Small fingers!

[drebargila]

Have been learning acoustic for a few months now and I had my first bass lesson yesterday - absolutely enjoyed it.

One concern I have is with my small fingers. Unlike acoustic, bass strings are obviously fatter. Does anyone see small fingers as a disadvantage - any good bassist out there with small fingers?

May sound like a weird question, but when you have small fingers and you try to press the E on the first fret, you'll know what I mean!

[stephanie]

Originally posted by drebargila
One concern I have is with my small fingers. Unlike acoustic, bass strings are obviously fatter. Does anyone see small fingers as a disadvantage - any good bassist out there with small fingers?

Hi drebargila, welcome to Talkbass! Well, from one one small-fingered person to another: I don't look at having small (and I mean tiny!) fingers as a disadvantage. You will get used to those big fat strings. Make sure you do some good finger-strengthening exercises (there's been quite a few mentioned around this forum, you may want to try doing a search.) When I first started playing bass (after playing acoustic guitar with its thin strings) I thought the bass strings felt so weird! But now they feel natural to me. Don't worry about it and definately don't think of it as a disadvantage.

Cheers,
Stephanie

[SethRivers]

A bassist with very small hands is steve bailey, and if you have ever heard him play you can tell that it doesent affect him at all. I've read some of his stuff and he makes it very clear that you just need to learn how to use what you've got

keep it groovin
seth rivers

[Lisa Weiss]

Yeah...I have really small hands and small fingers. It took me a bit, but I can span 4 frets with no problem now. I don't think it's anything you have to worry about....and welcome to Talkbass!

Lisa

[Syrinx 026]

check elsewhere in this forum- i think one page back or so i posted a thread about teenyfingers- theres tons of great excercises and stuff people reccommended.

[feckn_eejit]

I have big hands with stubby fingers so it's quite a pain to find a neck that's comfortable... that said my Rick 4003 is PERFECT... the slightly shorter scale than normal (33.25" vs 34") is exactly what I need to make a 1st to 4th fret stretch painless, and the neck on this particular one is FAT, so it fills my hand nicely.

I like to think there's an instrument out there for every hand. You've just got to find it.

--jeff

[danqi]

Originally posted by drebargila
- any good bassist out there with small fingers?

Flea (RHCP) has tiny fingers, yet he is very fast and a well respected bassplayer (by most).