MEASURE FOR MEASURE

Time to put your soldering iron down and consider a few oft en overlooked facts and figures about the guitars we play. Dave Burrluck answers some questions...

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Q I’ve struggled with certain guitars over s over the years because the necks feel too small and I’ve got big fingers. I play electric exclusively and wondered if The Mod Squad could give me any tips. Are there certain guitars with wider necks?

Chris Morrison, via email

Hi Chris, ’m sure you're not the only player, young or old, who's struggled with a neck that feels too thin, small or wide, too big or fat. But using the broad range of electric instruments we get in for review, there’s perhaps not as much difference as you might imagine.

The thing] find interesting is that very few people talk about string spacing because, fairly obviously, irrespective of the width of the neck of two different guitars, if the string spacing is the same there won’t be any more or less room for ur sausage/needle fingers. Historically, Gibson used a wider neck when measured at the nut compared with Fender, and the perception is that it’s still true today. But isit? And while plenty of people will quote you their preferred nut width, do they know what the actual string spacing is? To clarify, the string spacing is measured between the centres of the two outer strings [pic ]].