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  #16  
Old 08-11-2022, 08:49 AM
Jimi2 Jimi2 is offline
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Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
Adding to Doug's narrative with my own experience:

The tech I've used for twenty-five years uses slightly pink acrylic micro-beads. That makes them blend into the quick slightly better.

The first time can be awkward. My wife was the one who suggested I go. In fact she dragged me down to her salon and introduced me to her tech. That really helped. By the way, my tech is a man and the owner of the salon. He is married with kids. he likes to talk politics to me while he works(!).

Yes it can be a little awkward when there are ladies present. I just make a point of showing my left hand, with wedding ring, and I tell the ladies what the acrylics are for.

Yes, we go with thicker acrylic application because a thinner layer doesn't last and it sounds pingy.

We don't use nail polish. He just applies a little fine polishing paste and hits it with a buffing wheel and it has approximately the same dull look as my other nails.

During lock-down I purchased a kit and did it myself. It was awkward and my work wasn't nearly as good as his. It certainly showed me why I pay him to do the job!

Bob
Bob, could you perhaps point me in the direction of what you used for your at-home kit? I too stopped going to the salon when Covid hit, and began using a dip powder system at home. Eventually I started just applying it to the forward 1/3 of each nail, which protected and strengthened the picking surface while still letting the growing nail breathe. But the particular product I used was kind of brittle and would often break off. I’d like to try this approach again with a better product.
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  #17  
Old 08-11-2022, 09:36 AM
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Bob, could you perhaps point me in the direction of what you used for your at-home kit? I too stopped going to the salon when Covid hit, and began using a dip powder system at home. Eventually I started just applying it to the forward 1/3 of each nail, which protected and strengthened the picking surface while still letting the growing nail breathe. But the particular product I used was kind of brittle and would often break off. I’d like to try this approach again with a better product.
I used the KISS system on AMAZON. I just didn't use the plastic caps.

Bob
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  #18  
Old 08-11-2022, 10:10 AM
Jimi2 Jimi2 is offline
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I used the KISS system on AMAZON. I just didn't use the plastic caps.

Bob
Great, thanks. They have that at my local target, so I’ll give it a try when my gels come off. I had gotten pretty good at just applying to the tips of my nails with my old system.
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  #19  
Old 08-11-2022, 11:47 AM
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Originally Posted by Jimi2 View Post
Bob, could you perhaps point me in the direction of what you used for your at-home kit? I too stopped going to the salon when Covid hit, and began using a dip powder system at home. Eventually I started just applying it to the forward 1/3 of each nail, which protected and strengthened the picking surface while still letting the growing nail breathe. But the particular product I used was kind of brittle and would often break off. I’d like to try this approach again with a better product.
During lockdown, I tried a number of things, including the dip. What I ended up using the longest was Gelish brand Polygel also from Amazon. Thick stuff that was easier for me to apply one-handed. it uses a UV light to cure, and involves 3 or 4 bottles of stuff. I also liked the tone of it.

You'd think after watching my nail lady do it for 20 years that I'd be able to replicate what she did, and that wasn't the case. I was able to get nice looking nails that sounded good, but they wouldn't last very long. They tended to come off after a week or so, and I always had a ragged back edge as they grew out that would catch on strings. Like Bob, I decided the nail people really do earn their money and was thrilled when the salons opened back up. Sadly, my nail lady of 20 years had had enough and retired during lockdown, but I found a guy at a salon I can walk to from my house, who does, if anything, an even better job.

BTW, another product that can help, for those who don't want or need the full power of acrylics is something like Sally Hanson's Hard as Nails. It's just like a nail polish, but it does indeed become very hard and reinforces your nails. I've tried it a few times, and it seems definitely better than raw nails, tho I want more myself.
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  #20  
Old 08-11-2022, 01:20 PM
Suilven Suilven is offline
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I vividly recall seeing Martin Simpson's right hand close up after a gig in the north east of England many years ago, and was fascinated by vicious looking talons that looked like they were built out of layers of fibreglass. That was back when he was playing more bluesy and fraily stuff, and I don't think normal nails would survive the speed and ferocity (not to mention the sheer speed) of attack he employed.

In one of his instructional dvds he explains how he goes to a nail bar to have them 'silk wrapped' regularly - the downside being that the process pretty much destroys whatever natural nail is underneath.

For the amount and type of picking I do I've found Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails is generally more than enough, in combination with a Wolfram Precision:Crystal nail file which is, pound for pound, one of the best bits of kit I've ever bought. (Someone mentioned not liking the chemical smell of H As N a while back - but in my experience it dissipates pretty much as soon as the lacquer has dried and fully hardened.)

Once a week or so, I roughen the existing surface with the file and apply another layer and generally find I can go several months without any serious breakages.

One minor caveat to that - and I'd be interested to know if anyone else has experienced this - is that I have a natural fault line running the length of the nail on my middle finger.

Every now and then that leads to a split on the end of the nail which will deepen if I don't catch and file it in time. It seems to come and go, and I wonder if that might be diet-related. I think supplements to strengthen nail growth were mentioned on another thread somewhere - I'd be interested to know if anyone has any suggestions.

