Finger picking, no nails.

[EarlBrother]

Is there a thred on getting a nice tone finger picking no nails? My Polytone sounds great using a pick but with flesh of fingers i can't figure out what to adjust.No adjustment seems to work.I sounds like the speaker is fuzzing or like i got cotten in my ears.

[goldenwave77]

Rob MacKillop, the Scottish fellow who I think is still a member here, has a discussion on youtube about playing guitar, classical style, using a finger tips--only approach--no nails. He notes that it is considered unorthodox, but that it works for him and may work for you. There have been very good players in history who did it this way.

Go to youtube, search for Rob Mackillop Classical Guitar and you'll pull it up.

[EarlBrother]

Thanks i been play finger style nails and no nails finally no nails so long i i dont have time to get back to being proficient with a pick.but i either need some new amp or a pedal or something i have a mental block or something when it comes to tech.I like my Polytone Mini brute 4.The fact that i also sing a few tunes makes me curious about the H.Bud.But i would have to sell stuff.I will keep fooling around with the amp i have.I am an old dog and new tricks......I check Rob out.Nails on my thickish fingers freaks the bride out.So Big thanks!!!!

[jazz.fred]

I play "pima" with no nails. It yields a nice. mellow, "organic" tone . As an added bonus you can really "feel" the strings.

Back in the '60's I studied acoustic Blues with the great Philadelphia Jerry Ricks. Jerry taught me the music of such notable acoustic blues masters as Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Blake, the incomparable Arthel "Doc" Watson, Blind Boy Fuller and a host of other great bluesmen. They all played "Piedmont style", playing melody with the index and middle fingers while maintaining a constant alternating bass with the thumb. For this music I also played with the fingertips, but wore a thumbpick to play the alternating bass line.

[GNAPPI]

Are you using flats? What music style? How many fingers are you looking to work with? All are important to know.

I've been finger picking (folk style / think James Taylor, and Paul Simon) since the 60's without nails on both flat and arch top gits.

Round wound on an archtop make a perfect medium for fingertip picking as the normal extreme brightness of a pick are gone leaving behind mellow.

10's and 11's to me sound best on an archtop with finger tip playing.

As far as instruction goes I do not know of any.

I know that you will likely find with experimentation that the very tip gives a brighter sound than when using the pad, and using the finger tip WITH the nail brighter still.

[lammie200]

Not for everyone I know, but I use my finger tips with my nails trimmed. I agree with the other poster about feeling the strings. I find it the most enjoyable way to play any guitar. I use 11's and 12's flat and round wound on my guitars. There are plenty of knobs to turn to get the sound that I want.

[EarlBrother]

GNAPPI:Solo Jazz with a bebopish flavor at times/Eastman 403/Elixer Nanowebs 12s/Polytone Mini 4 1979/Some times my 80s Sunn Beta Bass thats stupid heavey.I am going to start using my equipment so i gotta get set up and i can barely turn on a computer.I might try the lighter strings!Thanks
Jazz.Fred: Wow.I accidently came across a Austen City limits with John Hammond Jr.many years ago it was perfect i was getting disappointed with the only music i could get to hear and that people wanted to hear.Then that what passion!
Lammie 200: knobs confuse me.I really am handycapped that way.Its pathhetic.
golden wave:Thanks I really enjoy MacKillop.I was instantly inspired!!

[MaxTwang]

I would love to be able to play with nails but I do too many projects on the house and nails just don't hold up to plumbing, electrical, paint, scraping, sanding, etc.

[EarlBrother]

I had that problem as well and every now and then still do.My fingers are the same width to the end then slightly round off more like square off so i had to grow them a bit long and then the ideal shape(for classical) or curve of some of my nails dipped in the middle so classical was always a challenge back when i was a purist.then the accident that took the tip of the ring finger.Thats it.2 years of depression later.I became friends with a jazz critic who introduced me to Joe Pass and i picked my self dusted myself off and started all over again only with jazz.Still doing the construction thing as well.Thanks MaxTwang.

[destinytot]

Rob MacKillop, the Scottish fellow who I think is still a member here, has a discussion on youtube about playing guitar, classical style, using a finger tips--only approach--no nails. He notes that it is considered unorthodox, but that it works for him and may work for you. There have been very good players in history who did it this way.

Go to youtube, search for Rob Mackillop Classical Guitar and you'll pull it up.

I've seen that, and I took a lot of encouragement from it. No nails for me.

[MaxTwang]

Do any of you fingertip players do fingertip practice exercises? Scales, arpeggios, etc. with fingertips? I keep telling myself to do some structured fingertip practice like I did when I was able to grow nails, but I have a policy of never listening to good advice.

[citizenk74]

'Nother no-nailer here. Round wounds or half- or ground-wounds will give you a little more brightness, as will new Chrome flats and plucking closer to the bridge. Most of my early compositional efforts were worked out on my first new guitar, a plywood Toredo nylon string. I tried to maintain proper classical nails for some time, but they interfered with my quotidian needs. Nowadays I maintain a 1/16" nail on my left hand thumb, all others are ruthlessly filed away. Works for me. Good luck!

[Longways to Go]

I've played fingerstyle no nails most of my life. It just seems natural. I used a pick briefly in the 90's when I was thrashing some grunge rock that absolutely killed my fingers, but even then I preferred to touch the strings with my fingers. Being at the "point of sound" ?

I practice all my scales & arpeggios this way. And everything else too.

Sometimes I wish I played more with a pick, but then I slip-n-slide around a bunch of 4 string chord voicings and think, no, this is the way to go for me.

