The length of the fingers

Mynameisfritz · Post by **Mynameisfritz** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:57 pm

I was watching this AC DC doc on youtube where they mentioned that Angus has quite short fingers. Mine are quite short too. Jimis were almost as wide as the body of his strat when he strechted them - you can see that at the end of J.B.Goode at Berkeley. Now how do you think the length of the fingers affects your playing, do short one's only limit your playing or do they lead to different styles, possibilities. I think they do. The possibilities to express yourself are so big on a guitar. Who of the well known players is known for short or long or - in any way - special fingers? Just a thought... you cannot play with anybody else's fingers than your own.
Besides - I'd like to check out really long fingers.

thousandshirts · Post by **thousandshirts** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 2:25 pm

There are obviously limits, but small fingers can go a long way.

Supposedly Andy Summers has fairly small hands (though I've never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Summers). However, if you'll recall, he frets all the add9 chords in Every Breath You take "the hard way." On stage, night after night after night. No mistakes! Or, at least he did in the 80s, and when the Police played live.

Holdsworth has a pretty good reach.

Buckethead is supposed to have long fingers.

45auto · Post by **45auto** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:14 pm

don't think it's a big factor for the most part. might seem like it should be.

byzantinechanter · Post by **byzantinechanter** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 10:48 am

i've been to the rockwalk hand imprint thing and can tell you clapton, page, van halen, beck and other "gods" really don't have that big of hands. I don't have huge hands (mine are exactly like EVH

) , but i can tell you i've never found anything i couldn't play. On the other hand, Larry Graham, Bootsy Collins, Buddy Guy, and Jimi all have massive hands.

What does this mean? It really doesn't matter, it's much more about how your brain works than how big your hands are. Just take a look at Django.

Mynameisfritz · Post by **Mynameisfritz** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:37 am

So the rockwalk finally is good for checking hand sizes, not only for show biz... nice story. Thanks for sharing. And yes, sometimes 2 fingers are enough.

mayrandp · Post by **mayrandp** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:08 am

byzantinechanter wrote:It really doesn't matter, it's much more about how your brain works than how big your hands are. Just take a look at Django.

Or Tony Iommi. Wes Montgomery has all his four fingers in his left hand but he mostly used just three!

Mynameisfritz · Post by **Mynameisfritz** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:47 am

...or Hound Dog Taylor who had 12 fingers - 6 on each hand - but using just one for slide

mayrandp · Post by **mayrandp** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:55 am