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Well - I'm glad for me flamenco is just a hobby, because when I was more serious about striving to perform it, my nails would frequently break - and my sound go to sh@#$.
I never really liked the glue or fake nails - and pretty much no serious flamenco player goes without them, it seems.
If you have managed to play flamenco and chosen not to use the glue - do you have any tips or secrets you could share ? I have read about applying vitamin E oil to your fingernails, and tried that for a while - not so sure it stopped my from breaking though.
I had high hopes for the thumb pick that went under the nail - but I just couldn't get it to fit my thumb properly.
You would think in this day and age - you could mold your fingertips and they have the materials technology to produce numbers 4 and 6 with an exact fit - Any of you guys have a 3-D printer for materials that would make good finger picks - and could give it a try ?
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to joevidetto)
Ha ha ha... split my thumb the other day while I was glueing old sheet music to a hand crafted guitar case. I little CA and a tiny brush of accelerator...
Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px
I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
Posts: 503
Joined: Jun. 14 2014
From: Encinitas, CA USA
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to joevidetto)
I don't have glue but my I and M fingers have nails that hook down. So I straighten them heat and a 1/4 teaspoon. I started out heating the teaspoon on a gas stove, then used a clothes iron and rubbed my nails against it, but my wife didn't like it. So now I use a hair straitening iron, works great but I have to do it daily.
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Ah well, there was a fantastic passion there, in my case anyway. I discovered flamenco very early on. It grips you in a way that you can't get away - Paco Pena
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to joevidetto)
I started taking a vitamin D supplement this winter. I think Ricardo said he takes it for nails. So far, no broken nails. Might help fight the virus too, who knows.
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to joevidetto)
Those nails can certainly look hideous - you could probably have an "ugly thumbnail contest" - though that's not one people would enter without some sort of worthwhile prize (no - I am not serious about the contest LOL )
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to joevidetto)
quote:
Do you have glue on your fingernails right now ?
yes
I use brush-on IBD nail glue. And then a quick dip in acrylic powder and it dries almost instantly. I could probably lay off the glue as I have really tough nails and haven't played any dance classes for nearly a year due to Covid/Corona virus. But because I've not been playing dance classes I have been making sure I practise at least some rasgueado every day.
I can't imagine how rasgueado would work with those metal or plastic fingerpick things, I think they would probably fly off with abanico. Probably wouldn't do flamenco guitars a whole lot of good with golpe either.
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to mark indigo)
quote:
I can't imagine how rasgueado would work with those metal or plastic fingerpick things
ahhh - I didn't think of that - I was thinking just for the thumb, and the thumb passages - and none on the fingers - for Rasqueado you could just avoid those that use the thumb...at least for practicing.
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to JasonM)
quote:
I started taking a vitamin D supplement this winter. I think Ricardo said he takes it for nails. So far, no broken nails. Might help fight the virus too, who knows.
Interesting. I started taking vitamin D supplements this winter, too, mainly because of the virus. Now that you mention it, my nails seem to be stronger, too, just a general sense of health where they seem to be a little stiffer and thicker. Maybe Ricardo is onto something with this vitamin D idea.
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to joevidetto)
Nothing fancy but this is Joonas's way:
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I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
Posts: 15725
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to joevidetto)
quote:
I never really liked the glue or fake nails - and pretty much no serious flamenco player goes with it, it seems.
All serious players do something. Glue is the safest. Once you get into acrylics and fake nails it means you have to almost always do that if you play a lot. The pandemic has allowed me the first opportunity in 25 years to let my nails go naked for some days at a time.
Vitamin D helps in lots of ways, but not in place of CA glue...if you play rasgueados properly the nails get filed down by the bass strings. No dietary supplement will counter act that action fast enough to protect you. The idea is to wear off the glue, not the nail, and then put more glue on. It is like second skin or liquid bandaid, same stuff.
