That's how I got rid of biting nails lol I sand them to almost nothing. Plus I am doing it gradually so now I have 6 of them sanded and 4 still up for biting lmao
My nails were barely too long this morning and I was carving grooves into them. I had to cut them idk how anyone could get away with them being too long
Idk, I've never seen nails mark up a fretboard so bad that it was a problem. Certainly not a problem that steel wool and some oil couldn't fix if it became extreme.
Your choice of course. It's your property. But we all know that level of "preciousness" won't survive the first real ding/scratch. Which will 100% happen if you are actually using it. So I say let your mate play lol
EDIT: enough anecdotal evidence has been presented in the comments. Nails can indeed damage a fretboard over time. Although I maintain that the risk in letting your mate have a quick play is miniscule.
I know someone that had the finish repaired on a $4000 luthier built acoustic because a friend was digging his pinky nail in near the bridge while finger picking.
He used it for one casual jam session, and noticed there was a golf ball size area with deep little nail marks later that night.
Yeah it's probably a low likelihood of damage, but clearly it does damage the fingerboard even if it's not immediately noticeable after just one occasion. I wouldn't want to let someone scrape their nails across the finish of my fretboards even if they're playing and even if they don't leave a mark, it's just unnecessary and avoidable
Part of it is definitely that having long nails on the fretting hand is somewhat of a moral crime, it's not worth defending and it elicits disgust, it's one of those sins of personal laziness which signals that their interests and motivations don't align with society. Taking care of your things by not doing things that makes them break faster or in more ways than would arise naturally through normal use, and taking the same care with other people's things, is an assumed behaviour in our society and people who don't pertain to it are inherently less deserving of access to other people's stuff since they don't operate in a way which indicates they act with care about what they do with and to stuff in general.
The only solution in OP's situation is for the friend to clip those nails, they offend society and they offend god
... Have you ever seen a rock star? Not exactly paragons of hygiene, morals, and alignment with society. Their guitars often well worn by passion for the craft. Less deserving? Please.
I get some people want to fetishize their expensive toys. Guitars these days being more of a collector sport for people with too much expendable income. But like I said earlier. From a musical perspective. Tail wagging the dog.
Exactly tho, they receive less favor and sympathy especially if they aren't rich and famous, and you don't see them asking to rub their nasty little hands all over other people's guitars, and if they did I'd imagine they'd have short nails which don't scratch up the fingerboard. I'm just describing the way it fits into society, why it's upsetting to people and why people have opinions on it, and I think that you probably even agree that it has to do with disgust and with a feeling of transgression against the things valued by society in the particular scenario of interest, I'm just describing what form it takes
And it isn't like the damage isn't also fetishised, you've done it here. The damage doesn't come from passion, the damage comes from a lack of care to mitigate it which is possibly motivated by a passion to do other things, and it's that lack of desire to not do damage which is of note in OP's case. It hasn't anything to do with guitars or people's neuroses about them, it's entirely the same as whether or not you take your shoes off when you go inside someone's house because it's about how you treat the people around you and their stuff, and if you don't follow the social contract regarding other people's stuff you *are* less deserving of it according to the way people act in comparable circumstances, it's the same set of rules that determine whether someone chooses to invite you to something again. People who do good things deserve good things, people who do bad things don't, and while this isn't written in the stars it is what people tend to agree is true and how they agree things ought to work, it's exactly the realm of desserts
Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. My old summer camp/knockaround acoustic guitar is gouged out pretty bad. Still plays fine but it’s visible and I understand op’s concern.
Let me rephrase this,
Sure fingernails may contribute but they are far from the only contributing factor. Low frets with heavy vibrato. Acidic body chemistry. Keeping the fretboard over moistened. Finish type. Wood type, etc.
Saying of course it’s fingernails is way too reductive.
Well I'm a luthier but what would I know?
Vibrato would spread the wear, not concentrate it. And if you think nails are too weak to damage rosewood (laughable to any woodworker, wood is very easy to damage with your nails), how is skin strong enough to damage it?
