Finger pickers, have you cut your nails

[TBman]

Originally Posted by RustyAxe

Evidently you miss the point. But you are not alone.

No, I do understand. You're saying to wipe your hands with alcohol wipes or wash hands immediately after touching something, like every time you take something off the shelf at a grocery store or opening a door.

That's something to consider, but it will also take more time which increases your exposure as well.

[OregonJim]

Originally Posted by amears

I've done something recently that I never thought I'd do. I have been learning to play bluegrass banjo, so naturally I have been wearing finger picks on index and middle, with a thumb pick.
On a lark I tried it on my guitar and was pleased with the sound. It takes a little getting used to but the more I do it the better it sounds. I had been having problems with weak nails - constantly breaking. The picks certainly offer a solution to that problem.
I'm not sure I'm ready to cut the nails short after all these years, but the picks to offer an alternative.

I've been known to do that even on nylon strings (shhh!). Comes from playing lap steel and banjo. Once you get used to them, they work (and sound) well on anything. For some reason, growing natural nails beyond my fingertips has always bothered me. I can do it no problem, but it feels "icky".

[Bill Reid]

As both a physician and a player, I don't see much of a "fingernail" issue in terms of disease spread UNLESS one is working intimately with patients, making bread or meat loaf without gloves, doing surgery, or doing something else that's likely to put someone else (or their food) in contact with whatever is underneath your fingernails. (They also poke holes in vinyl gloves.) If there's a real CDC or WHO recommendation about fingernails--not just a "someone said" rumor--I'll stand corrected, but the "logic" would have to extend to things like cutting one's hair short and not wearing baggy clothes. (Moustaches and beards are a slightly different topic; they're close to your nose & mouth.)

Social isolation would seem to eliminate the problem.

With regard to the nails themselves, I got mine done every couple of weeks (extensions and fills) at a nail salon, one of two guitar players among a bevy of curious ladies, until the current isolation. There are home epoxy/etc., kits, but if I'm not playing in public . . . .

[RustyAxe]

Originally Posted by TBman

No, I do understand. You're saying to wipe your hands with alcohol wipes or wash hands immediately after touching something, like every time you take something off the shelf at a grocery store or opening a door.

That's something to consider, but it will also take more time which increases your exposure as well.

No. You can do your shopping without gloves, don’t touch anything you aren't going to buy (to protect others) ... and don’t touch your face of course (no different than with gloves on really). You cannot catch the virus through your hands ... unless you touch your face and plant the virus there. Do your shopping, Load the groceries in the car, sanitize your hands, and All the control surfaces of your car that you will touch, including door handles. Your hands and the car are now “clean”. At home, unload the groceries, disinfect packaging if so inclined, disinfect The door handle of the car you touched while unloading, the house door knob, then wash your hands as recommended. Not one action here is any different with or without gloves, btw.

It wasn’t directed at you, really, just a reminder that just wearing gloves offers no real protection to the wearer and provides a potential vector to contaminate anything else one might touch when wearing them and failing to take them off after. I’ve seen some people go place to place wearing the gloves all day, and from your first post, it’s what i envisioned you were doing.

Your practice In your subsequent post seems safe enough. I spent 10 years in the Operating room as a scrub nurse, and antiseptic and aseptic technique to prevent transmission of pathogens was a major responsibility.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by RustyAxe

No. You can do your shopping without gloves, don’t touch anything you aren't going to buy (to protect others) ... and don’t touch your face of course (no different than with gloves on really). You cannot catch the virus through your hands ... unless you touch your face and plant the virus there. Do your shopping, Load the groceries in the car, sanitize your hands, and All the control surfaces of your car that you will touch, including door handles. Your hands and the car are now “clean”. At home, unload the groceries, disinfect packaging if so inclined, disinfect The door handle of the car you touched while unloading, the house door knob, then wash your hands as recommended. Not one action here is any different with or without gloves, btw.

It wasn’t directed at you, really, just a reminder that just wearing gloves offers no real protection to the wearer and provides a potential vector to contaminate anything else one might touch when wearing them and failing to take them off after. I’ve seen some people go place to place wearing the gloves all day, and from your first post, it’s what i envisioned you were doing.

Your practice In your subsequent post seems safe enough. I spent 10 years in the Operating room as a scrub nurse, and antiseptic and aseptic technique to prevent transmission of pathogens was a major responsibility.

.....Thanks!

[RustyAxe]

Originally Posted by TBman

.....Thanks!

Be safe, be healthy, keep the faith. Oh ... and forgot to mention, no, I haven't cut my nails ... they're at the length now I'll break them anyway ...

