[Sentry]

I've discovered that my hands are not quite up to the task of playing my strat as well as I'd like. Granted, my skill level is far below par, but my hands themselves are rather small, with shortish, pudgy fingers. Even worse, my index and pinky fingers curve inwards towards my middle and ring fingers. The result of all this: it's literally impossible for me to span the first four frets and very, very difficult to fret notes near the nut without touching adjacent strings. I figure my options are:

A) Deal with it and just avoid playing anything that requires spanning four frets near the nut and work harder at being precise enough not to touch adjacent strings.

B) Replace the neck.

C) Replace my hands.


Option A doesn't appeal to me, option C will only work if my life were a sci-fi movie, so that leaves B. An option that will cost nearly as much as the guitar cost new and requires some advice.

I know that I have to have a neck that is the same width at the base as the one I have now if I want to avoid costly body modifications, but I'm pretty sure I could probably get a custom guitar neck that is wider at the nut than the current one, one that is the same width at the nut as it is at the 22nd fret, and that would solve the problem of hitting adjacent strings, but what about spanning four frets with my short, misshapen fingers? Would a shorter scale length mean less distance between the 1st and 4th fret? Could I use a neck with a shorter scale length without having to move the bridge? Moving the bridge isn't an option, I've got a trem and the saddles only have about a quarter of an inch total movement range. If it IS possible to go to a shorter scale length and that would reduce the distance between frets, wouldn't that mean that I'd have less tension on the strings and thus have to raise my action to avoid fret buzz, thus causing intonation problems due to fretted notes moving the strings further out of line? Or could I get roughly the same tension on a shorter scale length by going to heavier gauge strings? (I'm using 10's now). Yes, I realize that shorter scale length and/or heavier strings would result in a completely different sound, but I'm not 100% in love with the sound quality I get now anyway, so I'm perfectly willing to change the sound if it improves playability.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Sentry, the Prince of Dorkness

P.S. My guitar = 1986 MIJ Fender Strat with a System I tremolo. 22 frets, 25.5" scale length, neck width at 22nd fret = aprox. 5.5 cm, neck width at nut = aprox. 4.3 cm. Yes, I realize that the saddles not having individual height adjustment means that I'll need a fretboard with the exact same radius as I have now, 12", unless I also replace the trem (which I may do sooner or later anyway, the strings don't lock at the bridge, just the nut, so it tends to go out of tune if I use the trem).

P.P.S. Yes, my fingers are a bit on the short side, but my palms are big, so I don't think a neck that's 5.5 cm at the nut would give me any trouble insofar as reaching all the strings goes.