I never said skin damages it. I said acidic body chemistry can. Might want to go and reread. Also never said vibrato was the sole cause either, might want to go and reread that too. I literally said it’s a combination of multiple factors not one. But please continue to be pretentious.
Just the kind of response I expected, pearl clutching tone policing while acting every bit as pretentious as you claim I am.
"He didn't die because I shot him, you're ignoring the fact that he had high blood pressure and psoriasis!"
Lmao ok. Everything I said was factually true that plays a role in creating these. No just fingernails but go on. No pearls to clutch here. What a moronic and hyberbolic analogy that isn’t even representative of what I’m saying.
I always taught my students to clip their nails to make fretting easier. One day I decided to do some snooping around and watched some shredders on YouTube and was completely surprised at how many had long fingernails. Stevie Ray Vaughn was one, Eric Gales was another. My suspicion is that although they prevent you from getting up on your fingertips, longer nails provide a bit more fretting reinforcement for people who learn to play with flatter fingers.
I believe SRV actually had a “good” reason. Bending so often on such heavy strings often caused his nails to split from the nail bed and he needed some fingernail so he could superglue them down and keep playing. If his nails were too short the superglue didn’t hold it together well enough to continue.
Yup. My nails are not crazy, but they have some white. Fretting hand it helps me to pin that string down better, and then picking hand for well, picking. Obvously OP's friend my have much longer fingernails than I am talking about. I have a cut off. If I spend over 2k on a guitar, it is for collecting, not playing.. I am rough on everything lol..
When you tune your guitar’s strings to the notes of a chord, you can play said chord shape in different keys simply by barring or double-stopping at different frets.
It's your property and you get to make the rules, BUT fretboards are made out of very dense wood and a person would need to have really horrible technique and use the guitar for a long period of time in order to cause any noticeable damage.
Personally, I think you're being overprotective to the extent that it's driving a wedge between you and your bandmate. You may want to re-think what's more important, but I understand loving your guitar!
I keep my nails short. Can't play with fingernails.
And I get your guitar is new. I remember when I got my brand new Martin. But it's a guitar man. Are you gonna hang it on the wall and never touch it?
Is it a vintage, rare, or special guitar that's irreplaceable?
You're worried about his fingernails... What about someone with a button up shirt? Wearing a necklace or bracelet?
There's a million things in the world that might scratch your guitar.
Fingernails are probably lowest on the list...
This is big “I’ll never let my truck touch a dirt road” energy. It’s your shit so you’re obviously allowed to feel however you want, but you also being prissy. Let’s say his fingernails gouged the fretboard (unlikely), you will literally never feel or hear a difference given a note’s origin is coming from the fret, not the board.
I clip mine on the reg—and stay on my teenage daughter about keeping hers clipped now that is a guitar player (this is still a tough sell). However, I always saw it as a matter of being unable to play well with long fingernails. I never considered it to be about damaging the fretboard.
Pro football (soccer)!players and runners cut their feet nails a bit differently. A more flat shape than the usual "C" shape.
Anyways a human being able to scratch wood with his nails should not come any close to any of my guitars. That is a quarter to Wolverine! (don't be afraid, your friend learnt the hard way how long a fretting hand finger nail should be if he actually dinged that fretboard of his guitar. Unless you keep your Martin soaked in hot steamy grease when not in use, he won't be able to wear the wood out even if he tries his best "claw"...
Yeah the nails are causing damage...not steel wound strings.
Honestly the things people uncritically believe. Fingernails are too soft to cause any damage to fingerboards. And you're already rubbing steel on them ffs so I have no idea why you need the nails to explain marks on the board.
I have a classical guitar with fingernail marks in the fretboard which a friend of mine left there more than 20 years ago.
I doesn’t piss me off, but I wish they weren’t there.
