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  #1  
Old 05-17-2013, 03:52 PM
spencermm spencermm is offline
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Default Follow up finger nail picking question.

Been growing them for a few weeks now- probably another week or two before I can see if this is going to work for me.
You finger nail pickers- other than clipping and buffing, is there anything that you have to do with your nails in terms of maintenance?
My daughters are always complaining of cracking and breaking nails, and they don't play. It would seem to me that playing would be really hard on them.
Thanks,
Spencer
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Old 05-17-2013, 04:26 PM
Paikon Paikon is offline
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dont clip just file them
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Old 05-17-2013, 08:00 PM
j3ffr0 j3ffr0 is offline
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I have no need to buff them. The strings do that for me.

When I first started playing with my nails I tended to be overly aggressive on my steel string guitars and broke them. Now the only time I every break them is when I'm overly aggressive with yard work or something like that.

Good luck with the nails. I think you'll really like it.
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Old 05-18-2013, 04:19 PM
u38cg u38cg is offline
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I don't have particularly strong nails, and generally find by the time I've grown three fingers out to the length I like, I've taken a chunk out of one of them, and have to start again. How classical players cope I've no idea.

One thing I have started doing recently though is using a nail varnish base coat, which is more or less invisible - makes them slightly shinier but I don't notice unless I'm thinking about it. You can get fortified stuff that supposedly makes your nails healthier, and it comes in thicker varieties that fill out the ridges in your nails. Though to be honest, I just pinch the wife's
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Old 05-18-2013, 09:31 PM
jseth jseth is online now
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Over my decades of playing and using my fingernails, I have tried various lengths to see what worked the best for me... for the past 35 years or so, I've been using a flatpick, along with my middle and ring fingers (little finger a bit)... got tired of either misplacing, dropping and switching back and forth between a thumb pick and a flat pick, so I just "morphed" my style into using this method... now they have a name for it... "hybrid picking"... what ever...

I have found that having my fingernails just peeking out over the pads of my fingers works best for me... gives me enough nail for good tone, and enough strength that I can go ahead and "dig in" with a steel stringed acoustic without fearing breaking or shredding a nail.

I clip them (a few days prior to a show) and file them... then (thanks Larry Pattis!) I use Micro-Mesh to finish... 3200 first, then 8000 to polish. I find this regimen gives me a consistent tone every time, whereas before using the Micro-Mesh, I'd have to play for an hour or so before everything settled down, tone-wise...

I have yet to use varnish or acrylic or plastic for my nails...
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Old 05-18-2013, 09:59 PM
Fngrstyl Fngrstyl is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paikon View Post
dont clip just file them
Was just going to say that. Also, they do not need to be very long to get a good tone. It's what works for you, but I have found that shorter is stronger and you just need a bit of nail to catch the string. I like to feel the strings with my fingertips, and release with some nail.

Here are some good products to use for nail health



Biotin pills, and these two products.

onymyrrhe

hard as hoof

Also a good book here.

http://www.ricoguitarnails.com/Guita...ngernails.html

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Old 05-19-2013, 06:21 AM
spencermm spencermm is offline
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Thank you for all the replies- learning a lot.
I'm really excited about the prospects, and hope I don't have difficulty transitioning from fingers pads to nails. I've never been able to use finger picks because it feels like they get tangled up in the strings, and am hoping there is a large difference between using picks and nails.
Spencer
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Old 05-19-2013, 07:09 AM
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ljguitar ljguitar is offline
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Hi Spencer...

Good luck and I hope you find your heart's desire for nails...mine are far too soft.

I watched 'serious' students and friends collect and try to follow all sorts of advice, physical and medical, to little or no effect…I decided about 35 years ago that I'll never have long nails and pursued playing all-flesh.

I've been an all flesh kind of guy ever since. I still have friends and students trying every remedy out there, and most of them eventually compromise and find a happy place to settle.

Even though I'm retired, we still do all our yard work, light car maintenance, house repairs, run the snowblower, start mowers, trim our trees, smoke meat, BBQ, golf, and a number of other pursuits which make it impossible to protect my hands.

Short of armor plating them, I have too many real-world involvements to think I'll ever be able to maintain nails long enough. And I'm not going vinyl.

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Old 05-19-2013, 07:58 AM
QBert QBert is offline
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It's about what works for you. I'm lucky enough that I can play the guitar any which way I want and my nails never break no matter how long they are, but every once in a while you'll see one side of the nail worn down a lot more than the other so I just try to keep them looking somewhat decent.
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