The Best Nail Care for the Acoustic Guitarist?
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- čas přidán 2. 09. 2021
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It has been several years since I first explored the topic of nail care for the acoustic guitarist in a video. Many things have evolved since then and my approach to nail care and tone production is no exception.
In this video I share my process of getting my nails to recording session/performance standard and how I apply this approach when it comes to expressive playing.
I hope you enjoy this video and if you have any further questions please do get in touch!
Until next time, stay tuned!
Michael
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This is the greatest fingerstyle nail care video I have ever seen. When you made the original one years ago, I found myself wanting to see close ups of your playing with detail on how your nail shape affected your technique on various pieces. That longing is no more and I am finally complete :D
Ha ha! That is one of the best comments I have ever received, thank you so much for watching Lee, I’m glad to help!
he has no nails
No they are there just very short, and allows for him to change his angle of attack to vary tone and texture between flesh and nail. I recently did the same and find I have much better control over my sound. It does take some getting used to at first though.
@@leeboruchow1296 no…he’s not picking with nails….mine are just as short…..
That is too funny - I kept pausing to see Michaels nails....
I hope you’ll enjoy this video about Nail Care for the Acoustic Guitarist - this is MY approach and it works for me, other players do this differently and that’s just fine too! let me know your own approach below!
You can't imagine how long I've been waiting for a video like this. And now it is coming form you - I'm thrilled :-) Can't wait to see what you are going to say on that topic :-)
I look forward to sharing it with you tomorrow night Ivaylo!
Since the late 70s I've always kept an inch or two square of 800 grit (wet/dry) emery paper folded and tucked in my wallet, in case of emergency, and to buff the nail edges in between performance sets. It ensures that any tiny snags, wear spots, or micro-cracks get smoothed out before they develop into anything serious.
Excellent video, just what I needed. I've been using acrylics for years, until my natural nails got seriously damaged, just like you mentioned. Started to relearn how to play without nails, literally. I grew on appreciating the tonal benefits of the fingertips and after almost 5 month, my natural nails start to get better and I just realised that the changes operated to my technique no longer requiered very long nails, a tiny little bit is enough and it still allows the tonal richness of the flesh. In conclusion, a curse ended up being some kind of epiphany. Dropping acrylics will save time, money, nails' health and tonal variety. Thanx for all the tips and beautifully played examples provided here.
This is the video the acoustic guitar community has been waiting on. Thank you, MDW.
Thank you Brian!
Wow. I don't think I've ever been so excited for a CZcams video. Interestingly there does not seem to be much discussion out there about nail care for finger style guitarists. I know this will be great, Michael!
Thank you Gregory! It’s a subject very dear to my heart and I hope you’ll join me for the premier tomorrow night!
Excellent!! Thank you, Sir.
Another excellent, thoroughly enjoyable and interesting video. Top stuff.
Thank you Phil!
I am so glad i found your channel, such a gem. Listened to your album last night. Will listen alot more times for sure. Best regards from Hamburg, Germany.
Thank you for your support Simon! That means a great deal to me!
Amazing video, Michael! I really liked the demonstration of playing techniques and how the nails enable them
Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you Michael for this highly informative video.
You’re very welcome!
Great video. Thank you!
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!
Nails break (at least mine do) and steel strings are very aggressive. Keeping nails short helps immensely.
Still, the part I find mesmerizing about this video is how important the right hand technique is in sound expressiveness, and how much latitude you explore with it. You really are a constant source of inspiration
Thank you!
Thank you so much Gianfranco, that means so much to me!
Looking forward to this
Not long now!
Again, you are a great player sir! I am a self taught fingerstylist, and developed an adaptation of 'hammer claw' banjo style picking- for guitar quite by accident and evolution. That said, my thumb/index nails are primary. This tutorial is priceless, as I live in a dry climate, and keeping them polished has been challenging. Thank you for the (again) sound advice!
You are very welcome! Thanks for watching!
Awesome! I remember watching a video you did on this I think through TNAG a while back and could never find it again. Glad to see it come back up!
All the content I made then has been removed from CZcams - that was several years ago though and my approach has evolved a great deal since then!
@@MichaelWatts Ahhhh, the video I've been waiting for! Standing by...
@@Muhlenburger Thank you!
Really enjoyed that insight into the relationship between the nail characteristics and the playing potential. I often find that when the nails are getting longer the sound is more difficult to control - but when too short I struggle somewhat to get the depth I want. Cheers Michael sorry I couldn’t make the live video… next time😊👍
Thank you for watching Kevin! It’s a fine balance isn’t it? And everyone finds their own way to address that balance eventually.