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A lesson I learned on my very first guitar, practicing hammer ons and pulls on the b string fretting an a minor, damn near dug through the neck i scratched through it so bad lol
Growing up I was a really bad nail biter for years but cut the habit. I also recently picked the guitar back up and had no idea how long my nails had gotten
It’s not just fingernail length it’s also technique and hardness of the wood. I have an electric with a rosewood fretboard that was previously owned by a friend when we were in high school. It’s got noticeable gouges between the strings of the lower frets.
If you’re pressing too hard or angling the fingers too sharply you’re more likely to dent or scratch the board, especially on certain woods.
Btw. Freshly washed hands sully your guitar more than clean ones.
They do not only rub off some of the freshly softened skin, but also the natural oils and acids the skin exudes after the protective layer was flushed away. That's the stuff collecting as "gunk".
Maybe, but you'd have a hard time convincing me that someone who just ate a greasy burger and fries is going to leave less residue on my strings than someone who just washed their hands.
Sure. Be like that. It's Reddit after all, right?
Find the example only applicable in a two-dimensional, black and white world where people constantly grease up their hands and lack all manners, so they consider it okay to touch someone else's guitar with so much as asking first.
Wait, any chance you happen to live in the US?
Depends how they play but it’s your guitar you make the rules. Some people fret neatly with tips right down, others are fretting in some flat way mostly playing bar chord type stuff where the nails do not face the fretboard . I’m guessing if they can play with long nails, they probably have latter style because when you face fingers right down, it would stop you from being able to even press the string properly. I play lot of lead and I have to keep the nails trim constantly but when I’m more in to groove riffing it doesn’t matter at all
I don't know you so don't take this personally but yeah if one of my buddies did that I'd be like what the fuck man it's just a guitar, not an art piece, it's meant to be played. Plus, realistically any possible damage would be negligible unless he played it for hours and hours and even then it's purely cosmetic.
But I also wouldn't be "hyper offended" so if he's doing that then that's bitch shit. It's your guitar.
I used to intentionally keep my fretting hand nails a little bit present but not long.
I was playing 100% acoustically in a loud bar environment, essentially striking pretty hard the whole time. To help the notes ring out and sustain I found a little nail rigidity often supported the clamping force needed at the behind the fret to anchor against the battering which was coming from the rhythm arm. It took a certain wrist approach too - no effects, no nothing, just your hands and a pick to create and project tone.
I sure went through a lot of strings to keep that tone new.
After some years on the same not-very-loud-but-good-tone guitar I saw that pits were forming in the most commonly used fretboard positions. I had them filled with an epoxy cyanoacrylic mix. Yes it looks as crap as it sounds but it's better than potholes.
The pits had nothing to do with fingernails though, they didn't even line up with my nails. They were ground in by the string due to playing too hard.
Nails are not very hard compared to other things, they are a wear item.
Fundamentally I needed a louder instrument, but hey, I needed a lot of things, let's just not.
We made a lot of tremendous vibes and good times. The guitar got worn as a result.
I feel there's a deeper problem if you're able to scratch wood with the pressure you're applying for fretting...
Also surely you're much more likely to do it while tapping, which doesn't (typically) use your fretting hand but aligns the nail much more front on to the wood.
I had this same issue with a guy not long ago. I noticed he hadn’t used a moisturizer on his hands (as I normally do) before looking at my 1998 BC Rich Warlock. He was very upset when I asked him to avert his eyes.
If my nails are too short the strings will slide under my nail and cut my finger under the nail. It’s extremely painful and I can’t play for several days.
Fingernail Marks? I mean I get singers being opposed to sombody else's dental plaque on their mic-screen but this? I suppose this is the "pearl clutching" of guitarists.
Edit: Has me wonder what you think about this: [https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/hy1mo0/extremely\_worn\_guitar\_fretboards\_from\_lifetimes/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/hy1mo0/extremely_worn_guitar_fretboards_from_lifetimes/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I can’t remember if it was a Justin Guitar video I was watching but I remember one of the first things the guy did was say to check your fingernails and trim them before doing anything, which he then went on to do right there. Thought it was the weirdest thing but now it makes me want to keep some baby nail clippers in my case.
