beginner here and need some helpful advice..

First off, welcome to Guitar Noise.

Secondly, I'm very sorry to hear about your accident.

This may seem out of left field, but since you have only played or a few months have you considered switching to playing right handed? That way the nerve damaged hand would not have to deal with fretting.

My son is a lefty but plays right handed. That means his dominant hand is fretting, which has its advantages.

Plus your selection of guitars would expand exponentially!!

i am a left hander - but play right handed.

i have never thought this unnatural, because to me, the hand with all the hard work, and fine motor skills, is the fretting hand, so to me i want it to be the left hand, because i am left handed. i have never felt uncomfortable this way :D

Try a classical guitar, the neck is wider.

And play right handed is not a bad solution, there are many lefties that play right handed, for example, Mark Knopfler.

I'm another lefty who plays "right-handed". It's not really been harder than being a righty who plays right-handed but it is a little different. I found that I needed to spend more time on my strumming and picking than others and a bit less on my fretting. Maybe that was just me or maybe it's the handedness. Anyways, all it meant was that I spent a little more of my practice time on one type of exercise instead of another.

As for guitars with wider necks you could look at the Seagull guitars from Godin. The other Godin brands - Simon & Patrick, Art & Lutherie, Norman, LaPatrie - may also have wider necks too. There are varying quality and price levels amongst those brands.

On the injury, sorry to hear about that. Before you start up practicing again (left or right handed) make sure that it's ok with your rehab therapist first.

I'm another lefty who plays righty in the thread!

Sorry to hear about the injury, that really sucks. I'd also recommend looking into getting a local teacher who can guide you - as you already have an injury and muscle weakness from it, you'll want to be doubly sure there's nothing in your posture/technique that could be creating additional stress. A good teacher will make sure you don't pick up these bad habits, and in your case I'd say it is extra important.

For wider necks on an electric, I'd look at the Epiphone range, and if you get Spear guitars locally, the Spear Tomcat.The fingerboard on these re all wider than the Ibanez shred guitars, so might find them a lot more comfortable to play.

Hope this helps.

Sorry about your accident. You can start practicing to play right handed, it's not that easy but in due time you will notice that it's just like when you play left handed. I know there's a hand and fingers exercise, actually it's a therapy for those who had accidents and weak fingers.

Hey mate,

I know how difficult it can be with big hands and obviously even more so with broken fingers. I'm not sure if you play electric or acoustic but I play an australian made acoustic called a Maton. They have slightly wider necks and therefore more space between the strings. I find normal necks quite narrow and these guitars are great. Hope this helps.