I got really excited when I got this email from Fender saying that they now have a budget American made strat WITH 22 FRETS- YES!!!

Then I read the specs and, sadly, they decided to put the huge 43mm 1.6875" 1 11/16" wide nut width neck on it... Which means I can't play it because I don't have huge hands... and I'm not a small guy, I'm 6'1". So, I can't be the only person with this problem.

The original 1 5/8ths/41.3mm nut width that Fender uses on the MIMs is so teeny you can hardly get your fingers in there to make a G chord (G&L still uses this size), the nut width mentioned above is too big and is identical to Les Paul and PRS guitars.

The medium size, 42mm is perfect (if you have my hands anyway) and is also used on many Fenders.

So here is my question: Why does Fender use all three different neck sizes? I understand the MIMs being the annoying little size, to make people want to get an American made instead, but the american line includes two different sizes, 42 and 43mm. How does Fender choose which size to use? What makes you decide to go with the huge neck for the new American Special? Is there market research, is it chance or it is related to how many necks of each size are being produced by particular lines/machines in the factory?

Curious in Seattle...

Hey Stratmatt,

I cant answer your question, but I too have small hands myself and I cant go for large necks too. I would love a 70's type neck, but the issue for me is that it would be like playing a neck the size of a cricket bat

It's just something Ive had to put up with myself, though Id like something that met halfway in the middle if you know what I mean

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Well for a start off the nut is made to fit the guitar, not the other way round. Also you'll find plenty of leeway in the 42/43mm nut width across the range. I've two mexican guitars, my old strat comes in at just over 38mm. My baja tele at just over 44mm. I've 3 american strats, I'll measure them later. They too are very different. It all comes down to who did the final sand on your guitar neck and how they performed that day.

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No no and no

Doesn't the Highway One series come with 22 frets?

They are even cheaper than the American Special series.

And if they are being discontinued, look for ever better close out pricing!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Fender gives different nut sizes for different models in the specs section for each guitar. That's how I learned this. So it is not that random to them.

For example:
American Vintage 70s Stratocaster Width at Nut: 1.650" (42 mm)
from http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 0100070821

American Deluxe Strat: Width at Nut: 1.6875" (43 mm)
from http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 0101202700

Here... the following may be an example of the hand sanding thing you are talking about:
American Standard has Nut Width of 1.685" (42.8 mm), while the American Deluxe has a slightly different size (above) of 1.6875"/43mm... that is either a hand sanding difference of just some non=standard measuring at Fender... I suspect the latter.
But you will notice that the difference between 42.8 and 43 is negligable, while the 42mm of the 70's vintage is a much smaller and very noticeable difference, which was fully intended by Fender. 1 mm or 1.2mm is A LOT.

And the MIMs have the little 41.3mm- 1 5/8", which of course could end up being smaller if it was hand sanded a little much.

Fender intentionally makes two different nut/neck widths in the American line and third smaller size for MIM. It is not all chance and, if anyone from Fender reads this forum I'd love to know how they choose. I am curious because I am unable to play the big 43mm 1 11/16th neck without tendon pain. That is why I sold my warmoth neck on ebay and about to sell this $130 indonesian Fender acoustic I bought at Costco to be replaced with a Fender Sonoran which has a published nut width of 1 5/8" 41.3mm, but fortunatley feels a little bigger, like MY optimal 42mm size.

Oh yeah! Good point! The flat finish is a bummer though... it's odd how Fender makes you buy an American strat to get 22 frets... and then on the cheapest one that you can almost afford they give it a crappy flat finish... all the while you can buy a quality 22 fret guitar with beautiful finish from many other manufacturers for $600.

I think that this new, cheaper, American Special proves that their pricing formula is a little off. Now, Gibson.... those people are insane...

my hands are not large, however i learned on a classical guitar. i was not classically trained. i learned meticallica to counting crows.
your telling me you cant make a g chord if their is a 1 mm difference in nut width.
im not trying to criticize, and i appologize for comming on to strong.
you will get used to it.
i have 2 am strats, anda hwy 1,and a cp60s.
theyre obvious nut size differences.

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Stratmatt, I hope you take this in the spirit in which it is intended.

If you are experiencing tendon pain, I think you may need to examine your technique, posture, etc while playing. If it is only evident when playing a slightly wider neck, it may be indicative of a growing worsening problem. the difference between the two widths is very small. I hope it is only a comfort thing, and not something more serious.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

No, I'm not telling you that I can't make a G chord if the neck is 1 mm different- that would be silly... so I will not take your comments in a strong way.

Due to having played a 1 11/16" width warmoth neck from 2005 to 2008 and becoming used to that, when playing the MIM's tiny 1 5/8" nut width I really have to cram my fingers tightly together because there is not that much neck width... whereas on a wider neck width my fingers naturally fall right into place for a G chord with no thought or concentration required. I also don't like that I can't fret each note of an A chord on that small neck- I can only barre it.

