Nail care

Bob-Dubery · 2009-08-20T11:09:37+00:00

I am increasingly having problems with my right-hand nails. This may be due to medication I have been taking since March (when I had a deep vein thrombosis)...

Nail care

Bob-Dubery

Keira WitherKay wrote: however i would suspect pads would be too soft to get volume out of a steel string.........

It can be done. It's a different tone, though not necessarily a loss of volume. Richard Thompson, who is a very fine acoustic player, uses finger tips. Says he prefers the tone and it saves him having to worry about his nails if he goes hiking or plays cricket or is doing odd jobs around the house.

zappa

I grow my toe nails extra long and then cut them off and stick them on top of my fingernails with a drop of superglue.

[deleted]

I grow my toe nails extra long and then cut them off and stick them on top of my fingernails with a drop of superglue.

Wow, never heard of that before. I also used fake nails in an emergancy, like if a nail broke before a concert, but the superglue that I used ate away at my actual nail. I then changed tactics and attatched the fake nail to my finger with insulation tape, to bypass the glue and let my nail grow back normally. It took a bit of sculpting to get the nail the right shape, but it might be a good middle ground between fake nails and finger picks.

AlanRatcliffe

Classic players used to cut up pig-pong balls and us them as false nails - apparently the tone is very similar to real nails.

chris77

I've played with plecs since I started, so my fingerpicking is worse than bad. I do like to strum my steelstring accoustics without a plectrum though - using the flat of the nail to strum down with my three mid fingers and up with my thumb. It makes it easier to keep a natural rythm going with the beat, but it's hell on the cuticles.

Bob-Dubery

Bob Dubery wrote: It can be done. It's a different tone, though not necessarily a loss of volume. Richard Thompson, who is a very fine acoustic player, uses finger tips. Says he prefers the tone and it saves him having to worry about his nails if he goes hiking or plays cricket or is doing odd jobs around the house.

Though he has other problems. He broke a finger during the annual Fairport Convention V Cropredy Village cricket match last weekend.

Last year he was out of action for about 6 weeks after a scorpion stung him on a finger tip.

DonovanB

The thing with finger picks is that you have to shape them. I dipped my thumb pick in very hot water and I though I broke it. AFter pulling it out and reshaping it I find it fits so much more comfortably and i has more control over it.

Bob-Dubery

After the latest run of broken nails I cut them back. But they STILL got snags on them.

Though I'm less sure now that it's the warfarin that is the problem - the thumb nail is very healthy. I think it's more the rigours of daily life - taking lids off of jars, opening beer and cool drink tins etc etc. Maybe I need to follow the example of Martin Carthy who has taught himself to do many things left-handed in order to preserve his nails.

Anyhoo... I went over to the model aircraft store at Hillfox and asked them for some Hot Stuff. They said Hot Stuff isn't being made anymore and recommended something called "Fast Bond". Apparently I am far from being the first person to walk into that shop and ask for cyanoacrylate glue to use on finger nails. They have two different vicosities of Fast Bond and they recommended the "G20" and even gave me a couple of helpful tips.

I put a coat on last night. Let's see how things pan out.

zappa

Viccy:
Wow, never heard of that before. I also used fake nails in an emergancy

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Sheeze, I was only kidding.

Having said that, I play by ear, and find the lobe a good plectrum, though a bit soft.

Some guys like J HENDRIX would use their teeth, in emergancies when the plectrum dropped, I suppose.

aja

zappa wrote: Viccy:
Wow, never heard of that before. I also used fake nails in an emergancy

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Sheeze, I was only kidding.

Having said that, I play by ear, and find the lobe a good plectrum, though a bit soft.

Some guys like J HENDRIX would use their teeth, in emergancies when the plectrum dropped, I suppose.

hahaha :roflmao: :applause:

You are crazy ?

(You have to check for athlete's foot before you glue on the toe nails or your fingers might run away...)

zappa

Well aj, the worst was finding that your shoes no longer fit because the nails get too long.

Now you know why most side-alley buskers are barefoot.

In fact, if you ever walked around downtown and heard a soulfull melody coming out a side-alley, it might have been me, I went by the stage name Ian Lobeshure in those days.