Could a Nylon string alleviate my worsening hand/arm issues? (Any other suggestions?)

[mashup]

Originally Posted by Red_Label

Guitar playing and rock climbing to together like snow shoes and surfing.

I've been into mountaineering for longer than I've played guitar (29 years). But I mostly just stick to peak bagging and winter ice climbing. When I am on rock it's usually just to belay my kids or do some rappelling. I've gotten rid of most of my rock gear. Just never been cool with destroying my hands/fingers on rock.

Honestly... my favorite form of mountaineering any more is just the armchair kind. I find it quite comfortable and the older I get, the more tired I got of getting half way up a route and THEN asking myself "what am I trying to prove here?" LOL...

Ha! I get what your saying. To be fair i'm mainly a boulderer/indoor sport climber. I like being able to see the entire route & problem solve it, achieve it & then move on to the next one, bashing out a good few problems in a session. I'm a fair weather climber to be fair & the outdoors stuff on the whole just doesn't really interest me for the same reasons you've stated. Give me a spangly, state of the art indoor facility with hundreds of awesome routes, all within reach, any day.

[Liz_in_PA]

For kicks and giggles, because it's free, change the angle of the neck. Hold the headstock up by your shoulder or even your head. Whatever it takes so that your wrist is nice and straight and your elbow hangs down. (Use a strap while trying this)

If you have less pain, get a neckup device.

[min7b5]

Originally Posted by Eclectichick

Sorry to hear about your pain(s), too! I'm sending good healing wishes your way.

Are you guys familiar with curcumin and/or boswellia? Curcumin is the active anti-inflammatory compound in turmeric (yep, the cooking spice) and it's nature's best kept secret, IMHO. Fortunately, with the clinical trials going on at MD Anderson, UCLA Cancer Center, etc, it's becoming less of a secret and word is getting out. It's an insane anti-inflammatory without the nasty side effects of ibuprofen, etc. No side effects at all actually. Boswellia is also a strong natural anti-inflammatory, native to Africa and Asia, particularly in low forest cover. It's mostly used as all-natural arthritis relief and joint support...

Cool. It's also worth mentioning, if you live in one of the now nineteen states with medical marijuana, that there is more solid evidence for its benefits for this kind of pain than almost anything except appetite stimulation and anti-nausua. The strains that are higher in CBD (the anti-inflammatory cannabinoid) are naturally lower in THC, so you can can a good amount of pain relief before the "side-effect" of intoxication dominants. Of course some people don't mind a little bit of that side effect sometimes too

[softballbryan]

My nylon guitar allows me to practice/play much longer and I love all the different sounds I can create with it.

My wife rarely touches her steel string because it fatigues her quickly and hurts her wrist too.

As has been mentioned above, changing how u hold the guitar and how your elbow and wrist approach the neck makes a big difference in comfort. If you haven't, take some time with a nylon at a store and try it in different positions, you may find something that works for you. The tried and true classical position has advantages too.

[Red_Label]

Originally Posted by Eclectichick

Sorry to hear about your pain(s), too! I'm sending good healing wishes your way.

Are you guys familiar with curcumin and/or boswellia? Curcumin is the active anti-inflammatory compound in turmeric (yep, the cooking spice) and it's nature's best kept secret, IMHO. Fortunately, with the clinical trials going on at MD Anderson, UCLA Cancer Center, etc, it's becoming less of a secret and word is getting out. It's an insane anti-inflammatory without the nasty side effects of ibuprofen, etc. No side effects at all actually. Boswellia is also a strong natural anti-inflammatory, native to Africa and Asia, particularly in low forest cover. It's mostly used as all-natural arthritis relief and joint support.

For me, the combination of the two has been nothing short of amazing and I feel like I can live my life more "freely" these days. By "freely," I mean both physically (since my pain is managed very well) and also mentally, because I found that the constant pain was sort of becoming the lens through which I viewed life, especially as it began to keep me from the things I love most (guitars and kayaks).

Going back to the OP's original question, a Taylor nylon guitar was good for my soul and kept me encouraged and playing regularly, but I'm so happy to be back to steel string guitars now that my hands feel like I'm a teenager again.