Angus
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  #21  
Old 08-11-2022, 04:51 PM
Stringmaster Stringmaster is offline
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Probably falls into the “dumb question” category but:
I’m a week into pro-installed acrylics (the powder/liquid brush on). So far I’ve done 3 gigs and feel it’s the best decision I could have made (time will tell). I did 3 nails—index, middle, and ring. My index fingernail was pretty short, so the tech had to add more material to lengthen it (the others less so). My question is—I assume that since my nails grow out from the base that they will grow longer, and as time goes on the acrylics will eventually just be supporting my natural nails? That is, the acrylics will allow my natural nails to grow longer, and not require the addition of material to lengthen them, and the acrylic will be more of an overlay? (Hope my question makes sense). Thanks
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  #22  
Old 08-11-2022, 05:09 PM
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Probably falls into the “dumb question” category but:
I’m a week into pro-installed acrylics (the powder/liquid brush on). So far I’ve done 3 gigs and feel it’s the best decision I could have made (time will tell). I did 3 nails—index, middle, and ring. My index fingernail was pretty short, so the tech had to add more material to lengthen it (the others less so). My question is—I assume that since my nails grow out from the base that they will grow longer, and as time goes on the acrylics will eventually just be supporting my natural nails? That is, the acrylics will allow my natural nails to grow longer, and not require the addition of material to lengthen them, and the acrylic will be more of an overlay? (Hope my question makes sense). Thanks
Yup. You will be filling away at the front end and more nail will grow at the quick end. Eventually the acrylic will be no more than a cap over your natural nail. As the nails grows, you will get what are called "fill-ins" at the salon where they apply the acrylic to the quick end and blend it into what you already have.

All the best,

Bob
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  #23  
Old 08-11-2022, 05:14 PM
Stringmaster Stringmaster is offline
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Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
Yup. You will be filling away at the front end and more nail will grow at the quick end. Eventually the acrylic will be no more than a cap over your natural nail. As the nails grows, you will get what are called "fill-ins" at the salon where they apply the acrylic to the quick end and blend it into what you already have.

All the best,

Bob
Thank you Bob!
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  #24  
Old 08-11-2022, 05:26 PM
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Originally Posted by Sobell View Post
I vividly recall seeing Martin Simpson's right hand close up after a gig in the north east of England many years ago, and was fascinated by vicious looking talons that looked like they were built out of layers of fibreglass.
Martin is directly responsible for me using nails. I took my wife to see him, and she was impressed. At the break she asked why I didn't sound like him. Before I could explain that he was Martin Simpson and I wasn't, she pronounced her conclusion - his nails! I protested, but she was convinced, and you know how that goes. When we got home, she glued some of those plastic drug store nails on me. It wasn't ideal, but it was enough to convince me it was a huge improvement. She took me to see her nail lady the next day. I pretty quickly realized this was a game changer that most of the players I admired used, but that I'd been oblivious to, and I've used them ever since. I still don't play like Martin, but don't tell my wife.
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  #25  
Old 08-12-2022, 02:22 AM
Suilven Suilven is offline
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I was blown away the first time (well every time really) I saw him - I'd never seen anyone play guitar like that. I've had a go at his frailing/flicking technique with limited success - the speed and accuracy he achieves on tunes like Broke Down Engine and I Want My Crown is nothing short of jaw-dropping.

I think I'll just stick with my Hard As Nails and learn to accept my (considerable) limitations

Angus
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  #26  
Old 08-12-2022, 04:58 AM
Andyrondack Andyrondack is offline
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I got a look at Martin Simpson's nails up close and couldn't help thinking that with nails that long he was never going to brush the strings with the fleshy pad of his fingers yet he attains the most incredible control with his right hand.
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  #27  
Old 08-12-2022, 12:10 PM
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I got a look at Martin Simpson's nails up close and couldn't help thinking that with nails that long he was never going to brush the strings with the fleshy pad of his fingers yet he attains the most incredible control with his right hand.
There are lots of approaches with nails. When I interviewed Ed Gerhard for Acoustic Guitar some years ago, I got to watch him play from a few feet away, literally face-to-face. I had wondered about his incredibly long nails. What I observed was almost a bowing action as he drew the nails over the strings, kind of inserting the nail into the strings and pulling out. I don't see that when I watch videos of him now, but it was striking there in person at the time.

I try to keep mine pretty short, basically trying to end up with flesh and nail hitting almost together.
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  #28  
Old 08-13-2022, 06:55 AM
Andyrondack Andyrondack is offline
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Originally Posted by Doug Young View Post
There are lots of approaches with nails. When I interviewed Ed Gerhard for Acoustic Guitar some years ago, I got to watch him play from a few feet away, literally face-to-face. I had wondered about his incredibly long nails. What I observed was almost a bowing action as he drew the nails over the strings, kind of inserting the nail into the strings and pulling out. I don't see that when I watch videos of him now, but it was striking there in person at the time.

I try to keep mine pretty short, basically trying to end up with flesh and nail hitting almost together.
Maybe when Ed Gerhard plays he has trained himself to not focus on his nails striking the strings at all, instead in his mind he is playing with the tips of his fingers and the action of the nail 'bowing' the string as you describe is to him just a consequence of what happens when he draws his finger away from the string?
Suppose the only way to know is to ask him.
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