Playing guitar with rheumatoid arthritis might impact your performance. It gets worse when your guitar doesn’t fit your hands and you develop wrist, shoulder, and arm problems.
This is why we have compiled here a list of the best guitar for arthritis hands.
Best Guitar for Arthritic Hands or Fingers
First, pick a guitar with a larger neck. It makes gripping easier for you and allows your hand rest. Two brands like the Les Paul and Zager Guitars are what we recommend.
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Epiphone Limited Edition Les Paul Standard Plustop PRO Electric Guitar, Iced Tea – Best Guitar for Arthritic Fingers
This Guitar outperforms my expectations…. For its price, it’s a steal!
My first thoughts when I unpackaged my delivery was how great it looks. The flame maple top is beautiful to look at.
It is not only beautiful to look at, but feels prettier, silky smooth, solid and is well made. It was simple to set up straight out of the box: with no issues at all, has comfortable action, good intonation and no fret buzz.
It features a nice thin neck and it is an absolute joy to play! Some guitars tempt you to lay; this is one of them!
That’s not all. It has Grover turners as standard and push-pull coil tapping. For less than $700, you enjoy an affordable guitar that plays sound two or three times its price,
If you want a great, solid, versatile guitar that’s practically as good as a Gibson but without the price tag, you can’t do much better than this.
It has a stunning design. The solid mahogany with glued on neck and probucker pickups makes it look, feel and sound like the real deal, my cousin says it is waaay better than expected.
You possibly can tell I’m really blown away by this guitar!!! I went for the Amazon exclusive Cherry finish and it looks amazing so if you are thinking about buying just go for it.
SEE MORE: Best Guitar for Alternative Rock Music
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Epiphone Les Paul Special II Electric Guitar (Vintage Sunburst) – Best Guitar for Arthritis
I fell in love with this guitar after I borrowed it from a friend to play for my school. I got mine this month and the vintage sunburst was the first thing that got my attention.
Aside its stunning look, it feels and looks like a Gibson without you needing to sell a kidney to pay for it.
The sound is very clear and crisp tone and allows you adjust via pickups and tone knob to get even more. I had seen that a couple of people have said that they had issues with keeping it in tune, which I admit I had faced, especially on the heavy A, D, and E strings but not to a level where it is problematic. You probably will have to retune it every time you use it, but in my opinion you should be checking that every time anyway!
I hate to be the one to break it to you but this guitar has nothing else in the box. No picks, no straps, no bag, no nothing. This is no problem considering the value the guitar carries and its price.
The reason I gave the heads up is because of beginners. You should ensure you get everything before trying to play it.
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Zager EZ-Play ZAD20 Acoustic Natural Dreadnought – Best Acoustic Guitar for Arthritis Hands
This guitar sounds great and is incredible too! It is pretty to look at and plays even better than many costly guitars out there. I have been playing guitars for nearly 30 years and in that time I’ve owned Fender, Squire, Gibson, Martin, Ibanez, Sigma, Cordoba, Washburn, Seagull, Takamine etc and all these are nice but none can be compared to my ZAD900CE.
The attention to detail and fine craftsmanship that Denny Zager is just SUPERB not to mention their helpful customer support.
They offer a full, 100% money-back guarantee too and will pay shipping and insurance both ways if you aren’t satisfied. So, yo’ve got nothing to lose, really!
Best Tips for Playing Guitar with Rheumatoid Arthritis
When I found myself in the same position that you are now, here are some things I tried that helped me play even better without running into the bathroom to run my hands on warm water:
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Electric guitars.
These are made to have lower string tension than acoustics.
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Light strings.
I used lighter string. That is because it takes less effort to play. I typically like Ernie Ball Super Sinkys MF, but those are .009s. There are .008s available, too.
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Relaxed posture.
Keeping tension in other parts of your body will cause pain in your hands, wrists, shoulders, and wrists.
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Respect your pain.
Pain is a way of your body telling you to change something, not a challenge to be conquered through might. I will never forget the time I decided to “Play on” on an aching back and ended up not being able to play for two weeks afterwards.
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