RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Full Version)

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Ricardo -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jul. 26 2024 16:09:57)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Manitas de Lata

After resting my right hand nails for some months , im back.
The nails were horrible , super fragile and thin , so i spent months to recover.... now they re strong than ever.
What happen? i guess they were getting weaker and weaker due to the use of varnish and of course with lack of vitamins ..
This started when i changed the varnish brand.. and therefore tried to fix with glue , and after that with paper. Well the fix its nice if you have an emergency , like a gig or so , but not really to use "everyday" , so i ****ed up worse my nails that were allready bad.

Now i just have to find the varnish that was good , and not aply as often , and continue to take daily vitamins
It sucks and required a lot of wait and patience...


Sorry about that. You could also try, oh I don’t know, maybe……CA glue?[8|]

Vitamins etc., always good for you, but playing rasgueado is like filing the nails from the top. If you glue something to a nail, eventually it comes off and it takes the entire top layers of cells with it, thinning the nails. Acrylic, fake plastic nail, ping pong balls, tissue paper, etc., doesn’t matter. The idea is the glue ALONE acts as an artificial extra cell layer that takes the beating, protecting the natural nail under it. If you treat the glue like food that will spoil, it lasts a long time. If it spoils, then it does not protect and flakes off similar to if you had glued something to the top of your nail, and while not protecting it is again peeling layers of good cells off. As long as you play and you use fresh glue, everything will be fine. If you want to remove it, for whatever reason which is not ever recommended, you must WAIT that it falls off gradually with the dead cells, little by little, NO SCRAPING. When it finally comes off the natural nails are there as if nothing ever happened perfectly fine as before you applied the stuff. The temptation is that after a coat of glue as done its job and you notice a little spot were dead cells have released a little, people want to scrape the rest of it off and apply a fresh coat. That is not good because the other areas are holding and working fine. You must simply fill the holes with more CA glue and continue as normal. There is no need to remove it ever, just keep doing touch ups as it falls off naturally. Any deliberate premature removal will thin the nails. Punto.



Manitas de Lata -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jul. 26 2024 16:54:05)

thanks Ricardo , yep you resumed it well , the nails werent 100% good but were nice to play with (still with the scrap..) , after i changed the brand/varnish that was the game changer for worse , that "new" varnish was ****... so i had to scrap more....and apply more varnish , you know the drill... , of course after that the nails were super thin and start to crack/split. Tried to fix the cracks and splits with that nail glue , but i think it wasnt great... felt really cheap....so it got worse.
Well sometimes thats the way that we learn...the hard way

So , what did i learnt , no scrap , i think thats the biggest mistake , when the varnish is getting older etc and theres more exposure of the nail i will not do rasgeo for that time for example.. i will wait to come off and after that put some more varnish.



Manitas de Lata -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jul. 26 2024 17:50:22)

so , this glue is crap...doesnt glue at all the cracks , after two days starts to come off



AndresK -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jul. 26 2024 20:25:29)

Here he says he had a nail issue and used a mavala cream to restore a problem that he got from another product ( I do not remember exactly because I have seen this quite some time ago)




Ricardo -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jul. 27 2024 15:40:25)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Manitas de Lata

so , this glue is crap...doesnt glue at all the cracks , after two days starts to come off


Discard and buy a new bottle. After you open it, keep it sealed in a plastic zip lock bag or other air tight container. Don’t refrigerate or leave out in the hot car.



Stu -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Aug. 24 2024 23:07:36)

So! Anyone wanna talk about the thumb nail shape?!! [:D] we never did that. Here!

Trying to give my alzapua the same boost that this thread have my picado.....

Saw chicuelo thumb nail recently and he had some pretty straight angles going on. I've tried to reshape mine like that to get a better alzapua and less snagging on abanico....I think it's working.



Manitas de Lata -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Aug. 24 2024 23:49:58)

man im just happy that they re again in ok condition.. , dont care for anything more lol [:D]



Ricardo -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Aug. 25 2024 17:02:40)

quote:

So! Anyone wanna talk about the thumb nail shape?!!


No![:D]



Filip -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Aug. 26 2024 19:00:44)

Cool Stu.

My thumb shape is rounded. Many years ago I've noticed I think Vicente having straight angles and I've tried that but it did not work for me. Maybe I can try it again



Stu -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Aug. 26 2024 23:44:31)

quote:

No!


[:D] [:D]



silddx -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Aug. 27 2024 20:22:21)

quote:

My thumb shape is rounded. Many years ago I've noticed I think Vicente having straight angles and I've tried that but it did not work for me. Maybe I can try it again


My thumb nail is serrated from grating garlic on a microplane. But I have to do it because Juan Martin told me to rub garlic into my nails to keep em strong.



Stu -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Sep. 4 2024 20:57:32)

so anyone wanna talk about left hand fingernails?!?!?[:D][&:]



devilhand -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Nov. 3 2024 10:08:44)

quote:

Saw chicuelo thumb nail recently and he had some pretty straight angles going on.

Straight angle? Does it look like a straight ramp toward index finger?
Look at S.Tenannt's thumb nail at 8:00. I believe people must have thumb nail shape similar to this.
A ramp going up away from index finger is not possible.




Ricardo -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Nov. 3 2024 16:00:04)

when we consider that a subtle change of hand posture can affect millimeters of nail shape, it is not surprising to see, unlike ami which are playing more straight on to the strings, TONS of variation across a wide spectrum of shapes and lengths.

