Acousitic Guitarist - Nails Problem

Edja

Major issue for me lads! Me nails keep breaking and therefore screwing up my playing! Anyone any tips on how to harden my nails, or make them tougher??

garthv

AFAIK, that stuff that your mam and dad(well at least mine did) put on your nails to make you stop biting them as a kid makes your nails tough and hard. Or you could always use a clear nail polish?

Doctor J

You can get a nail strengthener in any pharmacy, you apply it like nail varnish...









....not that I'd know anything about that sort of thing, of course

Paladin

Staple gun + 5 Plectrums

Dunno. Me play eceltrik geehtar. :cool:

Zapho

Drink milk, you're low on calcium!
Personally, I don't use my nials at all, just the skin of the fingers.

Bartonprince

nail clippers.

Mr. CooL ICE

Eat lots of jelly and drink milk. And the above tips.

Karl Hungus

Er, cut your nails up short tbh.

Eoin Madsen

Em, yeah, cut your nails. I haven't a notion how you could play with long nails, tbh.

Doctor J

On the right hand... for plucking. Very simple, gentlemen

sei046

ye it is preferrable but i dont do it

Kenny_D

I let my nails on my right hand grow fairly long and it just sounds so much better for fingerpicking. I mostly play fingerpicking style music on my acoustic and for the last year or so I've found that longer nails just has such a nicer sound and it's actually easier to seperate strings ie not strike two strings by accident.

As for soft nails. Well I have that problem with one nail in particular. It's a real pain I know. Bit more of it snapped off tonight. I might have a go at that nail strengthener stuff. That's what I was recommended by someone else so a lot of people seem to use it

Zapp Brannigan

Never use my nails on the acoustic, I use the pads of my fingers. Prefer the tone that way, if I want treble I just use a pic.

Eoin Madsen

Doctor J wrote:

On the right hand... for plucking. Very simple, gentlemen

So just like sellotaping plectrums to your fingers? Intriguing.

Doctor J

Yes, but without the sticky residue

Giblet

Pfft, you need to build up sharp calluses son! I have no nails nearly because I bite them so much.

Shanannigan

well you might try brushin a small bit of Methalated spirits on yer nails, i remember in science class in 2nd year of school, the teacher said builders used to use it to toughen up their hands, so it may do the same for your nails... if you don't wanna do that... rather than cellotaping plecs to yer fingers you can actually get the ones you slip on the tips of yer fingers, somethin like this http://www.thomann.de/thoiw6_dunlop_9021r_finger_ring_prodinfo.html

Niall123

All of the above and fake nails. til your own nails arestrong enough. I've never tried it but it might work?

bounty_hunter

Like somebody else said, if your nails are breaking so easily it's because you're low on calcium. Start drinking a glass of milk every time you go to practice, it'll soon become habit. Unless you don't like milk. In which case... eh, I don't know...

Mr. CooL ICE

Calcium tablets? Maybe some protein tablets and weightlifting too while youre at it, but thats practically useless for guitar playing

bounty_hunter

Weightlifting might give him some interesting muscleage, but it's not going to strengthen his nails

Rustar

Your nail array for Classical guitar should be 'Right - on, Left - gone'.
No purist classical player would ever use finger plectrums.
They don't need to be extremely long, just a 16th of an inch or so beyond your fingertip when you're looking at your palm.
Being a carpenter or jackhammer operator pretty much precludes any sort of fingernails.

cantdecide

i'm so useless- i always have at least one nail gone for a burton.

i've tried everything. you name it, i've tried it. they also take an average of a month to grow back. my advice is let them grow and if they split, put some loctite on there to hold it all together. file and polish to suit. eventually, you end up trimming them back past the break to a decent size. over time you will subconsciously mind them.

68 lost souls

the problome I had with the nail strenghthenr was that because my nails were so strong the just broke off easier besause they had no slack but know I dont put anything on and have built up a reistance to breaking.