I played my first and only guitar, a MIM with the small neck, from '97 until 2005 when the frets had become so flattened out from bending that it was unplayable. I decided to try a warmoth compound radius neck and decided to try the 1 11/16" nut width so that I would be able to make an A chord with three fingers.
I played that neck for 3 years until one week in 2008 I was typing and mousing A LOT, days in a row- so much that it caused a flare-up of an old carpul tunnel problem from 2002 that never bothers me unless I type for hours.

When this flare-up started I stopped using the computer entirely until the flare-up was over and did some stretches.
Later in teh day I decided to play guitar, which has never ever bothered me. After playing for a while I got a pain in my wrist, which was very strange. So I started looking at the ergonomics and figured out the problem... the first two sections of my index finger, which lays across the fret board to fret the bottom string is only 1.5" long- not long enough to reach across a 1 11/16" wide neck.
In order to be able to fret the bottom string I was shifting my entire hand forward and up, putting a sharp angle in my wrist and lifting off the bottom of the neck a little- completely without any awarness I was doing this. If I had two guitars to compare to each other I would have noticed the difference, but there was a week of no playing between necks while fretwork was done on the new neck. So I didn't notice the change until the bad ergonomics of the new neck were revealed by wrist pain.

Wow, it took a lot of words to describe my specific problem! All because you had a problem with the idea that I, " couldn't play a G chord on a 1mm neck"!

So now you know the whole story.

Recently (many moths later now) I bought an Indonesian made Fender Starcaster acoustic at Costco for $130 and was playing the heck out of it for three or four days... and then I got that pain again!

I took a look and realized that my finger is too short and, just like before, if I _don't_ play any E shapped barre chords that use the bottom string, then it doesn't hurt. Then I measured the nut... sure enough, 1 11/16" -43mm!

It's going to to be sold just like the warmoth neck!

If the first two sections of your index finger are longer than 1.5" you wont understand this problem I have.

I still have only that '97 MIM guitar. Every part has been replaced, except the body. I have a USA Custom Guitars neck with a 42mm nut width and a 9.5"-12" compound radius maple fretboard.
My next neck for my next guitar will be 9.5"-14" compound radius to completely eliminate the G string fret buzz we all know as stratitis. And my second guitar's fretboard will be rosewood instead of maple so I have that sound too.

This thread was never a criticism of Fender, but a genuine curious question about how they choose a 42mm for one model, like the 70's strat and then ruin other guitars with the 43mm 1 11/16 width , like the Deluxe Players Strat which was wonderful and affordable but unplayable for me.

Any questions?

Why not try barring the B and E only and wrapping your thumb over the top.

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No no and no

Thanks for your concern! As you can see in the post I just made above, for me, the difference between the big 1 11/16" and the smaller sizes makes a huge ergonomic difference in how sharply bent my wrist is.

Actually, with my 42mm neck I have almost ZERO bend in my wrist (I wear my guitar quite high), but with the 1 11/16th neck I end up with a 60 or 70 degree bend in my wrist when stretching to reach the sixth string to fret an e shape barre chord.

I am 'just' able to wrap my thumb around with my perfectly sized 42 mm USACG neck that I have been playing now for several months, but that is completely impossible for me to do on a 43mm/ 1 11/16" neck. My hand is just not that big.

After all this typing (I never let myself type this much) I tried out my 1 11/16" neck on my acoustic to see again the way in which my index finger is too short when trying to play an E-shape barre chord... and I got pain my elbow!
The last time I had any of this pain was weeks ago when I stopped playing this acoustic I am going to sell.
I am done typing now! I quit going to the harmonycentral forums months ago because I ended up typing too much. I will have to do the same here.

Gibson, PRS, ESP, Schecter etc. all have the 43mm neck. So I will always be a (42mm) strat player.
But I wouldn't want to play anything else anyway!

So what do you think of the different shaped necks? Modern C, soft v, V, Baseball bat D?

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Matt I think you need to get yourself checked out for Tendinitis, or Carpal Tunnel. I think it is only revealing itself under these conditions, i don't think it is creating it.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

I haven't had the chance to try them.

When I ordered my USACG neck there was an error on their website that said that their '63 profile was a thin profile like a standard modern mexi strat that has a neck thickness of .830 at the nut... well, I found out that a '63 profile is HUGE - I think it was .970 at the 7th fret and it tapered down very very slowly. The guitar was completely unplayable, not because of the index finger length, but because my grip is not big enough to reach around a baseball bat neck.

I would like to see what all the other profiles feel like, but lately all my money is going to my student loan payment so there is no #2 guitar in my near future!