Flesh or nails?

[silvereagle48]

Just gotta hitch up your manly pants and get acrylics.  They work the best and are very durable.

[cjd-player]

I tried to grow my nails to give it a shot once...when my wife finally stopped laughing and offering to paint them, they went away.

I have thought about finger picks.  Chris Proctor uses them, and they seem to sound pretty good on all of his recordings.  Then again, Chris Proctor could make a pice of cardboard and duct tape sound good.

I know that Chris Proctor use to use Alaska finger pics and probably still does ( I have not seen him live for many years).  I tried those many years ago.  I liked the tone from the picks - and the simple idea of just slipping under your own nail tip.   I really tried to like them - using them for several weeks, but I could just not get past the bulk around my fingert tips.  The material around my fingers kept hitting toghther as I was picking and it drove me crazy.  Maybe after a few months I could have gotten over it, but I decided they were not for me.

Fred Kelly now makes some plastic finger picks.  I have not tried those.

[Doug W]

Hve you oever noticed James Taylor's fingernails? They are freakish looking to me, but apparently effective. My guess is that he doesn't bowl much either...

Straying somewhat off topic here, but the bowling comments made me realize how many things you get used to and/or just take for granted when you live your life.  When I first read that I thought "huh? why couldn't he bowl?  I bowl with my kids all the time, and I have no problem with my nails interfering."  It took a bit and then it dawned on me.  I'm left handed, but there are two things in life that I do right handed - golf, and play guitar.  Both driven by the equipment I happened to have access to when I first started learning.  Now, years (ok, in the case of the guitar, decades) in, it just seems completely awkward to even think about either playing guitar or swinging a golf club left-handed.

Granted, I'm not very good at either pursuit.  I wonder if I'd be better if I'd have started from the beginning learning with my "natural" handedness.  More likely, I'd still be a poser, but with one less excuse. 

[roadbiker]

As I was playing through my amp tonight (Landslide), I was hearing something that my finger were doing because it was amplified. It seems that as I'm picking, the fleshy part of my finger is hitting the string just before my fingernail is hitting it and it makes a dsitracting little sound. I can also detec the sound of my nail sliding nt eh string when playing withou the amp. It make me wonder if this fingernail experiment is working for me...

Jim

[flaggerphil]

I don't do much fingerpicking, but when I do it's with bare, naked fingertips.  I actually prefer that sound...at least when I play.

 

[mgap]

I can not keep nails long enough to ever play, they continually break, chip, tear.  So my attitude is that flesh sounds best.

[McGruder]

I'd have to say that nails and finger picks sound better in general, but using flesh is what is comfortable and gives me better feel when playing.  I have never warmed up to using fingernails or finger picks.  I also don't like growing creepy long vampire fingernails. 

[edman]

I prefer the warmth of bare fingertips.

 

[Gutch]

I'm a flesh guy. Long nails drive me nuts and I just can't get used to a thumb pick.    Us fleshes are in good company - Laurence Juber plays with fingertips rather than nails.