[Ramesses]

Originally Posted by Ramesses

wear a mask. Everyone. Thats all it takes. A t-shirt tied around your face is better than nothing.

NYC is now recommending everyone wear a mask or a piece of clothing around their face. This should have been announced weeks ago. Places like Hong Kong and Singapore have extremely low rates of infection, in part, because people are wearing cough masks when they go out.

[RustyAxe]

Originally Posted by Ramesses

NYC is now recommending everyone wear a mask or a piece of clothing around their face. This should have been announced weeks ago. Places like Hong Kong and Singapore have extremely low rates of infection, in part, because people are wearing cough masks when they go out.

Thereby protecting others. Especially since now we know (or more precisely that government has admitted) that many who carry COVID are asymptomatic ... or symptoms can be delayed ... wearing a mask prevents unintentional, unknown spread.

[buddyhu]

I’m grateful to my guitar teacher, Jim Steinke, for urging me to use Propik Fingertones (metal fingerpicks). My nails are already splitting from so much hand washing....

[PHJim]

Originally Posted by Bill Reid

As both a physician and a player, I don't see much of a "fingernail" issue in terms of disease spread UNLESS one is working intimately with patients, making bread or meat loaf without gloves, doing surgery, or doing something else that's likely to put someone else (or their food) in contact with whatever is underneath your fingernails. (They also poke holes in vinyl gloves.) If there's a real CDC or WHO recommendation about fingernails--not just a "someone said" rumor--I'll stand corrected, but the "logic" would have to extend to things like cutting one's hair short and not wearing baggy clothes. (Moustaches and beards are a slightly different topic; they're close to your nose & mouth.)

Social isolation would seem to eliminate the problem.

With regard to the nails themselves, I got mine done every couple of weeks (extensions and fills) at a nail salon, one of two guitar players among a bevy of curious ladies, until the current isolation. There are home epoxy/etc., kits, but if I'm not playing in public . . . .

I have been getting mine done at Lilly's Nails for about 15 years now. I haven't noticed any curious ladies, but Susan, who does my nails, almost always asks with a big smile, "What colour would you like this time Jimmy?"
I'm not sure why she calls me "Jimmy". Her attempt at humour is getting a little old, but she's such a sweetie and she knows exactly how I like them, so I won't hold it against her.
I've been filling with Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails. It's not as good as a proper fill, but it'll do for now and I don't have any gigs in the near future.

[whvick]

Originally Posted by menhir

I don't play with nails, fingertips only. Good to know, though.

Not related to COVID-19:
Although I was otherwise well-prepared to stay in for an extended period of time, I wish I had thought to get a haircut before everything closed up.
I was already due for one when the fit hit the shan, so by buy now I'm looking a bit more shaggy than I like.

Ditto on the haircut

[RP]

I've long used a thumb pick and bare fingers with closely clipped nails...

[Bill Reid]

PHJim: Used Hard As Nails in the 1960s playing classical. A flamenco & blues friend in Minneapolis, Jeff Espina, used something called PattyNail (like a rock that you file down on the ends of your fingers). Hard As Nails just doesn't hold up for me picking blues on steel strings or trying to get volume out of a resonator. Gotta have the epoxy (or whatever that powder stuff is). I see you have a vintage D-21. My studio lead guy, incredible Bill Hullett, plays the same and about the same vintage, plus a 1949 D-28 that I traded to him a year or so ago. And my first classical was a Goya G10. Loved it.

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by Ramesses

NYC is now recommending everyone wear a mask or a piece of clothing around their face. This should have been announced weeks ago. Places like Hong Kong and Singapore have extremely low rates of infection, in part, because people are wearing cough masks when they go out.

Originally Posted by RustyAxe

Thereby protecting others. Especially since now we know (or more precisely that government has admitted) that many who carry COVID are asymptomatic ... or symptoms can be delayed ... wearing a mask prevents unintentional, unknown spread.

The CDC's guidance on masks is that sick people should wear them, but healthy people should not unless they are in contact with COVID-19 patients.
"CDC does not recommend that people who are well wear a facemask to protect themselves from respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19. You should only wear a mask if a healthcare professional recommends it. A facemask should be used by people who have COVID-19 and are showing symptoms," the CDC says.

In a news briefing Monday, Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said there was "no specific evidence" to suggest there was any "particular benefit" to the mass public wearing masks.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ce/5101884002/

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by amears

I've done something recently that I never thought I'd do. I have been learning to play bluegrass banjo, so naturally I have been wearing finger picks on index and middle, with a thumb pick.
On a lark I tried it on my guitar and was pleased with the sound.

I have used picks, both fingerpicks and flatpicks, since the sixties. I've never learned to play without them.