🤚 Let's talk about nails

I use the finest sandpaper known to man. I give them a bit of a polish every day. When I'm going to be on holiday and not playing for a couple of weeks I cut my nails and it feels super weird 😅

I loved playing with nails. Injured my right hand 4 months ago, I, m and a losing my nails. They are growing back but I have had to learn how to play without nails. I didn't't like it at first but have grown used to it and can make a good sound now. I still have my thumb nail. My pre injury nail routine would involve sandpaper before every practice session shaping with a glass nail file as needed. Most of my learning has been on-line. Had a face to face lesson with Connie Sheu a few years back and she immediately wanted to check my nails. She did some shaping of them and I have followed the same method ever since getting a nicer tone. She put me on to 3M 500 sandpaper and it's the best thing ever. Makes me want to polish my nails with it every time I play.

My natural nails are rubbish. My thumb was badly damaged when i was a kid and grows little/ slowly and is ridged across. My other nails dont grow much either and are weak and split. So.....i went to builder gel and uv! Life saver and gives so many options for length and shape. One word of warning. Application and removal must be done carefully and thoroughly. I completely damaged all my nails by getting it wrong and had to leave them to grow out over 6 months or more. By warned! Do it right!!

My job as a gardener was ruining my nails even with gloves on.  I started using I ON nails and have had greater success with them.  I enjoy the brighter sound of nails and fingers together.  That has worked well for me with the exception of my thumb nail which keeps breaking, not sure why but it's easy to adapt.  I use 1500 grit almost daily.  I can never stop messing with them.  

My nails have finally started to grow more and become more stable as I've been taking care of them on a regular basis and playing more nylon string guitar.  I never could  grow my index out but now it's finally growing.  Changing my plectrum picking angle and using hard as hooves has seemed to have helped.  I've been trying to shape them accordingly with the pumping nylon book.  I'm not used to having the nails so I'm trying my best to get combination of flesh and nail in my right hand motion to achieve a warm sound.  One problem I'm having of late is my thumb nail keeps splitting and won't grow very long.  

If you can find a copy of “Tone Production on the Classical Guitar” by John Taylor, there is a tremendous amount of info there on helping you find a shape that works for you. I used to use ramps, rising toward the pinky on index and middle, toward the thumb on the ring finger. Since I now occasionally play steel string acoustic as well, the ramps didn’t seem to work as well. Now I shape index and middle to follow the curve of the finger tip. I still use the ramp, though with the ends more curved on the ring finger. This gives me the best result for both guitars. The thumb nail is pretty long with a ramp rising toward the rest of the fingers. This allows me to use just flesh, flesh and nail or just nail depending on the desired effect. I use a common 4-way buffer/file. I have them stashed in my case, on a stand in my studio, in the car, next to the couch, on my night stand. I buff the ends of the nails every day – sometimes every time I play. I do more thorough maintenance weekly. The files are everywhere because I have learned that if a rough spot shows up on a nail to deal with it immediately otherwise it will just get worse. And nails change as we age, be prepared to adapt and be more aware of how diet and overall health can play a role.

No nails player here. There are a couple of reasons for this.

1. Karate practice - making a tight fist with nails is challenging,  and grabbing or striking at an opponent with an open right hand with nails increases the potential for harm to them.
2. While still working, I spent hours every day generating content typing on a keyboard. Trying to press the keys with good technique - on fingertips (like the fingers of the left hand on the fretboard), was awkward with right hand nails.

 All of that aside, after watching the Pumping Nylon and other tutorials on nail care, I realized that I simply did not have the patience to  complete all of the steps required on an ongoing basis.

Recently found an interesting video describing the classical guitar right hand technique. Good stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9YFGtB8ZUA

I use micromesh padded sanding sticks. You get 9 in a pack varying from 1500 to 12000 grit, and they last quite well. I find I can get a really finely polished nail undersurface. It’s worth the expense and time taken. I’m fortunate that my nails rarely break, but I do have a longitudinal ridge on my ‘a’ fingernail which I have to be careful of. Not super-long but ramped from radial to ulnar side of the finger.