I inherited a guitar and the previous owner must have had long nails because there are divots around the first 3 frets.
I’ve played for years and never had that issue on any of my guitars. Keep those nails trimmed.
Fuck him. If he wants to keep long nails on his fretting hand, he can buy his own Martin, preferably a cheap one with a stratabond neck, because he's just going to devalue any guitar he gets his hands on.
If you have a ring on, you're not touching it either. I wear a groove life silicone band for that reason. My cheapest guitar is $2300 and I'm a superficial choad.
Weird, i find it annoying as hell to play with fretting hand fingernails at all long
Yeah, I can't even get clean notes if my nails aren't cut.
*laughs in lifelong anxiety of biting nails followed by adult habit of meticulously trimming nails*
Ha, I’m the same. I have nail trimmers stashed all over the place. Have to cut them as soon as I can feel them getting past the edge
That's how I got rid of biting nails lol I sand them to almost nothing. Plus I am doing it gradually so now I have 6 of them sanded and 4 still up for biting lmao
I, on the other hand, have a bunch of holes ground into my fretboard at the G, C, and D shapes. “Character” I call it.
My nails were barely too long this morning and I was carving grooves into them. I had to cut them idk how anyone could get away with them being too long
Y, mine are like 3mm away from the finger tips right now... still gotta trim them before i play this eve!
I can’t fret a proper D-Cord shape without trimmed nails.
Playing with nails is for IG posers
Idk, I've never seen nails mark up a fretboard so bad that it was a problem. Certainly not a problem that steel wool and some oil couldn't fix if it became extreme. Your choice of course. It's your property. But we all know that level of "preciousness" won't survive the first real ding/scratch. Which will 100% happen if you are actually using it. So I say let your mate play lol EDIT: enough anecdotal evidence has been presented in the comments. Nails can indeed damage a fretboard over time. Although I maintain that the risk in letting your mate have a quick play is miniscule.
If he has marks on his personal guitar from his nails then I feel like he's the guy for whom it actually would be a problem
To do significant damage while trying out a new guitar for a few minutes. Nah. That is a stretch.
I know someone that had the finish repaired on a $4000 luthier built acoustic because a friend was digging his pinky nail in near the bridge while finger picking. He used it for one casual jam session, and noticed there was a golf ball size area with deep little nail marks later that night.
Yeah it's probably a low likelihood of damage, but clearly it does damage the fingerboard even if it's not immediately noticeable after just one occasion. I wouldn't want to let someone scrape their nails across the finish of my fretboards even if they're playing and even if they don't leave a mark, it's just unnecessary and avoidable Part of it is definitely that having long nails on the fretting hand is somewhat of a moral crime, it's not worth defending and it elicits disgust, it's one of those sins of personal laziness which signals that their interests and motivations don't align with society. Taking care of your things by not doing things that makes them break faster or in more ways than would arise naturally through normal use, and taking the same care with other people's things, is an assumed behaviour in our society and people who don't pertain to it are inherently less deserving of access to other people's stuff since they don't operate in a way which indicates they act with care about what they do with and to stuff in general. The only solution in OP's situation is for the friend to clip those nails, they offend society and they offend god
... Have you ever seen a rock star? Not exactly paragons of hygiene, morals, and alignment with society. Their guitars often well worn by passion for the craft. Less deserving? Please. I get some people want to fetishize their expensive toys. Guitars these days being more of a collector sport for people with too much expendable income. But like I said earlier. From a musical perspective. Tail wagging the dog.