Posts: 3487
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to joevidetto)
quote:
ORIGINAL: joevidetto
I never really liked the glue or fake nails - and pretty much no serious flamenco player goes with it, it seems.
I'm not up on what contemporary pros do (except for Ricardo, who has posted about it before now) but I remember reading an interview with Niño Ricardo. He was asked about his nails. He replied that he had "uñas de papel [paper nails]."
Asked what he did about them, he held up his hand to the interviewer and replied "pegamento [glue]." In those days before cyanoacrylate, "glue" meant acetate glue--"model airplane" cement. It went on thicker and was not as hard as crazy glue. Judging from clear photos, Mario Escudero used it too.
Niño Ricardo's last solo recordings showed the effects of a lack of practice and, some say, a little too much alcohol. But in his prime his technique was simply brilliant.
One day in the 1980s I visited La Guitarreria in the Rue de Edimbourg in Paris. It is near the Conservatoire and the Gare du Nord. Walking from the nearest Metro stop you passed both Bouchet's shop and the offices of the music publisher Schott. La Guitarreria was owned by a formidable Spanish woman, Isabel Gomez. There were a lot of guitars, some very nice.
I picked up a blanca and played a soleá falseta. A man who worked in the shop disappeared into a back room and came back with a lovely blanca by Paulino Bernabe Sr. It was beautiful in both sound and looks. The man told me it was his own guitar, and it was for sale.
He said he was the younger brother of the owner. She had rescued him from a life of flamenco and alcoholism. He said he had worked with Niño Ricardo's son, who died from throat cancer brought on by drink.
He chatted a bit about father and son, and mentioned Niño Ricardo's nails.
I played the Bernabe a bit more, and really liked it. I tried to hand it to its owner, for him to play so I could hear it from the audience perspective. He shrank back as though in fear. He said he did not dare to play a single note. "It would be like taking the first sip of manzanilla."
The Bernabe was expensive, I already had the '67 Ramirez, and I was responsible for a wife and two children, so I passed up the opportunity.
I've been fortunate in my nails. The last time there was any glue on one was three or four years ago after I shattered a thumbnail. It was repaired with silk and cyanoacrylate: stronger than "pegamento," sounds better and lasts longer. By the time the patch fell off it had been filed back a time or two and the nail had grown out enough to be serviceable.
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to joevidetto)
Yes I tend to put CA on every week or so after chipping off some worn stuff. I have some instant nail strip on thumb and ring fingers. They get glue also. Here's latest thumb thats pretty good for me. I recently got the original Crazy Glue thinking I was doing myself a favor getting the good stuff, and it works very well. On the back it specifically says do not use to attach artificial nails which strikes me as kind of odd. I was surprised to see it was made in Japan. Why didn't the oldsters of Flamenco use hide glue sprinkled with bone powder? I bet it would have worked very well except for the stink.
Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px
I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
RE: Do you have glue on your fingern... (in reply to joevidetto)
Laid up some carbon fiber cloth into a set of guitar necks a few weeks ago and had an extra strip so I taped it onto a piece of pipe I had handy. Once it cured I took it off and thought about it some not sure if I wanted to use it.
Last week I decided what the heck. Trimmed up a piece with scissors and glued on with some medium CA and putting a tiny droplet of accelerator on a two inch piece of wax paper held it in place while it cured, trimmed with scissors, rough filed with 220 paper on a stick, then case hardened the edges with vary thin CA. Polished with 600 and some spit. They have a nice tone on the strings and you can tell they are stiff but don’t feel heavy. I touch up the edges with CA once every couple day’s depending on how hard I am hitting them.
This is one layer of 6oz/yard cloth, and a vary flat weave left over from my model airplane building days. I’m thinking I’ll lay up two layers and less lean for a more full body for the nail edge. Something like that.
I’m still rocking my my two layer music paper pulgar but once it’s worn off or I break it popping off beer bottle caps...
HR
Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px
I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
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