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Nail Care products for guitar players

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Finger nails are very important to guitarists that use them all or most of the time. I fall into the later section. I tend to use both my pick and finger nails to play. So tend to pay particular attention to what nail care products I use on my nails. I’ve tried some nail care products in the past but I haven’t found the best one for my application.

Here are the top products I’ve used so far.

  1. Acrylic finger nails
  2. Crazy Glue
  3. Ecrinal Durcisseur Vitamine

The Acrylic finger nails are the best I’ve used to date. They are VERY strong and reliable.

 

The reason I can’t use them is because these things collect bacteria like crazy … or so I’m told! I’ve been informed at work that due to the fact that acrylic nails carry germs easily, anyone at any hospital are forbidden to use them. Damn it!

Talking to a few of the nurses at work about this problem, some say that I can try putting on the hardener they put directly on the acrylic nail to thicken them up and make them just about impossible to brake! i tried it and I found that they would not stick to the nail. I even scuffed them up with emery paper to see if that would help me overcome my predicament but to no avail.

Bruce Cockburn my favorite guitarist of all time uses crazy glue. He once recommended not to apply it while drunk … good point Bruce, mental note! I tried it and at first it worked ok but it later started to look quite bad and it kept flaking off. Next!

Ecrinal Durcisseur Vitamine is what I’ve been using here and there. I found the product easy to apply over and over with fairly descent results. The only thing is that they do not provide the same strength and durability as Acrylic nails do. The best thing about it, is that the product helps out against microbial attacks.

While doing some research on what other guitarist use I came across an interesting article from this one site. It sounded good so I went looking for it. While going over the article it didn’t properly name the products so I wrote them and they replied they don’t know who about the items because the author is not working for them anymore.

I finally tracked him down and this is his reply.

Scratch all that- that was 10 years ago!
Now I use OPI Nail Envy (matte finish) for live playing: 2-3 coats is enough. Then I remove it when I’m home. For that I use Suncoat natural nail polish remover, available at health food stores. For moisturizing my nails daily, I use a bunch of products: L’Occitane Nail & Cuticle Cream; Burt’s Bees Lemon Nail & Cuticle Cream; Onymyrrhe.

So off I go to get me some of his recommended items. Hopefully they work out for me. Below are some links to the new lines of nail care for a guitarist.

Has anyone tried these products for guitar playing? If so how they react? If not, then what do you use to keep your nails in proper working order?

Keep on Jammin’





The Retractable Guitar

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The newest gimmick for a full size guitar out there is called the Voyage-Air. It’s for guitarist out there that needs the extra room/space when they are traveling. The Voyage-Air appears perfectly designed to fit in the overhead compartment on an airplane.

It folds in half where the neck meets the body of the guitar. I guess you might call it the fold-and-stow guitar of the future! No I am NOT referring to the Retractable Guitar from Guitar Hero, just to make things clear! They report that the intonation basically remains the same on the Voyage-Air guitar and all you need to do is re-tune it just a little bit when you place it back into position.

I’ve just heard about this guitar while reading my favorite guitar magazine Acoustic Guitar and their review of it and it looks ok if that is what your looking for in a guitar. There are two things that bother me so far about this thing.

First is, how many sets of strings are you going to be going through when you bend the guitar back into it’s shipping position over and over again?

When I re-string my guitar, I always take the new strings out of the package and neatly place the old one into it for future use. This is just in case I can’t get to a music store to replace it. I also keep an a extra full set of backup strings as well, because Murphy’s Law is always around the corner when you least expect him!

If any of the old strings that I take off my guitar have a bend in them anywhere, I immediately throw that one out! It is rendered useless, trust my on this one.

Now considering I’ve never played or seen a Voyage-Air guitar, I can’t say with any certainty that my next concern is warranted. What will it sound like?

I don’t trust things that are gimmicky. If I want something, I buy something for one reason and one reason only! If a manufacturer isn’t focusing on what it’s really good at and then it attempts to please too many people with other less and whistles then something has to give!

Now here is my second concern, the sound quality. This particular part of any guitar that is paramount to me … the action is a close second. How will the front react to the subtle vibrations after all the tension on it, from bending the neck back and forth, be in a few years?

I realize that the Voyage-Air is relatively new on the market and we will have to wait and see it’s true potential only after a few years in the field, to judge it’s outcome correctly.

I’d love to find anyone out there that has picked up one of these guitars. Are you going through more strings then usual? Has the sound quality gone down the more you retracted it? Please let us know!

Keep on Jammin’

What does a Truss Rod on your guitar do?

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Adjusting the Truss Rod in your guitar to doctor up your action on the fretboard is something that I don’t think I’ll try on my beloved Larrivee L-03. This is something that should be left to the professionals, unless your doing this on your old beater guitar before attempting this on your good axe!

The Truss Rod in a guitar is embedded in the middle of a guitar’s fretboard, closer to the bottom of it, moving from the head of the guitar to it’s body. It consists of 1 or 2 metal bars that are designed to adjust/move the neck of the guitar up or down making it easier to play, get a unique/certain sound that you desire or to help out that buzzing sound that one gets when playing a note somewhere on the fretboard.

Trussrod At one end of the Truss Rod there is a nut that allows you to adjust it. It can be accessed by either the head of the guitar (normally there is a plastic cover over the opening) or located where the fretboard meets the body of the guitar. The other end is where the rod is anchored or fixed into position. This will give the adjusting end the tension that you will need to move the Truss Rod.

The 2 types of truss rods are single and double action.

The single truss rod allows you to move the guitar neck in one direction (or as some technicians call one way) only. This makes the neck go in an up-bow or upwards direction. If you place your guitar on a flat surface and look at it sideways, the head of it will be higher then the body of the guitar. The double lets you go both directions.

So this is a basic introduction to what the Truss Rod does in your guitar. If there is some interest on this topic here on this blog, then I will do some more detailed updates in the future!

Keep on Jammin’

Here is a great book for the intermediate guitarist that wants to know a little more about how his/her instrument works. This might make a neat Christmas present for the guitar player in your life!

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