Thank you Michael for such a valuable and informative video. My natural nails are nowhere near strong enough to stand up to the wear of even moderate playing and for that reason I always use acrylics, but it speaks volumes for your thoughtful approach that I found much of value in your experience even so. Surface smoothness isn't something I'd have thought of, and I love the idea of a reverse ramp on the ring finger. I'm off to try it out!
Thank you for watching June! Everybody has a different approach and mine is an amalgamation of all sorts of things over the years. I hope you do find it helpful, like I say, creating a sound is an intensely personal thing!
Brilliant video! I’m constantly messing round with my nail length and shape, but until I watched your video I never considered going short! Scary thought, but I’ll give it a go. (Gorgeous Kostal by the way ❤️)!!
Thank you for watching Adam! I hope it works for you!
Thanks for sharing all of this. I built "my tone" around the use of the nails on my picking hand along with a thumb pick. I chose the guitars I did based on this style of playing and all was well for a number of years (a number of decades actually). Whereas my nails used to wear like iron and never presented me with any problems, around the time I turned 50 my nails began to develop ridges running from the cuticle to the end of the nail, some of them severe enough that my nails deformed somewhat in their smooth round curvature (as seen when staring directly at your fingertips straight on). Were I to polish my nails smooth, I might well wear completely through them in some areas. In addition, my nails also began to crack quite easily along these ridges. I've since made numerous attempts to make peace with playing using just my bare fingertips and thumb, but my playing just don't sound as good to me as I had grown used to. The biggest problem that I have is the lack of definition when it comes to the bass notes as played by the bare thumb.
This seems to be true with most all players that play only with their bare thumb and fingertips. I noticed that even with your tremendous playing ability, in the demo shown here the notes on the low E string (especially when it is played open) often get lost in the mix. While you can still likely detect these notes at a subconscious level, they do not balance out with the notes played on the other strings by your picking fingers. When I experience this with my own playing I can't help but desire the use of a thumb pick once again. However, without the use of my nails on my picking fingers, the balance just isn't there. If I could still use my nails along with a thumb pick I would personally be willing to sacrifice the range of timbre achievable with using just the bare thumb, but unfortunately I don't have a choice. That said, I've only ever played for the fun of it and for the stress relief that playing brings. Sadly I just don't get as much enjoyment out of playing like I did for so long in the past. I keep hoping that I'll find a solution to get my nails healthy once again, but thus far it seems that this is likely just a part of growing old. I certainly wish you healthy nails for as long as you continue playing.
Thanks a billion , Sir Watts, I love your episode on the maple tone woods. I have read and watched plenty of materials on maple (birds eye, flamed and quilted ) and each time, my love and penchance for the flamed maple back and side acoustic guitar is fired.
I have a mahogany back and sides with spruce top currently. It's a beautiful grand piano black guitar. I am student of the guitar, though self taught. I look forward to being able to play like you someday soon. Godhelping me
This video on nail is so comprehensive. Lots of instructors don't give this information. Maybe they don't see the need as you think. Thanks again
Thank you Fabian
Excellent video Michael, thank you. As someone who does a lot of other stuff with their hands in addition to guitar playing I try very hard to be careful with my nails all the time - gardening, DIY, modelmaking plus almost any mundane thing like using door handles or washing up can be a threat to my nails - most of the time I get away with it, but I do have occasional lapses of concentration resulting in chiops or cracks - usually just when I need them to be spot on later that day or the day after!
Thank you for watching Keith! Yes, once you’ve done your nails Sod’s law dictates that any rough or sharp edge near you will be out to get you! I remember a friend of mine doing his nails several hours before we played a concert and then putting his hand in a velvet bag until we went onstage. He was a classical player of course.
I remember the Pujol and the flesh advice from years ago and it does give a great warm tone. What I notice in modern classical is that it is almost all nail.
That is very true - thankfully we are free of such constraints!
I will come back to this often as I am working on what works for me. I have changed often the past 3 years or so. Always natural and typically pads (flesh).I have been experimenting. At present I have a bit of outside overhang on my thumb, as it tends to grow this way and I allow it. Thank you.
We are a crazy lot aren't we?
Thanks so much for this informative video. I played years with acrylic nails and went to nail studios. But due to Corona I switched to playing with no or very short nails. It took me a while to get used to this new feeling and the sound. Now, after a year with no nails, I won't go back to acrylic, although I'm still sometimes tempted. I have to be patient and work on my sound and technique. Sometimes I use a thumbpick to get a more clearer bass or to play Travis picking. Thanks again for your always entertaining videos Michael!
