Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic
Subject: Re: Taylor Guitars and Repetitive Strain Injury
Date: 14 Sep 1995 22:50:41 -0400

writes:

> My questions is this -- does anyone
>with RSI find that Taylor Guitar's easy action help to lessen
>flare ups of RSI.  I realize that rest, technique, and position are
>probably the three most important factors.  I just want to 
>maximize my odds of staying healthy.

Did you see the discussion we had ahile ago about RSI?  I was having a bad
time with it- in the past two or three months it's really improved, and
I'm almost back to normal. 

Anyway, I find that Taylors actually hurt my hand!  The slimmer neck seems
to make my muscles tighten up much faster.  I've got a 410 sitting right
here waiting to be shipped to a friend, and I've been playing it quite a
bit, so I know of what I speak.  My Martin 000-1R is the same way, but I'm
starting to get used to the neck on it.  My D-28, on the other hand (ha,
ha), has a V-shaped neck and is extremely comfortable to play.  Likewise,
my mandolin has a severe V and I was able to play it in all but the worst
of my tendonitis battle.

Today I was down at the local guitar place.  I tried out a Martin D-18
Golden Era with a V-neck, two 410's, a 710, and a 810, and a Goodall.  The
D-18 was instantly comfortable, in spite of having a neck considerably
thicker than any of the other guitars.  All the Taylors immediately hurt
my hand, and the Goodall was somewhere in-between.  Note that before I
injured my arms (tendonitis in the elbows and affecting my wrists and
shoulders), I thought Taylors had great necks.  I am NOT knocking them or
anything (I recommened the 410 over a used D-28, let's remember!), but am
just reporting what I've experienced.

A fun thing that I did recently was to use some putty to get a mold of the
necks of all the guitars in the house.  I then traced the mold on a piece
of paper and cut out the tracing.  This gave me cross-sections of the
guitar necks.  By outlining each on top of each other, I ended up with a
comparison of the necks.  My D-28 has the most dramatic V-shape and is
about  4.5 mm thicker at the apex than my 000.  The 000 is the slimmest
all the way around, but because it has a C-shaped profile, I would have
sworn that it was thicker at the "shoulders"- it's not!  My Strat has a
perfectly half-round shape that IS thicker at the "shoulders" than the
D-28, yet I find it a very comfortable neck.  Also coming into play here
is the fretboard radius.  The D-28 and Strat have exactly the same radius,
while the 000's is flatter (but still somewhat radiused).  The Taylor is
the same thickness as the 000, but with sliightly flatter shoulders, not
quite a V, though.  Don't know what the radius is on it.

Whew!

Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic
Subject: Re: Taylor Guitars and Repetitive Strain Injury
Date: 27 Sep 1995 10:30:39 GMT

I like the feel of my Taylor 710c neck quite a bunch. Something I've 
noticed is that using the thumb behind the neck (like classical players
are taught) instead of puting the neck in the palm(web between thumb and
fingers) is much better for keeping your wrist straight and so much
better for avoiding stress injuryes. The 4 string F chord is a good example
of this, check it out. Many other chords don't affect the wrist this way.

Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic
Subject: Re: Taylor Guitars and Repetitive Strain Injury
Date: 19 Sep 1995 03:40:37 GMT

Wow!

Maybe we should make a RSI model, or at least a neck option. I 
read with interest about the fatter necks being more comfortable 
while suffering from hand injuries and it makes sense. Thanks for 
the input.

Bob Taylor
Taylor Guitars