- Haywire Custom Guitars: Offers custom shop electric guitars and replacement extra wide guitar necks with a range of wide options, from 1-3/4″ up to 2-1/8″ nut widths.
- Hand Fatigue: A neck that doesn’t naturally fit a player’s hand size, whether too wide or too thick, can lead to increased hand and forearm fatigue, making long playing sessions uncomfortable. Ultimately, the choice of neck width is a personal preference based on a player’s hand size and desired playing style. The main benefits of a wider neck on an electric guitar are primarily related to comfort and better playability for certain hand sizes and playing styles, primarily by providing more space between the strings. The extra space between strings can make it easier to play complex chords, use fingerstyle techniques, and avoid accidentally muting adjacent strings, which is beneficial for some players.
- Nut Width is the most critical measurement, determining the spacing of the strings at the headstock end of the guitar. A standard electric guitar typically has a nut width around 1.65 inches (42 mm), while a wide neck is generally 1.75 inches or more.
- Neck Profile (Shape): Beyond width, the neck’s profile (its depth and back shape) also affects comfort. U-shaped necks are often thicker and rounder, which some players with larger hands find more comfortable to grip. Other shapes are soft and hard “V” shapes, “C”, “D” and flat super slim contours.
- Wider necks are particularly beneficial for intricate playing styles like fingerpicking and complex chording, as they reduce the chance of accidentally muting adjacent strings.
- Haywire Custom Guitars Necks
- Offers a choice of small 1-5/8″ and standard 1-11/16″ as well as extremely wide nut widths, including: 1-3/4″, 1-7/8″, 2″, or 2-1/8″.
- These are custom options aimed at players who need substantial extra room for their fingers to prevent accidental string muting.
- Haywire also offers an installation and setup service if you send them your entire guitar or simply the guitar body with your personalized instructions as to what you’d like.
- Customization vs. Standardized Product: Haywire excels in providing a made-to-order experience. You can send your existing guitar/guitar body for a custom neck installation with a 2-day turnaround service.
- Target Audience: Haywire targets players who need a very specific feel or have unique requirements for their instrument.
- Service: Haywire is a full-service luthier that addresses specific, technical playing comfort issues.
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Key Benefits of Extra wide guitar necks
- Improved Comfort for Larger Hands/Fingers: Players with larger hands or thicker fingertips often find standard neck widths restrictive. A wider neck provides the necessary “real estate” on the fretboard, preventing fingers from feeling cramped and making the guitar more comfortable to play.
- Reduced Accidental Muting and Better Clarity: The increased space between strings minimizes the chance of accidentally touching or muting adjacent strings when fretting notes or chords. This can result in cleaner, clearer notes, especially with complex chord shapes or intricate passages.
- Easier Fingerstyle Playing: Wider string spacing, particularly at the bridge (which is a consequence of a wider nut), is highly beneficial for fingerstyle guitarists and players with a classical guitar background. It allows more room for the right-hand fingers to pluck individual strings with precision and clarity.
- Enhanced Confidence for Beginners: The added room can build a beginner’s confidence in hitting the correct notes and chords, making the learning process less frustrating and potentially speeding up progression.
- Classical Players: For those transitioning from a classical guitar (which typically has a 2″ nut width), a wide-neck electric guitar offers a familiar feel, making the switch between instruments smoother.
We can add wide guitar necks to any guitar however if you have large hands we have some special necks just for you! You have a choice at Haywire Custom Shop of: 1-7/8″, 2″ or 2-1/8″ widths with 22 frets.
Our wide necks are for BIG guys. You know who you are and so do we.
If your fingers are big, small neck guitars leave much to be desired with no room for movement. If you’re a big guy with a standard guitar neck, it’s not going to feel right. The standard width guitar neck will be too small for you. If you have a size 15 foot you need a size 15 shoe. Let us get you the right neck for your hand size. We are musicians working for musicians-let us work for you and get you the right equipment to be your best!
Start with the right equipment. Please don’t let your guitar neck be a roadblock to your success. Bigger guys, with bigger fingers, need bigger necks.
“We are musicians working for musicians”. Thanks for letting us work for you.
Why wide guitar necks?
This wide nut design is comfortable for you, if you’re big. If you need “extra room” between the strings -you got it!. We have your guitar that is great to play, with all the standard features, superior tone, lasting sustain built just for “Big Guitar Players”.
Advantages of a wide neck:
A wide neck electric guitar means that you can allow more room between the strings. It’s great for a beginner or a Pro. Your playing will improve immensely. Confidence and more comfort is evident on a wide neck guitar.
The wide neck guitar is for larger players, Big guys who have big hands and fingers need these guitars. The added spacing between the strings make your guitar easier to play and give you more confidence that the target will be easier to hit.
There are some acoustic guitars that feature a wide neck and more space between the strings. If you are used to playing one of these, then this wide neck on your new electric guitar will feel very familiar.
Firstly, once you play our wide neck guitar the new experience will not only be amazing but greatly appreciated by your fingers. Second, it’s the best playing experience you’ll have.
Customers who want special custom shop guitars and features without the custom shop prices, here we are. Thanks again for your support, patronage of our dedicated custom shop and confidence in our abilities.
Is a wide guitar neck better?
Haywire Custom Guitars Custom shop has been in operation for many years and we are experienced in the needs of guitar players. We try and address issues they don’t know how to address. One of the ways we accomplish this is to add custom necks onto guitars with features only seasoned guitarists would understand and appreciate.
For example, we’ll add a wide guitar neck with a wider fret board so that the guitar player would have more room to move around on the guitar without the feeling of being crowded. We can only however go so wide and still maintain decent string alignment with the pickup pole pieces. As the nut widens, so also does the string spread at the heel of the neck. To make it all work, we widen the fret board over a 16th of an inch on either side. This results in a normal string to fret board edge margin over the full length of the neck.
The benefits of the wider fret board include but are not limited to: better action, better pull-offs, no crowded fingers when chording, easier finger placement, clearer notes and more real estate on the top of the fret board for the guitarist to play. It is just a building technique to add comfort to playing a guitar that you cannot get from “off the rack” instruments in a music store. There are real benefits to a custom extra wide necks and a good luthier who understands what techniques to apply to an instrument so it will be easier to play. We do it all the time. Guitarists regularly need to improve their playing and anything they can do to facilitate that will be appreciated. We think about and apply these techniques every day in our shop for our customers.