Thank you so much for watching Bernd!I know that health and hygiene has been a big issue when it comes to nail care (and everything else of course) and many people have opted for shorter nails because of that.
First of all, this was the perfect video about a topic I’ve been having in the back of my mind ever since I started playing acoustics. I am surprised that your nails are so short, to the point where the meat of the fingers extend beyond the tip of the nail. Boggled how you were able to catch that G string with a nail that short.
My nails are longer, especially my thumb, and I thought I needed this to get a good, fast and loud attack for fingerstyle. However I do find my nails sometimes catching surrounding strings unwanted, and it can be difficult to also get a soft mellow tone when I want to. I will experiment with cutting them shorter and see if this improves control in my playing.
Second of all, I’m not religious but MY GOD you can play! I sat here in awe watching and listening to how you make art with that guitar. Playing with different distances from the bridge is something I’ve been experimenting with myself, but while wondering if this is something other players usually do. Apparently it can add a lot to the feel of the music when used tastefully like you did here.
Thank you!
Thank you so much for watching Kristian, I’m really glad you enjoyed the video! I really enjoy the greater level of expression that short nails have given me. It’s a vital part of my approach with the guitar.
All the best
Michael
I'm a Classical guitarist and nails are a pain...I also play acoustic (steel string) guitar but the strings tear up my nails for Classical guitar (nylon strings). So, it's a constant battle for me. Some players have no problem doing both. I'm not one if them. So appreciate this video. Thank you!
You have great sound. I study from you and get inspired! thanks. I tried playing with nails, but have now given up on it in favor of a more enjoyable and comfortable finger play.
Thank you Sergey that means a lot to me!
@@MichaelWatts I would be interested to know if you use some kind of hand or finger creams to make your finger skin smoother and softer?
@@SergeyNikolaevGuitar Not yet!
I've been following you for a while now and I didn't actually realize that you used nails with how warm your sound is
Just a little bit now and then!
Really interesting to hear an in-depth talk about guitarist nail care from you Michael. Really informative as always.
Any chance of doing a video on guitar action/setups for fingerstyle guitar? People preference seem to vary wildly and it would be interested to hear your take.
Thank you so much for watching Chris!
Action is even more personal than nail care but I can certainly take a look and see if I can find anything intelligent to contribute!
@@MichaelWatts That would be great, thanks Michael, I always look forward to your videos, keep em coming
Interesting video, I have pretty much the same approach (and kit - with the addition of some fine grit paper for extra shine). Scott Tennant’s ‘Pumping Nylon’ gives some good advice too on ramps and the best direction depending on inherent nail shape. Mostly playing classical these days I need to keep a slightly longer thumb nail, easier said than done!
That’s very true - thankfully with short nails you don’t have to worry about overhangs etc. I know I’d keep mine longer if I was playing nylon string though
Love this, esp. the point about shorter nails. Nail and flesh = great! (I do use a thumbpick.)
Thank you El! Glad you enjoyed it!
Some good tips here .I hate using thumb picks and prefer the skin or nails and occasionally a flat pick depending on what I am playing. I watched a player on you tube who uses false nails to me this could be painful when you burst one, nail builder is another thing that some use. Again to me this is a bit of a faff. Some great playing techniques to. 🤩👍
James Taylor always springs to mind on this subject. I totally get it by the way and wonder of you could play Between Streets otherwise. Clive Carroll is another player who clearly gets a buzz out of those magical and maybe unexpected things that seem to coincide with nail, harmonics and timing
I’m not sure what James Taylor used but I know Clive is a ping pong ball man through and through!
You do not need nail for an acoustic if you "push" the string toward the soundhole rather than pluck it, result is a warmer and rounder sound than nail.The higher tension of the steel string really help this technique.
That’s right, that’s the rest stroke or “apoyando” technique that I talk about
Would love to see more of these technique based videos Michael.
Quite annoying how you make it look so simple as great players always do, but hey I can live with that.
More to come!
Nails on nylon is where it's at, but keep chasing!!
If I played nylon I’d have to agree - but everything changes as we evolve
Wonderful and fascinating. I myself was taught to use 1500 Grit sandpaper by my classical guitar teacher. Is your background in classical guitar by any chance? You've got quite a "classical" sensibility which is quite different from the more bluesy/folksy style of other acoustic fingerstyle players
Thank you very much Joshua! Yes, I did start life as a classical guitarist and sometimes it shows!
