If you have tried playing electric guitar but quit because your fingers are larger than average, this is for you

I have played guitar for twenty years now, and I have spoken to a lot of guys that told me they tried to learn the guitar but stopped quickly in frustration because they could not get their chords to ring true. In other words, some strings in the chord would sound muted and others would ring. (This article is specifically about 6 string guitars, not 12 string guitars). Or they wanted to learn how to finger pick but had the same issue.

I figured it was because they were not practicing enough until I started playing more on my electric guitar than I was on my acoustic guitar. I found that although I did not have issues with chords ringing true, I did find that finger picking on an electric guitar was not as easy as on my acoustic guitar. And the guys that were having issues had fingers that were larger than average; the skin on their fingers were touching the adjacent strings - it was a physical limitation, not a talent limitation.

The acoustic guitar I played most of the time was technically a 12 string guitar, but I removed the 6 higher octave sounding (skinny) strings so I was left with the standard 6 strings you find on a regular 6 string guitar. The string spacing for a 12 string acoustic guitar is wider than a standard 6 string guitar so your fingers have extra room which makes playing easier. Also, it makes finger picking easier for your right hand (left hand if you are left handed) because your fingers have more room to pluck the strings.

Now, on to the way this relates to an electric guitar: buy an electric guitar with a nut width of at least 42.8mm. 43mm is ideal. This is the key. Go to your local Guitar Center or music store and find any Steve Vai signature guitar - I mention this one because Steve's guitars have a 43mm nut width. Play it and feel the difference in ease of playing as opposed to, say, an Eddie Van Halen EVH Wolfgang that has a nut width of only 41.3mm. It is hard to believe that 1.7mm makes that big of a difference in ease of playing, but it does.

Rock on!