You can certainly buy both supplements at your local natural foods store (Whole Foods or the independents), but I can't say enough good things about the one I take. For you non-pill takers out there (like me), this is one caplet that has both curcumin and boswellia in it, and both are the purest forms available with no fillers. The one I personally use is made by Ageless Cures (ww.agelesscures.com)

Sorry for sounding like an info-mercial, but I can't recommend curcumin enough and I'd love to hear if it works for you, if you try it. Cheers!

Wow! I'll have to look into this! I've had lower back issues for many years (culminating in back surgery two years ago). I still suffer from them. I've also had arthritis for years and take glucosamin sulfate every day. My mom died at 52 as a result of being on prednisone for two years straight for her acute arthritis, and that drug's resulting weight gain which led to a heart attack. I'm now 45 and am VERY conscious that I seem to have her same ailments. So I'm always looking for better ways to combat them. Thanks again for this heads-up!

[Fanatic]

The best improvement is straight the neck and lower your action to 2/32 seconds in bass and 2 or 1.8/32 in treble, it might be buzzing a little bit and you need to change your way to play, but works great. no more pain.

I was reading that a lot of guitar players with caliber 13 have a lot of problems and pain, and then i had to lower my action at 2.90/32 and 2/32 with Daddario 13-56 and i love it, but if somebody wants to play with my guitar they just can't, but you can't notice that my guitar is wearing 13's.
An if you need more, you can play with a capo in the first fret, and you can use steel string all the way.
But i love nylons too.

[buddiesorg]

My solution to a recurring repetitive stress type injury (I did not get it diagnosed) to my left hand (when it first got injured, I had pain shooting up my arm if I just tried to hold a piece of paper between my fingers and had to completely stop playing guitar for 4 months ... seemed like 4 years) was to learn to play guitar left handed. I was so afraid that one of the times it acted up would be the last time I played guitar.

Well, it took a couple years for me to make that decision, but I'm glad I did. Three years later, I'm okay playing lefty and for the past year, my left hand has felt stronger than it has in years and I can also play righty pain free. I am left handed, though, and I've found that playing lefty actually feels more natural to me even though I never had a problem with playing righty (until the injury, that is).

As to the nylon, it helped some, but I still couldn't play it for as long as I wanted ... and when I had pain, I couldn't even play the nylon, so it wasn't a solution for me. The good thing about playing lefty is that my left hand has gotten the rest it needed to heal without me feeling like I'm missing out on guitar.

[darylcrisp]

i'm a huge nylon fan, having said that, i find a really low action steel string to be easier to play than nylon. i think one can much more easily pull sound from steel than nylon. to get the tone i like from nylon, there's a lot of work involving the hands/fingers.

my suggestions:

(you've already went shortscale-good)
lay the guitars on your lap-yep, play'm lap style. you can get amazing tone/sound from this style play. i'd leave the martin alone for a while, take the other one, you may need to put a nut raiser on it and go for it. along those lines i would suggest a weissenborn also.

there's a neat DVD of kelly joe phelps playing a big guild lap style-get it, its great:http://www.homespuntapes.com/Instrum...lly-joe-phelps

playing lap style, you may need to raise the action with either a new nut, or a nut raiser, and a new saddle-you may need to add relief. that can be damaging to the neck in the long run(hence my suggestion to leave the martin alone till you decide for sure). there are lap slide guitars designed for the style of play-you might migrate to one of those later.

the other suggestion(i know this well as i have a permanent injury to my left thumb and literally cannot use it for "clamping" behind the neck-its only a guide), is low low action. i have taylors so this is easily accomplished. i use a light/medium gauge set in 80/20 bronze(SP 3150). you can achieve the very flat fretboard and low action on the martin and your other guitar, it may require some fret leveling and for sure a low setup.

also, consider a Ukelele in a Tenor size-honest, these things are awesome fun and the shortscale and ease of tension might bring you some relief and definitely lots of fun. go for a decent one(in the $1000 range) and you will get good tone, play ease, and intonation up and down the neck.

best of luck
d