[EarlBrother]

MaxTwang:As far as scales and arps.I find a song as learn it if there is challenging passage.I set that part aside and just work over and over then research the scale arp bebop line that fits work it til i can execute the move then fit it back into the song.Does that make sense? lately it makes no cents but it will again once i get my equipment issues figured out.I hope.
Longways to Go:I go thru that as well.I was watching a I think Shaun Mcgowen vid and it looked like he was a no nailer.What tone.Speaking of tone i wonder what Mr.Destinytots set up is nice tone that.

[MaxTwang]

I took a break from painting the house, clipped the rest of my nails and did some scales. It's a successful day.

[destinytot]

Speaking of tone i wonder what Mr.Destinytots set up is nice tone that.

Adding a short video - plugged in - to the rambling one below (sorry). The point is... you don't notice the amp (whose relative volume is disguised because of the acoustic guitar's proximity to the camera mic):

Peace

[Greentone]

My classical guitar teacher, Angel Pinero, is a maestro in playing both with nails and with the tips of the fingers. He has gone so far in this specialization as to have two different guitars built. One, his right-handed instrument, is a normal classical guitar. The other, his left-handed instrument (Pinero is ambidextrous), has a slotted fretboard to permit his right-hand nails to not interfere with fretting.

Anyway, I preferred the sound of the more lute-like way the left-handed playing sounded, so I cultivated this style. It carried over to my fingerstyle playing in blues, country, jazz, and rock. Like Joe Pass, I play with both pick and fingers--when playing jazz. For the other styles, however, I almost always play fingerstyle.

I really enjoy the way a Fender Stratocaster or Telecaster sounds through a Polytone Mini-Brute IV. (With an archtop, I prefer the Baby Brute.) I get a really great, bright sound on the MBIV using the bridge pickup on either Fender. In fact, the MBIV is about the only amp I use where I will play using just the bridge pickup of the Stratocaster. With that amp the Strat bridge pickup is _as_ useful as the Telecaster/bridge pickup is, say, through a good Fender Pro Reverb. You can chicken-pick the _heck_ out of country stuff with the Strat/MBIV, or get a great Robbie Robertson/The Band thing with the Stratocaster/MBIV, using just fingertips.

Looking at the settings on my amp right now, Brite switch is in the middle, Treble is on 12 o'clock (flat), Bass is on 12 o'clock, and volume is on about 10 o'clock. Reverb is on about 10 o'clock, too.

The 15" speaker is fantastic for Fenders.

[destinytot]

My classical guitar teacher, Angel Pinero, is a maestro in playing both with nails and with the tips of the fingers. He has gone so far in this specialization as to have two different guitars built. One, his right-handed instrument, is a normal classical guitar. The other, his left-handed instrument (Pinero is ambidextrous), has a slotted fretboard to permit his right-hand nails to not interfere with fretting.

Anyway, I preferred the sound of the more lute-like way the left-handed playing sounded, so I cultivated this style. It carried over to my fingerstyle playing in blues, country, jazz, and rock. Like Joe Pass, I play with both pick and fingers--when playing jazz. For the other styles, however, I almost always play fingerstyle.

I really enjoy the way a Fender Stratocaster or Telecaster sounds through a Polytone Mini-Brute IV. (With an archtop, I prefer the Baby Brute.) I get a really great, bright sound on the MBIV using the bridge pickup on either Fender. In fact, the MBIV is about the only amp I use where I will play using just the bridge pickup of the Stratocaster. With that amp the Strat bridge pickup is _as_ useful as the Telecaster/bridge pickup is, say, through a good Fender Pro Reverb. You can chicken-pick the _heck_ out of country stuff with the Strat/MBIV, or get a great Robbie Robertson/The Band thing with the Stratocaster/MBIV, using just fingertips.

Looking at the settings on my amp right now, Brite switch is in the middle, Treble is on 12 o'clock (flat), Bass is on 12 o'clock, and volume is on about 10 o'clock. Reverb is on about 10 o'clock, too.

The 15" speaker is fantastic for Fenders.

Last December, I bought an AER Compact 60 as portable PA - but I've only just tried playing my nylon-strung acoustic through it:

[destinytot]

Mr.Destinytots set up is nice tone that.

Hey EarlBrother, thanks - but are you talking about fingers on steel?

(Personally, I can't stand the sound of nails on steel strings, although I used to keep one on my pinky. 'Nail-free' for me.)

If so, it's just heavy flatwounds and a Polytone (with a separate mixer for vocals).

[EarlBrother]

destinytot:Yes fingers on steel.Thanks I will give the heavey Flats a try.I may be busy for a while but i will check back soon.Thanks everybody!!

[EarlBrother]

Greenstone that's an interesting observation about the mini brute IV.I like my LP better than my arch top thru it. I am going to keep tweaking to try and get a decent tone wth my finger style on the archtop.Hope I don't have to research a jazz amp.Maybe a pedal or something would be cheapfix anyway thanks!!

[DaveLeeNC]

I'm just returning to guitar after literally decades away from the instrument. The last time that I was playing I was taking classical guitar lessons and using nails on a classical guitar. I also owned a ES-175D that would play occasionally (again using my nails).

But I always HATED nail maintenance. I am now playing without nails and actually like that sound better on my ES-175D. The sound is OK with me on the classical as well, but it doesn't project as well when played that way. But I am not good enough to play for groups of people, so that lack of project is fine w/me.

dave

[Doctor Jeff]

I would love to be able to play with nails but I do too many projects on the house and nails just don't hold up to plumbing, electrical, paint, scraping, sanding, etc.

I play with nails but keep them relatively short—about 1/32” beyond the tip of the finger. I do woodworking and construction projects as well. I have gotten used to using my left hand for things like opening doorknobs and lifting the toilet seat (LOL), not to mention never playing frisbee or basketball.

I wear thin, flexible gloves whenever I do anything fairly physical around the house, including working in the shop, like these:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Blue-Hawk-3-Pack-Large-Mens-Polyester-Gloves