Hi all,
I tried the acrylic nail approach but I found too that my own nail got weaker and weaker underneath that fake one.

I went to using Ken Perlman's method: scotch tape. He just puts a bit of tape over the nail and tucks it under at the end of the fingernail and he's good to go. Surprisingly, it works very well.

It's all subjective, and it depends on what kind of sound you want. I have an old vega with a tubaphone tone ring and I want to sell it because it is way too bright for me. (But it really is a bluegrass banjo; it has a pieplate resonator which I took off to play open back.)

Since I like that old timey "soft" sound, I like the tape. It works and it's cheap.
Margo