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Dedos -> Changing the contour of the nail (Apr. 10 2012 21:06:41)
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Hi all,
I’ve read with interest some of the “adventures” in nail conditions and also have my own tales of nails…I posted this on Delcamp some time ago and was informed by some flamenco friends that it would be of service to post here also. I hope it is of some interest to the community.
When I started playing I quickly found out that my nails were not exactly formed for the smooth passage across the strings. I had “flat” nails, one of the curses given to some that really want to play. 1973 (or thereabouts) found me in Madrid living in a flea trap called appropriately “La Granja” (the “Farm”) which was situated on the Calle Amor de Dios and right above the dance studio in that same building. I was “scrubbing“ the guitar in hopes that I would get the compass down by practice and osmosis and was, I thought, making some headway. The problem was my nails wouldn’t stand up to the wear and tear of rasqueados hour after hour. In those days (early 70’s) the protection of choice was a nasty little tube of glue called “Pegamento Imedio” which was thick and really gave a bad sound. No wonder when the Japanese guys started showing up with crazy glue that we were willing to pay big bucks for it. This still didn’t solve my problem with my flat nails, though and in desperation I thought if I used some 2-part epoxy, I would have, if not ideal nails, nails that would be rounder on the top of the nail for smoother passage across the strings and be much more durable. All the wrong things to do, of course, but at the time desperation drove me up many false trails.
It was up one of these trails that I made a happy, unplanned discovery. If, when the epoxy was almost cured and still a little pliable, I pinched the edges of the nail toward the center and curved it, it would harden to that form and I would have, for the first time in my life, the fabled curved nail for guitar playing without the dreaded “hook”! I used this “system” for about 6 months and then stopped because, as the nail grew out and the epoxy got smaller from filing, the string would catch on the back of the epoxy, pulling it off, carrying a layer of nail with it leaving me with nice curved paper thin excuses for nails that were not satisfactory for sound production and too delicate for any extended use. Lacking any other option, I started using 2 coats of fingernail polish and incredibly the curve stayed without having to use epoxy again. Further testing revealed that as long as I used fingernail polish, they would stay curved but if I didn’t, within hours, they would start to flatten out again. Very strange! What happened was that when I first pinched the edges of the nail together to form the curve, I was also, by way of the fingernail itself, curving the nail bed and causing it to extrude the nail in a curved form. The nail polish seems to stabilize the situation and I have had the nails you see in the picture for the last 38 years. I don’t recommend this method to anyone because of the chemicals that leech into your body through the nail but it accidentally worked for me.
As you can see from the images of the old leftover glue, a layer of nail is still there {where would it go?}.
It might seem strange to keep those old epoxy “caps”, but try explaining how you curved your nails in such a fashion.
Again, I do not recommend taking a chance with this method, good luck if you do,
Dedos
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