What's your finger span?

[topo morto]

Measuring from centre of index finger tip to centre of pinky finger tip, in playing position (i.e. with fingernails facing upwards / towards you), how far can you comfortably stretch?

(BTW - I said left hand - I mean 'fretting hand', sorry to all you sinisters!)

I can (only?) manage about 5.25 inches / 13.3 cm.

Also (and this is why this is in the 'basses' section, rather than the anatomy section) - what scale length bass do you play? Wondering if there is much correlation at all. I am happy on a 34, but can do more on a short scale.

 

[MartinG1957]

18cm -I play 35" 34" and 30"-comfortable on all...I do struggle with barre chords above the 5th fret on a guitar - big fingers!

 

[KeithAlanK]

I have guitard-sized hands and play whole note intervals near the nut using my pinky finger most of the time, using the 3rd finger for support.
This surprised me at first but became second nature after a day or two.

How you play the notes matters less than how you choose the notes.

 

[Dellers]

Voted 5 inches, I think that's about the max I can do while playing. 5.5 with the fingers straight. I have incredibly small hands though, and fingers as well. Never seen anyone with hands this small except for a guy who's almost 30 centimeters shorter than me.

 

[wednesdayagain]

I have the smallest hand so far on this poll. Can only manage 4 inches or so. I've mostly played 34 inch scale basses, though I currently play a 33. I haven't found my small hands to be much of a problem bar a few songs where I have to play quickly on the lower frets.

 

[somegeezer]

5 inches with ease, could probably stretch to 5 and half if needed. 8 inches sounds like madness. I can do that, thumb to pinky, which is about an octave+2 on piano. But index to pinky... wow some people have gigantic hands. I thought mine were fairly large. =P

EDIT: Oh, and I play 34". But I think I'd be more comfortable with 35".

 

[BigRedX]

Four and a half inches for me. One of the basses that I have been using regularly for over 20 years now (and was my main bass during the 90s) is a 36" scale Overwater. These days I mostly play 34" scale, but I own basses with scale lengths between 26" and 36".

 

[MyMusic]

Six and a half inches. I use 32, 34 and 35 in. scales

 

[Matthijs]

11,5 cm (4,5 inch) with fairly small hands, still comfortable on a 34" and on DB. A smaller scale does not do much for me.

 

[jabsys]

Just under 7 inches, I've always played 34" basses & can comfortably play 1234 anywhere on the neck.

 

[Dave W]

7" for me.

I mainly play 34" scale, but I have a 35". I also play a lot of guitar...24 3/4" and 25 1/2".

 

[MrAstro]

6.5" for me. But I'm only 5'7" tall. I have big hands/palms but really short fingers.

 

[Immigrant]

6.25" but I checked the 6.5 box because I found it makes me feel better if I round up when measuring body parts.

I prefer 32" but play 30", 32", and 34".

 

[Roscoe East]

7.5" span, and I own instruments with both 34" and 35" scale lengths.

...Well, you know, not mixed on the same instrument!

 

[Deathblade Eric]

4.5" here, & fine with 34"

 

[Lo-E]

There's a dirty joke in here somewhere....

6" on the money, for me. Fairly big paws, but not huge. I play 35, 34 and 30, all comfortably, but most of my basses are 34". In the lower positions I usually use 1,2,4 fingering unless it's a tricky passage, even on the short scale basses.

 

[mongo2]

6.25" but I checked "Around 6 inches"

I prefer 30" scale but I also play longer and shorter scales including a 4/4 upright.

 

[Atshen]

6" if my fingers are straight as per your drawing, 5" in actual playing position. I prefer 34" basses.

 

[Fuzzbass]

6".

I had no trouble on 35" when I owned a few of those (it's only 3% longer than 34"), but I prefer 34" for the tone. To my ears, 35" has a slightly different timbre.

I have little interest in scales shorter than 34". Yeah, they're somewhat easier to play out toward the nut, but again, I prefer the timbre of 34". Less importantly: the bass world is tilted toward 34", it's the path of least resistance when finding strings.

 

[DwaynieAD]

5.5, but i accidentally selected 6.