Inner Django? Dobro lessons? Superglue?
 

First the whining. I cut off the tip of my little finger on my fretting hand last night. Imagine the entire area where there would be callus. Gone. Pepperoni, wine and a large sharp knife were involved. Sigh. I kinda needed that piece.

Anybody ever do this? Did it heal reasonably well, and if so, how long did it take before you could play again? I’m thinking a couple of months at least.

Related question: anybody have a recommendation for an zoom/Facebook resonator guitar instructor? On line tutorials won’t help - I need someone to interact with for a few lessons at least.

Thanks.

So sorry to hear about the injury; hope it heals back 100%.

Re:resonator guitar, I think Dobro Joe does Zoom lessons. He's got a lot of great stuff on his website.

Sorry to hear of your injury. Many years ago I sliced the ends off my fretting fingers with a box cutter (don’t ask how, stupid me). Now the bad news, it took months to heal up to be able to play and more before I was somewhat back to normal. Guess it depends how deep the cut ( to the bone in my case). The good news is that everything healed up just fine. I have a square neck dobro and that I could play. Hope you heal quickly.

I cut the tip of my left index finger off using an industrial table saw. It took about a year to grow into something resembling the tip of the finger. Put a deep slice into my right index finger using a band saw, about 40 years ago. Something like 28 stitches inside, another 18 outside. It still is stiff and is unable to completely bend. I can still play piano and guitar. Be patient.
~Bob

I caught the tip of the index finger on my fingering hand in an old fashioned paper cutter. It sliced down through the first inch of the finger, right through the nail. That took a while to heal, but it works well now.

I took about 4mm of meat off the end of my left middle finger with a circular saw.

I normally heal ridiculously quickly, but it was easily 6 months before I was fretting normally again.

on the plus side I used the time to learn to play bouzouki chords.......

I did virtually the same thing last summer while cutting drywall. I kept a hydrocolloid bandage (Band-Aid Hydroseal) on it through the healing process, and it healed pretty well. Took about 6 weeks before it was completely healed, and it was hyper sensitive for a few weeks after that.

When I realized I wouldn't be able to play guitar for a while (about 10 seconds after it happened), I bought a Gretsch Bobtail squareneck, and signed up with Troy Brenningmeyer's streaming website. The site and the instructor are both excellent, with very detailed lessons, accompanying tablature, and backing tracks. I believe at one point he was offering one-on-one lessons, I don't know if that's still the case, but it might be worth asking. His websites are www.lessonswithtroy.com and www.lwtstreaming.com

I found that training my ear to hear when I was intonating correctly was incredibly difficult. I would think I was playing in tune, but when I would play back a recording of myself, I could tell that I was usually unpleasantly off. Once my finger healed, I put the reso away and haven't touched it much since.

Oh man. Please don't blame yourself. Stuff happens with or without intoxicants.

If you truly love playing, this won't stop you. Honestly, I spend near 50% of my playing time with a glass slide on my pinky.

I know you want a teacher, but you honestly don't need one for begining a journey on pinky slide Blues or Blues/Rock. Start by learning Keith Richards Open G chords from Youtube tutorials. Then just work on your slide work. This is a super solid background, because if you are interested in the Genres I stated, it's all about working out what works for YOU in terms of balancing fretting with three fingers and sliding with one. After you can solidly play Elmore James, George Thorogood (same thing really :D), Muddy, etc. a teacher can check out where you are and refine/re-direct you for growth.

Of course that advice works for Blues and Blues/Rock played "spanish style". If you meant lap style "dobro" playing, it is useless. But Lap Style is not your only option. And playing spanish style slide guitar is certainly your fastest route to getting up and running!

quick update
 

thanks for all the suggestions

Reso: restrung a spare guitar with nut riser and used a bar I had from my last attempt. Went to suggested website for dobro lessons. The guy is really good, but I did not pursue - I recalled why I bailed last time. This is an instrument best played in a group, and I don't get to do that much.

Superglue: someone suggested "gorilla tips" so I'm looking a that as a short term fix while I heal. I'm a few weeks away I think.

Inner Django likely gets the win. Working on alternative chord structures and can get close to my normal stuff with three fingers. Lots of cowboy chords help

Slide: Thanks. Good suggestion and should have been obvious. That's next up.

Bass: Might fiddle with this for a while. Electric and Standup don't work, but I have a Ubass coming that might tide me over for a while. Doesn't look like the pinkie fingertip is critical for that, at least for my skill level.