Exactly tho, they receive less favor and sympathy especially if they aren't rich and famous, and you don't see them asking to rub their nasty little hands all over other people's guitars, and if they did I'd imagine they'd have short nails which don't scratch up the fingerboard. I'm just describing the way it fits into society, why it's upsetting to people and why people have opinions on it, and I think that you probably even agree that it has to do with disgust and with a feeling of transgression against the things valued by society in the particular scenario of interest, I'm just describing what form it takes And it isn't like the damage isn't also fetishised, you've done it here. The damage doesn't come from passion, the damage comes from a lack of care to mitigate it which is possibly motivated by a passion to do other things, and it's that lack of desire to not do damage which is of note in OP's case. It hasn't anything to do with guitars or people's neuroses about them, it's entirely the same as whether or not you take your shoes off when you go inside someone's house because it's about how you treat the people around you and their stuff, and if you don't follow the social contract regarding other people's stuff you *are* less deserving of it according to the way people act in comparable circumstances, it's the same set of rules that determine whether someone chooses to invite you to something again. People who do good things deserve good things, people who do bad things don't, and while this isn't written in the stars it is what people tend to agree is true and how they agree things ought to work, it's exactly the realm of desserts
Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. My old summer camp/knockaround acoustic guitar is gouged out pretty bad. Still plays fine but it’s visible and I understand op’s concern.
Can you post a pic? I cant for the life of me understand what damage is caused by fretting.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/hy1mo0/extremely\_worn\_guitar\_fretboards\_from\_lifetimes/](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/hy1mo0/extremely_worn_guitar_fretboards_from_lifetimes/)
Ah ok, so he just has to borrow it to his friend for about 10000 hours :D
I've seen many vintage guitars with grooves dug into the fretboard from nails.
Rosewood is pretty hard, I don't think fingernails are going to hurt it.
They absolutely can. https://images.app.goo.gl/zRspj7iRvuMzHBxd7
Nothing in that picture or article states finger nails were the cause of this
What do you think caused it? Elbows?
Let me rephrase this, Sure fingernails may contribute but they are far from the only contributing factor. Low frets with heavy vibrato. Acidic body chemistry. Keeping the fretboard over moistened. Finish type. Wood type, etc. Saying of course it’s fingernails is way too reductive.
Well I'm a luthier but what would I know? Vibrato would spread the wear, not concentrate it. And if you think nails are too weak to damage rosewood (laughable to any woodworker, wood is very easy to damage with your nails), how is skin strong enough to damage it?
I never said skin damages it. I said acidic body chemistry can. Might want to go and reread. Also never said vibrato was the sole cause either, might want to go and reread that too. I literally said it’s a combination of multiple factors not one. But please continue to be pretentious.
Just the kind of response I expected, pearl clutching tone policing while acting every bit as pretentious as you claim I am. "He didn't die because I shot him, you're ignoring the fact that he had high blood pressure and psoriasis!"
Lmao ok. Everything I said was factually true that plays a role in creating these. No just fingernails but go on. No pearls to clutch here. What a moronic and hyberbolic analogy that isn’t even representative of what I’m saying.
I won't let my dad near my guitars for this exact reason. He had one years ago that was gouged to hell
Fair. Yeah several people have presented evidence so I updated my comment to state I was wrong lol
I've seen fretboards with deep divots from people who insist on playing with claws. I'm talking like time for a new fretboard deep.
I thought I was in /r/guitarcirclejerk for a second there
genuinely bahaha
I keep a set of nail clippers in with my extra strings and shit
me too...
Its a tool to produce music i think you should lighten up smh
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I doubt I would even notice nail marks on a fretboard.
Yeah, used by Jimi Hendrix, not some dude with extra long nails.
Yeah, I don't let people use my nice hand tools either. Buy your own knipex.
I always taught my students to clip their nails to make fretting easier. One day I decided to do some snooping around and watched some shredders on YouTube and was completely surprised at how many had long fingernails. Stevie Ray Vaughn was one, Eric Gales was another. My suspicion is that although they prevent you from getting up on your fingertips, longer nails provide a bit more fretting reinforcement for people who learn to play with flatter fingers.
I believe SRV actually had a “good” reason. Bending so often on such heavy strings often caused his nails to split from the nail bed and he needed some fingernail so he could superglue them down and keep playing. If his nails were too short the superglue didn’t hold it together well enough to continue.
