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just oxide from the strings man, i get it alot when playing my fender steel string, thing i find freaky is the grooves cut in my finger tips last for a day or two
It's kind of bad getting that when you have an office job - not very clean looking. You can buy a piece of calus removing coral at a beauty shop if it bothers you.
Careful though, it strips the stuff off quicker than you think! After about 10 seconds of scrubbing my fingertip went from black to bright red
Ever go out for spare ribs and have nothing but a napkin to clean up with afterwards? You try to twist up the napkin and slide it under the nails to get the sauce out...
Vaseline or just some grease from your forehead (you'll notice a lot of players rub their heads when you start to notice this) helps eliminate the scratchy sound you get if your nails aren't perfectly smooth. It helps after you've played for a while and your nails are getting a bit rough. Of course, it give you a bit less resistance when playing as well especially if your nervous but I don't think most people do it for speed or anything. One thing about vaseline is that it will gum up you strings after awhile.
One thing about vaseline is that it will gum up you strings after awhile.
Someone told me that if lubricants get onto the string they make the string sound dull. You can even buy special string lubricants like "fast frets", but I'm told they affect the sound quality... not sure if its true or not...
Florian, I meantioned the grease before. It helps with cold fingers. This is what I said about it in regards to cold fingers:
quote:
Ok here is the secret. For me, one glass of red wine warms my blood. Maybe not the same for everyone, but it works for me. Beer does not work at all. Hard liquor might affect your playing, , but a glass of tinto does it for me.
But if I don't have an option, and some folks don't ever drink at all, you can put vasoline or some grease on the right hand finger tips. It is a weird feeling because your numb finger tips cant feel the strings, but like magic, you grip and plant the string just right and the sound comes out. Try it for tremolo when you are cold and you will be surprised. A lot of pro flamenco players keep a spot of grease on the guitar body to dip the fingers in. It does kill your bass strings faster, so I prefer wine, but it does do the trick.
Ricardo, i remember reading that, i wasent sure if he had a different kind..
I discovered a trick by accident when i had a tootaiche i was taking Panadol, i think thats all i had around the house , and i was desperate so i took about 3, man i feeled those strings really really nicely, it made my finghers so sencitive !!
ofcourse not a good idea to take panadol for that, but if u have a hedaiche !! greate !! u will sound wicked
Strange,.. it doesnt matter how long I play. It could be 6 hours. My fingers stay clean. No black or green. In past they allways got black,green,blue,red... all colours. But now I try to keep my fretboard clean. It really helps. But sometimes they become blue and red, coz of Blood and slight callus...
ORIGINAL: Ricardo Ok here is the secret. For me, one glass of red wine warms my blood.
It works for me too, but not with a single glass...
I also use some hand lotion, but not due to cold hands (just shake them), if my hands are sweating or when they are very dry which is more or less everytime, they are rubbing each other and the fingertips catch the strings and pull them backwards. This is very annoying of course when doing picado, it just costs too much power with the I and M finger constantly hindering each other. A little (!) bit creme on the tips and between fingers is enough.
Just thought I'd point out...the local guitar repair guy tells me that once you see oxide on your fingers it's time to pull off those strings immediately. Apparently, it means the string is going to start eating into the frets and wear "flat spots" in them on contact. Dunno how true that is though.
(This coming from a guitar repair guy whos main attraction at parties is to eat a whole udon noodle through his nostril).
But yeah, it happens to me too. I switched to Savarez and it dosen't happen so often now.
Well, lets stop this confusion between Gabriel and Edgar. Why don't you change your name to... "El Pulgar Negro" (El Pulgar for short...sounds good...)
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But sometimes they become blue and red, coz of Blood and slight callus...
DAMN WORK! 
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