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Author Topic: Fingernail Care and Feeding
joe
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Posts: 224
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Post Fingernail Care and Feeding
on: November 10, 2012, 13:12
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If you play fingerstyle, are your nails crucial to your sound? And how do you care for them?

I used to do all the tricks: nail hardener, cuticle cream, even trying to force down Jell-O. But at some point a few years ago, I realized that for me, the best nail care is not to fuss to much. I just rub on hand cream once or twice a day, and work some of it into my nails. Lo and behold, I have fewer nail problems than ever, though I still get massively bummed if I lose a nail right before a show.

It's easier to have good nails if, like me, you sit around on your ass all day pretending to work don't do a lot of intense manual labor.

Gross but true: I trim my nails with my teeth, and then smooth with an emery board. Or just skip the emery board.
bear

Posts: 153
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Post Re: Fingernail Care and Feeding
on: November 10, 2012, 18:46
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I could never figure out how to usefully use nails for finger-style. All skin. Probably went this way because I've got lousy finger nails -- thin, brittle, like to bend horribly.
Schrodinge-
rsgoldfish

Posts: 105
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Post Re: Fingernail Care and Feeding
on: November 12, 2012, 12:55
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I'll jump onto the bandwagon of inability. By the time my nails get long enough to get meaningful purchase on the strings, they're bending and breaking. Maybe if I wasn't such an obsessive fidgeter, I wouldn't snap them all off, but I just work with my hands too much.

joe
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Posts: 224
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Post Re: Fingernail Care and Feeding
on: November 13, 2012, 15:54
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Well, a lot of players manage to get great bare-flesh tones without nails. (Wes Montgomery — hello?!

However, I've gotten quite addicted to varying the amount of nail, getting maximum nail (and the pluckiest, most percussive sound) with something like a traditional classical guitar postion, but then straightening my hand slightly (i.e., less curvature in each knuckle) for a all-flesh or partly-flesh tone. It's pretty much unconscious for me at this point.
Oinkus

Posts: 236
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Post Re: Fingernail Care and Feeding
on: November 14, 2012, 04:45
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I grow nails really quickly and they are strong and never break ? Shame I can barely pick anything with them? On my list of skills to master ,just like a slide.
Double D

Posts: 195
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Post Re: Fingernail Care and Feeding
on: November 14, 2012, 19:10
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I'm a 'flesh all the way' fingerpicker, but I do sometimes use my index finger as a big clacky pick and use the fingernail on the downstroke. Friends of mine (Amos Garrett being one) swear by acrylic nails and never go anywhere without Krazy Glue.
joe
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Posts: 224
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Post Re: Fingernail Care and Feeding
on: November 20, 2012, 20:23
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Yeah, I used to do that to, especially when I played a lot of classical as a youngster. But to quote Rockey the Flying Squirrel, "That trick never works." At least not for me. I'd fuss, polish, buff, fuss some more, and then the fake nail would snap off immediately. Same with the Hard As Nails lacquer. Now my approch is:

1. Don'r break you nails.
2. If you do, use a pick and be bummed out for a week or so.
Double D

Posts: 195
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Post Re: Fingernail Care and Feeding
on: January 15, 2013, 00:16
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I carry nail clippers with me constantly. If my thumb nail is just a couple of mm's too long it's hanging up on the string (naturally producing a louder-than-flesh note) and throwing my time off. So my care and maintenance is to make sure they're short and out of the way.
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