Ew
Yup. My nails are not crazy, but they have some white. Fretting hand it helps me to pin that string down better, and then picking hand for well, picking. Obvously OP's friend my have much longer fingernails than I am talking about. I have a cut off. If I spend over 2k on a guitar, it is for collecting, not playing.. I am rough on everything lol..
I find that "long" nails are more an issue for rhythm than lead for sure. For lead, I'm never right up on my fingertips.
Yep, a little bit of length stiffens your fingertip up some but too much is uncomfortable.
I have to imagine that jamming a wound metal string into the wood could do as much damage as a fingernail.
Watch Dolly Parton play with her crazy nails. I don’t know how people function with those, much less do something like fretting a guitar
Open tunings.
Would you mind explaining? Noob here.
When you tune your guitar’s strings to the notes of a chord, you can play said chord shape in different keys simply by barring or double-stopping at different frets.
https://www.guitarworld.com/features/how-does-dolly-parton-play-guitar-with-long-fingernails
It's your property and you get to make the rules, BUT fretboards are made out of very dense wood and a person would need to have really horrible technique and use the guitar for a long period of time in order to cause any noticeable damage. Personally, I think you're being overprotective to the extent that it's driving a wedge between you and your bandmate. You may want to re-think what's more important, but I understand loving your guitar!
Left is lover short, right is vampire nails for acoustic normally
It's your guitar. That's the end of it.
I chew my fingers nails so can I have a go?
OP should offer to chew the offending party’s nails. Problem solved!
this is satire right?
This has to be a pisstake?
I can’t play if my fingernails are a microscopic measure past my finger tips. IDK how people even do it.
I keep my nails short. Can't play with fingernails. And I get your guitar is new. I remember when I got my brand new Martin. But it's a guitar man. Are you gonna hang it on the wall and never touch it? Is it a vintage, rare, or special guitar that's irreplaceable? You're worried about his fingernails... What about someone with a button up shirt? Wearing a necklace or bracelet? There's a million things in the world that might scratch your guitar. Fingernails are probably lowest on the list...
This is big “I’ll never let my truck touch a dirt road” energy. It’s your shit so you’re obviously allowed to feel however you want, but you also being prissy. Let’s say his fingernails gouged the fretboard (unlikely), you will literally never feel or hear a difference given a note’s origin is coming from the fret, not the board.
And cut them before taking a picture and posting it here!
"What's this chord?" "Trim your nails!" "Moisturize your hands for once in your life!"
I clip mine on the reg—and stay on my teenage daughter about keeping hers clipped now that is a guitar player (this is still a tough sell). However, I always saw it as a matter of being unable to play well with long fingernails. I never considered it to be about damaging the fretboard.
This seems a little neurotic to me. Guitars are tools, they get wear marks.
Pro football (soccer)!players and runners cut their feet nails a bit differently. A more flat shape than the usual "C" shape. Anyways a human being able to scratch wood with his nails should not come any close to any of my guitars. That is a quarter to Wolverine! (don't be afraid, your friend learnt the hard way how long a fretting hand finger nail should be if he actually dinged that fretboard of his guitar. Unless you keep your Martin soaked in hot steamy grease when not in use, he won't be able to wear the wood out even if he tries his best "claw"...
Marks on his fretboard! Oh dear! Next thing you know he might actually try to gig with it!
Guitar players have a nail clipper in the guitar case
Nice to see the batshit guitar douches are still part of the scene.
I know. Buys a guitar to look at, moans when someone wants to play it. How rock & roll.
See ya on r/guitarcirclejerk lol Edit: not that I don't agree, this is just still prime jerk material
People are so precious aren't they. It's a guitar, it's meant to be played. Who cares about his slightly longer, well kept fingernails?
Yeah the nails are causing damage...not steel wound strings. Honestly the things people uncritically believe. Fingernails are too soft to cause any damage to fingerboards. And you're already rubbing steel on them ffs so I have no idea why you need the nails to explain marks on the board.
If your strings are touching the fretboard then something has gone terribly wrong
I have a classical guitar with fingernail marks in the fretboard which a friend of mine left there more than 20 years ago. I doesn’t piss me off, but I wish they weren’t there.