Game Changer...thank you immenslely! ♥🎸 #MikeJohnsonJazz
You’re very welcome Mike! Thanks for watching!
I find that when I’m playing live without a PA or amp my sound is just to quiet without false nails. I do prefer short nails but can’t produce enough volume.
That’s a very good point Richard! I remember playing an entirely unplugged concert in California with Michael Chapdelaine. Outside, in a crosswind… we were very quiet!
I always play with subtle amplification, otherwise I dig in too much and lose all subtlety
I’ve played guitar for over 10 years fingerstyle, mostly because I taught myself initially without realizing the importance of a pick, and I’ve struggled to find any good answers on nail care that weren’t for classical or flamenco guitarists playing nylon string guitars with wider string spacing. This is the most useful video I’ve ever seen on playing fingerstyle with steel strings, maybe the only truly useful one. I never thought of shining my nails until now.
Thank you so much for watching Josh, I’m really glad you found my channel! There’s a lot of info out there and I guess my approach has come from picking and choosing what works for me. If it works for you too then I’m delighted but as I say, this is a very personal thing and everyone is different
I once went to a workshop by Tommy Emmanuel, and if I recall correctly, he said that he doesn't have nails and he plays with flesh! I've also noticed him using thumbpicks when he needs extra punchiness. He's one of the greatest acoustic guitar players in the world, so I guess it works for him :D
Yeah man, Tommy is wonderful! There’s a lovely video on my channel of him playing backstage in London - just great!
I used to get a few small 4 way files( basically a smaller version of the Boots file) from Ed Gerhard a few years ago if l ordered anything from Virtue. Never seen the boots version until now, so cheers for that. Nail care is an absolute nightmare, never mind trying not to break them...good enough excuse to retire methinks ?!. Tried gel, acrylic, superglued false nails, non sound as good as a natural nail...and they don't half mess with them. Ok as a stop gap when l do break any. I just do open mic nights though. How acoustic road warriors cope with the rigours of regular gigs amazes me. EG uses, or did use acrylic. I use Alaska pics if l'm really stuck....and have some remnants of a Nail for them to tuck under.You can shape them quite easily and their tone is pretty good. Sometimes l wish l'd stuck with a plec..lot less hassle!, but l love the natural sound and colours of an acoustic...l blame Ed Gerhard for that !😁. Great illuminating video Michael..l shall be off down to Boots tmrw.
Thank you so much for watching! Yes, it can be a nightmare, especially if you care about your tone but it’s so worth it. BTW my friend Eric Skye gets a beautiful sound with Alaska picks (he’s also an exponent of the 12-fret small body fingerstyle guitar!)
@@MichaelWattsCheers Michael, will check him out. On a different tack, do you have any recommendations for a guitar case climate control ? I live on a boat and am loath to bring my good guitars onboard until l l can hopefully find some means to protect them from the marine environment.
@@BobandBear1 oh wow! Well, I guess if excess humidity is an issue then some sort of dehumidifier could be the answer but it’s not my area of expertise. I’d be tempted to seriously investigate Carbon Fibre guitars if you’re going to extremes of temperature and/or humidity.
@@MichaelWattsl have a Fylde and a Taran, which l so miss playing, but wary about bringing them on board. CF would be the best and sensible way forward. I stumbled upon Emerald guitars over in Ireland. They seem to have a deep rich sound and a choice of quite stunning top veneers. Being a sucker for beautifully figured wood they certainly press the right buttons...plus l daresay l could use it as a paddle !.Cheers Michael...off to Boots now
Great video, thanks. I’m curious about your thoughts on the efficacy of supplements like biotin and/or collagen on nail health and strength. Have you tried either and do you notice any difference in nail quality? As for glass files, I know Wolfram files are big in Europe. In the US, I have been using and really enjoying the glass files from Soundfile. Like the Wolfram, they are specifically designed for guitarists and are much better than a typical drug store beauty file.
Great question Andrew! One advantage of shorter nails is strength and thankfully I haven’t felt the need to explore dietary supplements yet. That may indeed happen as I get older.
I haven’t tried a sound file yet but I’ll look out for them next time I’m in the USA!
