try 'em all, close your eyes, set aside preconceptions... maybe you'll end up with a 12" Eric Johnson style neck...

Hey mondo: I wonder whether both those guitars have the same string spacing at the bridge, or if the 7.25 also has narrower saddles?

As a guy familiar with Spanish guitars that must be a significant issue for you too. Not sure one would necessarily be better than the other for small or large hands, but...

Cheers - C

I've not checked (and can't until the 9.5 gets back from a Plek-ing), but I think that the 7.25 does have narrower spacing, going by feel. It does take a few minutes to acclimatise if I go back to the flamenco guitar after playing the 7.25 exclusively for a few weeks, but not as much as I would have expected. Possibly because I tend not to play fingerstyle on electric guitars so much... I do like to use the plectrum; it's part of the electric identity for me. There are a couple of classical pieces I want to get happening on my Strat -- Satie's Gymnopedies, anyone? With pulsating tremolo and entirely too much reverb? Yes, please! -- but otherwise, bending strings all over the place after you've struck them with a tortoise-shell analog of some kind is where it's at for me. Plus, I hate destroying my nails on steel strings!