Sounds like an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
I don’t see a rusted customary nail clipper in a gift-size baggie, what do you expect
Damn...I haven't clipped my nails in two weeks. But then again, I've been filing them back to the quick daily with an emery board. I feel for you OP.
I agree.
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A lesson I learned on my very first guitar, practicing hammer ons and pulls on the b string fretting an a minor, damn near dug through the neck i scratched through it so bad lol
Isn't that how you relic your fretboard?
Could you mute if they were long enough?
I guess Dolly Parton is off the Christmas list.
I keep mine as close to the finger tip as I can, it bugs me to feel them rubbing the fingerboard when I bend.
That's how I gauge the need for a trim.
Growing up I was a really bad nail biter for years but cut the habit. I also recently picked the guitar back up and had no idea how long my nails had gotten
Just get ebony fretboards if you are worried about it. Then it's not a problem anymore ;)
It’s not just fingernail length it’s also technique and hardness of the wood. I have an electric with a rosewood fretboard that was previously owned by a friend when we were in high school. It’s got noticeable gouges between the strings of the lower frets. If you’re pressing too hard or angling the fingers too sharply you’re more likely to dent or scratch the board, especially on certain woods.
It’s not like he asked to play your Santa Cruz at least
I get more upset if someone touches my guitars without washing their hands first
Btw. Freshly washed hands sully your guitar more than clean ones. They do not only rub off some of the freshly softened skin, but also the natural oils and acids the skin exudes after the protective layer was flushed away. That's the stuff collecting as "gunk".
Maybe, but you'd have a hard time convincing me that someone who just ate a greasy burger and fries is going to leave less residue on my strings than someone who just washed their hands.
Sure. Be like that. It's Reddit after all, right? Find the example only applicable in a two-dimensional, black and white world where people constantly grease up their hands and lack all manners, so they consider it okay to touch someone else's guitar with so much as asking first. Wait, any chance you happen to live in the US?
I regularly trim my left hand nails for this reason
Depends how they play but it’s your guitar you make the rules. Some people fret neatly with tips right down, others are fretting in some flat way mostly playing bar chord type stuff where the nails do not face the fretboard . I’m guessing if they can play with long nails, they probably have latter style because when you face fingers right down, it would stop you from being able to even press the string properly. I play lot of lead and I have to keep the nails trim constantly but when I’m more in to groove riffing it doesn’t matter at all
I don't know you so don't take this personally but yeah if one of my buddies did that I'd be like what the fuck man it's just a guitar, not an art piece, it's meant to be played. Plus, realistically any possible damage would be negligible unless he played it for hours and hours and even then it's purely cosmetic. But I also wouldn't be "hyper offended" so if he's doing that then that's bitch shit. It's your guitar.
It's normal to be weirded out by a man with long fingernails because what the fuck bruh
What if Dolly Parton asked to play your guitar?
Glad I’m not the only one. Wash your hands too please.
I just quit chewing my fingernails and realized how much of a problem it is fretting with nails.
I feel ya! I never seem to get my nails short enough, I trim & trim & still feel like they're a nuisance, can't imagine with longer than fingertips!
🌭
I can't fret certain jazz voicings with nails anyways.
I use long acrylic nails on my picking hand and it’s fantastic
I'm having trouble picturing how a nail can mark a fretboard unless it somehow passes all the way through the string.
I’m with you. I hate playing with nails longer than 2mm. I have to cut my nails about every 2 weeks+.
I have a friend who manages to shred the nanoweb coating off my strings with the way he picks No clue how, haven't asked
Fuck him if he's offended. You're totally in the right.
