A different sort of gear question ... Reading Glasses.

[Jim Soloway]

I've recently changed my playing position from my right leg to my left which in turn has allowed me to bring the neck into a much more vertical angle. I'm really enjoying it: my reach is better, my tone is MUCH better, and I feel like as I get used to it, it's helping me become a better player in general. There is one huge exception though. I've worn progressive lenses for over 20 years. And the new position of the guitar puts most of the neck in the reading portion of the lens but when I use my peripheral vision and look at the area from the nut to about the fifth fret it's in the transition spot from the reading lens to the distance lens and blurs out. If I do a full head turn it clears up but I really don't want to have to do that.

I thought reading glasses might be a good solution since they only have a single correction. Is anyone here using readers when they play? If so, are you able to see the entire neck without a full head turn and no blur?

[rpjazzguitar]

Maybe this will be helpful.

I have been told that different brands of progressives have different contours.

Meaning, some have a wider portion of the lens for the transitional distance.

Might be relevant, might not.

[Jim Soloway]

Maybe this will be helpful.

I have been told that different brands of progressives have different contours.

Meaning, some have a wider portion of the lens for the transitional distance.

Might be relevant, might not.

Thanks. I already have that.

[Skip Ellis]

I got cataracts removed in 2015 and went from wearing regular bifocals to just clear glass with the bifocal set to a computer distance reading prescription which was fine......until.....I got a 40 show theater gig sitting behind my pedal steel trying to read the score at a different distance! I immediately went to the local Dollar Tree store ($1.25 now) and bought all the different reading glasses prescriptions and picked the one that worked the best which solved the problem except I had to switch back to my regular glasses to see the stairs going to the upstairs dressing room.....getting old is not necessarily easy. But yes, Jim, they can be a cheap fix - I still use them on occasion when I'm reading a real book as opposed to my tablet.

[P4guitar]

I have a similar problem. My progressive lenses don't work for all near distances so I've been considering progressive reading glasses for a range of close distances, but useless for anything further away. I intend to talk to my optometrist about that idea to see if it's workable.

[Bflat]

Shamir WorkSpace™

[Jimmy Mack]

Go with a single focus set. You'll get used to them. The new guitar position is a lot like playing a classical guitar.

[Woodstove]

I am going through a very similar process Jim playing with a much more vertical neck but still on my right thigh. I don't wear glasses because when I got my cataracts done I had the left eye lens set for short distances and the right for far. These lenses accommodate their shape but most of the work is done by our brain that can take the disparate input and make a smooth image and I am fine except for the very short distance from eye to neck and eye to pick. I am planning on having glasses made with left eye distance to neck and right eye to pick and I bet it works. Of course normal vision distances will be a mess, I'd use them for practicing only. A caveat is some folks get headaches with this process, and some "brains" don't adjust but most do. Every thing we see is an invention of these brains of ours and when confronted with information that doesn't jive with experience (like 2 different distance cues from each eye) the brain restores "normalcy". I had the great pleasure of being a student of and then lab assistant to Hans Wallach in the 1970s. He pioneered the discoveries about the plasticity of the visual system.

[ewall]

Short of trying the reading glasses route, I would talk to your optometrist. They do make "music glasses" but the optometrist would need to evaluate the distance you are looking at (to the fretboard and to the printed music if any) to come up with a solution.

[Rickco]

there was a similar thread recently where it was recommended to bring your stand and music to the exam. Im going to do that next week and try getting a pair just for music reading, even though having another pair to keep track of Im hoping if I keep them with the music it might work. Bifocals and progressives just arent working for this.

[rpjazzguitar]

I use progressives for everything. Reading music is fine with them.

[sgosnell]

I suppose everyone has different vision and desire for what they want to see. For me, I can easily see well enough to tell where the side dots are, and that's all I need to see up close. I'm much more concerned with seeing small notes on old sheet music, and chord symbols on small screens and printed pages. Once upon a time, my main concern was peripheral vision to be able to see the ground to the side when I was trying to put a helicopter on a precise spot, while still being able to read all the instruments and see traffic and birds coming at me. Now it's mostly just being able to read road signs, and close-up devices. A set of progressive lenses, going from almost no distance correction to moderate near correction works fine for me. My wife, OTOH, still has trouble with near vision even with the best prescription the ophthalmologist can come up with.