Thank you so much for watching
Hey Michael, Just discovered your channel. Lots of interesting stuff to dive in to. On the nail issue, however, aren't you mostly just a flesh player? From the look and sound of it, and with how short your nails are, your attack is mostly coming from the flesh. The only place I could tell you were using the nail was on the L5 impression (very cool, btw). Please correct me if I'm wrong, but that is what it's looking like to me. I've gone down this rabbit hole because I've played with nails for years. I tried acrylics for a bit, and loved the way they functioned and sounded but were too much upkeep. Right now I've chopped my nails totally off and am trying to relearn how to play. It's really hard, and I have good days and bad, though it has injected a nice refresher into my guitar playing. Almost like learning to play for the first time.
Hi Benjamin! Thank you for watching and I hope you’ll stick around for more in the future.
Yes, I do keep my nails very short compared to other players but my attack is very often made up of both flesh and nail. It’s very subtle. Sometimes it’s fully flesh and on occasion it’s pure nailed you noticed.
Shorter nails taught me to vary my hand position and intensity of attack which I wasn’t doing when my nails were longer. I hope that helps!
Interesting and greatly appreciated. But how does filing and ramping short nails affect the sound other than to keep any portion of the nail from striking the string inadvertently and causing a spike in volume? How does shaping short nails affect the sound if they are not contacting the string? Many thanks.
Good question! The ramping only affects the sound when the nail is in contact - that’s mostly rest strokes and nail returns but can also be at any point where I choose to dig in. What you’re hearing in most of my playing is a mix of about 80-20 flesh/nail.
I think you have really surpassed yourself with this one. There's so much out there on this subject, but this is an extremely lucid account, and prompted me to get the Pujol essay, and is also very rich in that it leaves room to ask a lot of questions . For instance, most fingerstyle players and a lot of classical ones also would regard your nails as VERY short, and it looks like you are playing with no nails at all. However, no one can deny you have a wide variation in tone, which is very different from the no-nail king, Stefan Grossman. I'm not saying Stefan doesn't have tonal variation - he does - but it is all in the same quite restricted palette, like different shades of blue, as opposed to different colours. Bit like people who say you should play the lute without nails. Second, although I play with much longer nails, I find I am easily able to favour flesh or nail, and this seems to be what classical players do, and flamenco players, too, who traditionally have long nails and use prosthetic measures. Third, I recall the late John Renbourn, who was renowned for nail geekery (watching him apply a sliver of pingpong ball was a mildly upsetting experience) but had exceptional tonal variation. As an aside, wraps do not need to damage the nail if they are applied properly (i.e over the white, dead part of the nail only - wraps can actually strengthen that dead part through the accumulation of tiny amouts of glue over successive applications, in my experience); you can avoid damage to the nail from removal of the wraps by waiting for them to wear off; even if you did want to remove a wrap, it might well be that the stengthening of the dead part through glue offsets such damage. Finally, what do you do IF you break nails as short as yours? You haven't anywhere to go to take remedial action. I'm cutting mine today to investigate. Wish me luck.
Thank you Robert, I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I always enjoy the dialogue that springs up from this sort of thing. I didn't know that Stefan Grossman uses short nails (I haven't seen him since he jokingly offered to break my fingers when I played Bermuda Triangle Exit for him when I was 11... I too watched John Renbourn (a much missed friend and mentor) in disbelief as he painstakingly glued chunks of ping-pong ball to his nails - I know Clive Carroll continues to carry this flame into the next generation. I do keep my nails very short indeed - but they are there and they do see use. If I do damage one (which is rare) it doesn't take very long to grow back to a useable length.
@@MichaelWatts Stefan uses no nails at all! I remember when 'Stefan and John' came out on Stefan's KM label, complete with tab booklet. Me and my friend Phil (who is a huge Grossman fan) both spent ages on BTE and The way she walks, and i still return to them from time to time. Stefan really whacks the strings, even when he's playing quietly. Clive Carroll actually has a CZcams about ping pong balls, which prompted me to have a go after years of wraps. Irritating in the extreme and I certainly wouldn't dream of doing it again. The cats like the remaining pp balls, mind you. Cheers
Wish I could stop my nails from splitting, getting notched, catching, etc, but when you are a builder it's effing difficult to have decent nails!
Oh yeah I can imagine! Great for the callouses though!
