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) and which I will have to take for the rest of my life. My nails seem to break easier. Also they tend to develop little grooves (like those in a nut) where they hit the string a lot. I have a particularly good groove in my middle finger nail right now. So maybe I need to look at ways of strengthening them. I have tried the usual cosmetic "nail strengthener" that ladies use, but it's not up to the rigours of playing steel string guitar. I know that Bruce Cockburn uses superglue, but I'm guessing this is not the el-cheapo stuff that you get in the little eye drop type bottles. One option might just be to cut them short and keep them short and to get used to playing with finger tips rather than finger nails. Thoughts? Tips?

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.

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