Fingernails!

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CrowsofFritz

CrowsofFritz

Flamingo!
How many of you here use long fingernails to play acoustic and classical guitar? Does it help at all? I'm starting to grow mine out.
 
For me, I only grow the three I need for finger-picking and they don't have to be long. Just barely beyond the finger tip is all I need. Lately, they've been breaking easily and I haven't been able to play finger-picking style in a while. Not sure why....

I hate fake finger-picks. Metal or plastic... Hate them. :mad:
 
I hate using them too. I play classical guitar, and whenever I start to play something intense, they fall right off my damn fingers! So i'm starting to grow my nails. I need them pretty long too.
 
+1 to everything Chili said above.

I recently say a video where Chet Atkins said that he always wore a glove on his right hand when not playing because if he broke a fingernail he would have to cancel a concert.
 
Save your £8 and drink more milk and eat more jelly....seriously.:rolleyes:
 
I use my nails for both electric and acoustic, in conjunction with a pick. I find that using my third and fourth fingernails adds an interesting dimension to my sound. I don't do this all the time, just when I want a particular emphasis on riffs. I didn't practice this technique, I found myself doing this naturally and didn't realize I was doing it until a friend asked me where I learned it.
 
Chili said:
For me, I only grow the three I need for finger-picking and they don't have to be long. Just barely beyond the finger tip is all I need. Lately, they've been breaking easily and I haven't been able to play finger-picking style in a while. Not sure why....

I hate fake finger-picks. Metal or plastic... Hate them. :mad:
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You need to eat more Jello Chili! Seriously!!
 
I do.... the first three on the picking hand. The pinky I grow just to use as a cocaine scoop.... :laughings:
 
Usta be in a classical guitar orchestra and your nails had to be just right.

People where insanely stupidly obsessive about their plucking nails ..... the cut , length, angle. Even the fingering hand nails had to be just right!

Even on tour they had emergency nail fixing bags, just in case ~ even included fake nails and supper glue ..... the best thing to use was to cut a piece of ping pong ball to super glue into place then file down if one of your nails went missing. :facepalm:
 
moresound said:
Usta be in a classical guitar orchestra and your nails had to be just right.

People where insanely stupidly obsessive about their plucking nails ..... the cut , length, angle. Even the fingering hand nails had to be just right!

Even on tour they had emergency nail fixing bags, just in case ~ even included fake nails and supper glue ..... the best thing to use was to cut a piece of ping pong ball to super glue into place then file down if one of your nails went missing. :facepalm:
Click to expand...

Yep, done that..
 
I was in the bass section and the classical six stringed bass I had was made in Germany those strings really eat up the nails.
I was also using a bow fiddle on some pieces man I usta hate flying with that thing. :guitar:
 
Bow fiddle = stand up bass or double bass fiddle. It goes by many different names depending on the circles you travel in.
 
The way I learned was not to pick with my nails, but to still pick with the fleshy part of my fingertips. In this way, the nails are only there to reinforce your fingertips and make them more rigid when they pluck through the string. So I don't grow mine very long. But I do spend an inordinate amount of time filing the nails on my picking hand. If my friends knew, I'd never hear the end of it :)

I think it sounds to "clacky" to pick just with my nails. I find that shorter nails provides a more substantial, more balanced sound. But that just may be the style I've developed over the years.
 
Chili said:
I hate fake finger-picks. Metal or plastic... Hate them. :mad:
Click to expand...

CrowsofFritz said:
I hate using them too. I play classical guitar, and whenever I start to play something intense, they fall right off my damn fingers !
Click to expand...
Recently on Csus7's recommendation, I started using those metal fingerpicks for the bass. I used to use the plastic ones when I was trying to learn the mandolin but my thick fingers weren't the bus fare.........I abandoned them for 20 years. What I do is put them on the wrong way around, that way, where my findertips would naturally strike the strings, now the pick does it. Because the metal is bendable, I just countour it to my fingers so it's on tight. It flaming well hurts after a while. Still shit on the mandolin and guitar though.
I'm a serial "trim the nails with my teeth" merchant. Have been since 1971. :D
 
Tadpui said:
The way I learned was not to pick with my nails, but to still pick with the fleshy part of my fingertips. In this way, the nails are only there to reinforce your fingertips and make them more rigid when they pluck through the string. So I don't grow mine very long. But I do spend an inordinate amount of time filing the nails on my picking hand. If my friends knew, I'd never hear the end of it :)

I think it sounds to "clacky" to pick just with my nails. I find that shorter nails provides a more substantial, more balanced sound. But that just may be the style I've developed over the years.
Click to expand...

same here, I can't have my nails filed down on my fretting hand. The way I finger (giggity) makes having them a pain in the ass! And I finger pick with my actual fingers as well not the nails.
 
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