Can you imagine if Trumpet players had to walk around with their mouthpiece in the mouth all the time, or violinists had to carry their bow around in their hand all the time? The trumpet players would have no front teeth, and the violinists would have a whip or kindling instead of a bow. Good of you to read from Pujol's "The Dilemma of Timbre on the Guitar." There are times that I like nails, and times that I don't, so many years ago I came up with my own slip on nails that are worn over the nail and finger, and can be moved in and out to adjust the "nail" length. The nail material can be anything I want. I also designed my own thumb pick. Dilemma removed. 😎
Thank you Picksalot! I know of a couple of players who have explored DIY solutions with varying results but I’m glad to hear you’re getting good mileage. Thanks for the Trumpet players visuals, that made me laugh
So am I right in thinking that most of the nail 'sound' is its ability to support the flesh of the fingers, unless you're actively trying to play the string directly with the nail e.g on the return strokes you demonstrate? Some people have a nail bed that literally ends at the tip of the finger but others (like me) have it significantly behind this. That limits the sound textures I can get. But then you ably demo simply using the position of striking the string close to and far from, the bridge. you work with what you've got I suppose!
Longer nails are great for speed, especially flamenco techniques etc but speed to me is a texture, not the be all and end all. I’m more interested in a warm, round attack. Actually, it’s more like a spectrum of warm and round attacks!
What was that song playing in the background while you were quoting Emilio Pujol?
That is Celandine - the opening track on my album Vetiver
Frankly, I think this is a question of taste. I have have acrylic overlays for many years and I would not look back. I play finger style on acoustic (6 and 12 strings), nylon and electric and I couldn't play all these instruments the way you describe here. I started this a few years ago, when one of my nails broke and I had a recording to do. So I got a nail extension. I have ti admit that one can hear in that recording that the attack sounds different. Like that of a plectrum. Now I make sure to have my "real" nails underneath the overlay. They are the ones that make first contact with the strings. An dit makes a difference. Taste, again. I am glad to heat your method works for you. But it is not universally applicable. Thanks for sharing.
That’s absolutely right, this works for me and and I’m happy to share it with anyone who finds it useful. If I was playing as much nylon string as I used to then my nails would doubtless be longer. As it stands when I play bass and electric guitar then this approach definitely helps!
@@MichaelWatts Here James Taylor about his "bionic nails" (among other things). Cheers.
what was that nail filer you were using throughout the video called?
The glass file is by Wolfram Slides and the buffer is from Boots the chemists here in the U.K.
Would you recommend against using nail hardener?
I have never needed one and from what I’ve heard the results are mixed.
Apologies for bombarding the comments but there’s just so much to flesh out.
I’ve never played plugged in, albeit my Brook Taw came with a a dual highlander pick up system with goose neck mic and something under the saddle. May be a professional job to have them removed. Your experiments remind me of Nick Lowe who hated that digital like sound from pick ups and just playing with his fingers definitely cuts down on that awful digital sound. I could never understand why if using a mic was good enough for Tony Rice or the BBC Neil Young performance was good enough. How did it degenerate into the so called “unplugged” performances from Neil Young to Eric Clapton when a mic did the job decades previous.
It's all about headroom Andrew, a mic on its own just doesn't give you the volume to get through to your audience unless it's a really intimate venue.
Perhaps one wants to be the Edward Scissor Hands of guitarists ;-)
I mean, you can if you want
Half kidding of course, what I meant was Scissorhands didn't use tools like pics, but just extensions of his natural bizarre hands and fingers.
I have only been playing guitar for 7 months and don't like using a pic as I like to feel the strings. I've let my nails get too long at times and have subsequently got damaged, leading me to have to use a pic for a while until healing. I plan to do more diligent nail care now. Thanks!@@MichaelWatts
I struggle to find a nail shape that works for both steel and nylon, while also letting me do my day job (dentistry).
Yes I can see why! That can’t be easy! If I played more nylon then I’d definitely keep my nails longer and then of course there’s the hygiene and health aspect which is even more prevalent right now!
Not what I expected at all. I was expecting something about ping pong balls lol. Very much surprised how short your picking hand nails are got to be easier for those nail returns and scratches you do? The closer ones nails are to the strings would seem to be less cause for error than having them long imo
It’s a trade-off like everything in life! But thankfully no PPB’s were used!
I'll spend the remainder of the day wondering if I should remove 3 to 4 mm. A big decision after 45 years. 🤔😂 Oh, and what about the fretting hand?
Ha ha! It is a big decision but they do grow back! The fretting hand is simple enough, keep the nails as short as humanly possible.
Hmmm. Aside: Jane says you look like you're getting younger 🤔.
Apparently Paco de Lucia wrapped sandpaper over strings to 'file' his nails. See other comment for video.
God, I have the same problems you have.....I hate the icy treble of a piezio, the hard walls of a cheap bar, concrete floors...drug induced mixing people.
bro has no nails 😂