It is why I did not even want to get into a discussion about it. One guy changes his posture a hair and whatever shape I use won't work for him. One advice I give is to shape your nail for alzapúa angle comfort rather than arpeggio. I found when experimenting that very small changes would render alzapúa really uncomfortable or get blisters if too short, etc.



ddias -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Nov. 4 2024 14:47:21)

quote:

ORIGINAL: silddx

quote:

My thumb shape is rounded. Many years ago I've noticed I think Vicente having straight angles and I've tried that but it did not work for me. Maybe I can try it again


My thumb nail is serrated from grating garlic on a microplane. But I have to do it because Juan Martin told me to rub garlic into my nails to keep em strong.


Didn't Juan also tell us to avoid washing dishes too?



Stu -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Nov. 4 2024 15:36:12)

quote:

Didn't Juan also tell us to avoid washing dishes too?


hahah! he certainly did. I think of that everytime i do the dishes!

the only advice i recall from him.....

oh and the one bit about choosing guitars and they are as unique as beautiful women or something.



Manitas de Lata -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Nov. 4 2024 15:44:33)

broke my thumb nail today , my nails in geral are soft now due to season transition. It sucks , didnt broke playing , but hit something on a wall or so without hitting hard..



Stu -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Nov. 16 2024 9:17:18)

Don't think I've ever broken a nail playing.
Is that common? [&:]

I said already on this thread. (And I don't wanna tempt fate) but since following the advice on here about nail shape I don't break nails any more. Maybe one break since.
Have you shaped your nails according to Ricardo's advice?



Manitas de Lata -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Nov. 16 2024 14:15:38)

i think its due to Health issue , and the nail(s) were a little longer than usual , so , weak nail plus longer nail its quite easy to break if i hit them somewhere.
Autum and winter its worse.

When i take vitamins this is hard to happen, special ones that have Zinc + Magnesium , i also take a multi vitamin , it also helps

With vitamins , low stress and decent hours sleep i dont need nail varnish or glue...
Also that helps a lot its keeping an optimal size.. not to long . If i keep them to an optimal size (to play ) they wont break or harder to happen.



Ricardo -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Nov. 16 2024 14:42:08)

quote:

dont need nail varnish or glue...


vitamins and sleep won't protect nails from rasgueado drills. I guess you will be fine if you don't practice rasgueado.



Manitas de Lata -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Nov. 16 2024 15:31:26)

yes correct , doesnt protect , altough they re way harder with them , so it prevents them to split or break.
Yes my rasgeo drill its moderate , for quite some time that im not playing at morning , lunch time , only after work , so that helps also to preserve , altough the progression is slower .
and of course a plus is to keep them my optimal length size

last time only happen due to season changing, auttum and winter arent great for me , and of course i hit the nail at my Wheel simulator on a Iron part, i saw the tip of the nail flying over lmfao.

right now they re great again.



Stu -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Nov. 19 2024 18:19:14)

quote:

And I don't wanna tempt fate


[:@] knew I shouldn't have said that. [:o]



ernandez R -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jan. 18 2025 17:04:45)

Been trying something different to protect and enhance my thin-ish fingernails with strips of paper superglued in place, had a post-it not handy this time so this is what I used, couple weeks ago it was thin purple business card stock but I felt it was too thick and it actually felt like it dampened the sound, or rather the attack just a bit. I did get a couple odd questions about the purple ;)

I swipe a thin layer of CA over the top and edges every day and refile and polish with 600gr or so depending on how much I play.



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Ricardo -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jan. 18 2025 17:26:50)

So for me, when ever the glue is worn or missing between the top and the skin of the nail bed, the string really digs in there, like digging a hole. Often it gets stuck even. If it were me I would have the paper covering all the way back. It could even be why your nails are too thin....because you are wearing way back farther than you think, so by the time they grow out, they are thinned already.



ernandez R -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jan. 18 2025 21:25:23)

Thanx for the tip.

About a year into practicing my rosgeo I was paying close attention to others sound quality and technic and noticed some players were using more of the tip of their fingernails while I was bashing the strings with darn near the whole first joint of my finger, ok not that bad but you get the picture.

It was Andy Cullpeper who I noticed had this cool stroke when he was demoing his guitars that I had a mind to emulate and the player from Norway, **** can’t pull up his name, New Nordic Saga guy, has the same touch. Both of these guys have long thin fingers and I’ve got Segovia sausages, but not his talent, so I had to really work at it.

When I first tried the strips they were shorter, almost squares, and I would get caught on the up finger edges. Those lasted about ten minutes of playing and I pulled them off and reglued longer thinner strips.

These yellow ones are just a bit wider but I struggle with getting them exactly where I want them, I’ve got essential/Kinetic tremor, I start with a long strip taped to the table apply a drop of thin CA on my nail position the strip over my nail, then overly with thin kitchen wrap and press down, a quick peek about three seconds in then firm pressure to hold the edges down. The CA gets hot when it’s kicking and it’s easy to feel. I’ll wet it all ot a couple times with the CA and file etc. Takes about as long to do three fingers as it took for me to think about and write this on my phone ;)

HR



silddx -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jan. 19 2025 11:13:01)

quote:

oh and the one bit about choosing guitars and they are as unique as beautiful women or something.


And that one must be able to completely dominate them.



silddx -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jan. 19 2025 11:26:05)

I've started using this. Too early to tell if it will work but it's lovely stuff, and it's actually helping with the eczema on my hands. Probably the best hand cream I've ever used, and hopefully I'll have hooves in a couple of months.



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Stu -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jan. 19 2025 23:25:11)

quote:

And that one must be able to completely dominate them.


[:D] does he really say that?!
I don't remember that.... but jeez. Steady on juan[:D]



silddx -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jan. 20 2025 10:32:22)

quote:

does he really say that?!




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Manitas de Lata -> RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques (Jan. 20 2025 13:36:05)

you were gifted with gipsy fingers, mine are like pianist ones.
you thumb must be also gifted

nice flamenco fingers



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