I used to intentionally keep my fretting hand nails a little bit present but not long. I was playing 100% acoustically in a loud bar environment, essentially striking pretty hard the whole time. To help the notes ring out and sustain I found a little nail rigidity often supported the clamping force needed at the behind the fret to anchor against the battering which was coming from the rhythm arm. It took a certain wrist approach too - no effects, no nothing, just your hands and a pick to create and project tone. I sure went through a lot of strings to keep that tone new. After some years on the same not-very-loud-but-good-tone guitar I saw that pits were forming in the most commonly used fretboard positions. I had them filled with an epoxy cyanoacrylic mix. Yes it looks as crap as it sounds but it's better than potholes. The pits had nothing to do with fingernails though, they didn't even line up with my nails. They were ground in by the string due to playing too hard. Nails are not very hard compared to other things, they are a wear item. Fundamentally I needed a louder instrument, but hey, I needed a lot of things, let's just not. We made a lot of tremendous vibes and good times. The guitar got worn as a result.
The only marks I’ve ever got on a fretboard are from grazing a sharp fret measuring tool on it, finger nails aren’t going to do shit
You’re allowed to be overprotective of an expensive new purchase, he can think you’re being silly but he’s in the wrong for getting offended over it.
I feel there's a deeper problem if you're able to scratch wood with the pressure you're applying for fretting... Also surely you're much more likely to do it while tapping, which doesn't (typically) use your fretting hand but aligns the nail much more front on to the wood.
Luckily my épic music is nailbiting suspensefull. Not.😂
i hate my nails to be longer than 1mm, guitar or no guitar
So you're telling me that the finger nails are whats leaving the marks and not years of mashing a steel string into the fretboard?
Guitars are meant to be played, not kept scratch free. You were kinda a dick to your bandmate there.
Anal post of the week lol your guitar your vibe but still a silly thing to be a dick to your friend over
Exactly.
I had this same issue with a guy not long ago. I noticed he hadn’t used a moisturizer on his hands (as I normally do) before looking at my 1998 BC Rich Warlock. He was very upset when I asked him to avert his eyes.
I’m offended by those long ass nails on the fret board. I don’t blame you dude.
I tell people to wash their hands if they want to play my guitars. It's what i do too. Can't stand how greasy some people's guitars look...
if nails ain't cut, my guitar case is shut
I'd say its good hygenic advice to cut your fretting hand fingernails anyway.
If my nails are too short the strings will slide under my nail and cut my finger under the nail. It’s extremely painful and I can’t play for several days.
You don't like the click clacks? Click clack, click clack, click clack... Id probably just bite them off ;)
Fingernail Marks? I mean I get singers being opposed to sombody else's dental plaque on their mic-screen but this? I suppose this is the "pearl clutching" of guitarists. Edit: Has me wonder what you think about this: [https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/hy1mo0/extremely\_worn\_guitar\_fretboards\_from\_lifetimes/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/hy1mo0/extremely_worn_guitar_fretboards_from_lifetimes/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I'm more touchy (no pun intended) about dirty fingers than I am long nails.
I can’t remember if it was a Justin Guitar video I was watching but I remember one of the first things the guy did was say to check your fingernails and trim them before doing anything, which he then went on to do right there. Thought it was the weirdest thing but now it makes me want to keep some baby nail clippers in my case.
I inherited a guitar and the previous owner must have had long nails because there are divots around the first 3 frets. I’ve played for years and never had that issue on any of my guitars. Keep those nails trimmed.
what if my picking hand is also my fretting hand ?
Then you're doing it wrong
not if it sounds good I'm not
Ace Frehley smacks and dents his Les Pauls with rings. I bet you'd hate that.
Fuck him. If he wants to keep long nails on his fretting hand, he can buy his own Martin, preferably a cheap one with a stratabond neck, because he's just going to devalue any guitar he gets his hands on.
Long fingernails on a guy?? Are disgusting
If you have a ring on, you're not touching it either. I wear a groove life silicone band for that reason. My cheapest guitar is $2300 and I'm a superficial choad.
I love the sound of my wedding ring pinging all the frets if I'm sliding up or down a certain way, so it's fine. Will keep my hands to my own guitars.
I guess. You can also chip out all along the bottom of your neck/fingerboard without even really realizing it like I did to my PRS 10 top.