A sad sad day

[mwbjr13]

So I went to the doctor recently and was diagnosed with carple tunnle in my left wrist. When I told the doc that Ive played guitar for a number of years on top of working in IT he laughed as only a doctor could.

The whole point of that story is to set up this question. Is there any type of guitar neck/set up that helps relieve some of the stress on my wrist? Im in the process of building my first guitar and the neck I was going to use was a 59 roundback strung with 12s tuned down a whole step. Concert D is my primary tuning so that has to stay. So does anyone else have this issue or know any thing that could help?

Thanks in advance everyone

 

[Strat Avenger]

Can't surgery correct the problem?

 

[mayfly]

shorten your strap and wear that guitar way up high. 

 

[mwbjr13]

I could have surgery done but my doc doesn't think it would be worth it. I'll try the strap idea.

 

[AutoBat]

lap/pedal steel

 

[Cagey]

Mayfly's got it right - get that guitar up where it's playable. At the same time, you may need to get rid of a bad habit - bending your wrist.

Bent wrists are bad, M'kay?​

Something that may be helpful during the transition to proper form would be a bowler's wrist brace...

You can get them at just about any sporting goods store for less than $15. It'll force you to keep your wrist straight until you learn to keep it straight yourself.

 

[Johnfv]

Use gel pads for your keyboard and mouse. Also, switching to a trackball helped my right hand (mouse clicking can cause issues).

 

[mwbjr13]

Thanks for all the advice guys 

 

[swarfrat]

I swear by logitech trackman marbles and natural keyboards, but to be honest the single biggest thing you can do is pay close attention to posture, seat/table height, keyboard distance and monitor placement. Unfortunately those are more difficult than spending $50 on a fancy keyboard or mouse, and spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars won't guarantee an improvement.

Pay especially close attention to unorthodox laptop usage, ie, does using it in your recliner cause you to do wierd things with your elbows?  Personally I think laptops and smart phones while indispensible, are steps backwards in terms of technology, pushing us away from Personal computers and making us into content consumers, and with tiny screens and keyboards and slow computers to boot!

Its tempting to blame the guitar, but unless youre doing something specific to aggrevate it (and we don't already know your name from some guitar hero magazine), chances are you spend a lot more time on computers than playing guitar

 

[mwbjr13]

I agree thr logitech marbles are great and you're right my name isn't plastered all over guitar player. But my thing is its becoming very uncomfortable to play for longer than about an hour. But ill give everything a try and see if it helps some.

 

[DustyCat]

I recommend stretching, and taking it slow.
Not too long ago i posted a thread about hand ergonomics citing some personal hand pain of my own after playing a song full of barre chords. Well, it turns out after not playing in that style in awhile I didn't have the physical chops like the time I remember I used to have.
So I took it slow and eased into it, and now I am playing the entire album, nevermind just the one song. Hand feels good, guitar sounds KILLER!!!

 

[Alfang]

I was about to have carpel tunel surgery about 15 years ago, then one day at work they implemented a stretch and flex program.

I laughed at first, but the day before surgery i was pain free, so I called the doc , told him about this simple cure, and it's been good ever since.
( I keep doing the stretch daily )

This may not work for all, but it worked for me,  Place your hands together palm sides, then trying to keep palms close to wrists together, at about your sternum, point your fingers up towards your chin, (Kinda looks like praying) and raise your elbows upward till you feel the muscles and tendons tighten, don't go so far that it hurts, do this for a couple minutes a day and see if this doesn't help.

It took only a week of this before I noticed a huge change.

Almost forgot, you should also do the opposite stretch where you place the backs of your hands together, fingers down and push elbows down. The whole point is to bend your wrists to their extreme position and hold, and again, not to the point of pain,