They Finally Nailed Me This Time!

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 05:54 AM

re: "Other than that the only person I know for sure that is artificially enhanced is Dolly Parton."

You're talking about her fingernails, right?
I sorta don't think she wears them primarily to play the guitar, since any time I've seen her play she uses an open tuning and just barres it.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Gurney
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 05:27 AM

Years ago I saw a guy finding out that his artificial nails were flammable. I'd never seen anyone trying to stuff his whole hand in his pal's pint pot. I think they were cheap ones, but I didn't like to ask. If you smoke, it might be worth experimenting.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 09:19 PM

They eventually "grew" off. Ya know, I was pretty pleased with them generally. A problem developed with my ring finger fake nail, 'cuz I jammed the finger in a door when I was about thirteen and the nail grew back kind of strangely. The artificial one follows it's odd contours and I really had to trim it constantly.

But.....

The nails allowed me to play rhythm in several different styles, but made single string hot runs (thumb and index) more difficult.

I've gone back to my dunlops.

But I tried.

Thanks for askin' Joe.

Rick

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 05:42 PM

I'll let Rick explain how he broke all his teeth chewing them off.

Still got mine, although I've cut them down to a civilized length. The DO click when I flat pick now that I'm doing it right(er).

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 03:30 PM

Rick, I think it's time for a progress report. Now that you've had these extended fingernails for a few months, how do you like them? More importantly, how does your wife like them?
-Joe-

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 03:27 PM

Say, Rick, I bet you could get some depleted uranium picks from the U.S. Army, really tough little puppies able to hold up for hundreds of thousands of years under hard use.

If you have to remove your glued-on ones, you could always use a power planer.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, who gently picks banjo

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: JedMarum
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 09:35 AM

I think those clicks are an desireable advantage not an unfortunate consequence of using acrylic nails! And Rick, if yer still listening to that album - you won't hear that click any clearer then at the start of LOST LITTLE CHILDREN - when I first heard it, I thought, "hey, I don;t remember a percussion track!"

Are still using 'em Rick, Mick? I still swear by 'em. I have gone as long as 5 weeks between 'repairs' - but I usually go every 2/3 weeks.

The only disadvantage I've seen is that when they begin to grow out, yuo can get a ridge at the point where the acrylic meets the nail, way down low on the nail - and since I often use the surface of the nail to brush, I can catch the string at that ridge. If this happens I can simply file down the ridge. It doesn't happen much.

It's funny, since I've been doing the acrylics on 3 nails (I considered NOT doing my thumb and only doing two because I almost never broke my thumb nail) I have started using my little finger quite a bit for accent on the high string. So now I use four nails to pick - but don't bother with acrylic on the fourth, since I can easily adjust if it breaks.

Anyway - today it's time to go get 'em filled so I wondered what ever happened to this thread.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 04:11 PM

Been spendin' today alternately

Practicing

Checking in on Mudcat

Practicing

Looking up Brit program "fakin' it" on Net

Checking in on Mudcat

Practicing (banjo this time)

Listening to new Jed Maroom album while checking in on Mudcat

I'm so fucking dull!

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 03:56 PM

KingBrill, if the varnish makes your fingers hot, fake nails probably will be even hotter. We don't want you to have claws AND be angry!

Rick & Mick, I suppose I have the benefit of having gotten down with the flat pick after I had the nails. I haven't clicked yet and I just tried to see just how the clicking happens. I remember some teacher I had told me to curl up my fingers when I was fingerpicking and not let 'em flap around in the breeze. I did that when I started playing with the flat pick - you can always uncurl one when you want to nail (sorry) a string with it.

Rick, you probably feel a bit like me trying to learn how to play with fingerpicks, except you already know how to play. The part of your picker that hits the strings is in a slightly different place and is at a different angle. The strings don't slide off as easily as they do with the picks. Hope it works out.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 03:35 PM

I noticed those clicks, and I wondered if they were worrying Rick. I don't think I have a problem with that, but I don't flatpick normally speaking.

- LH

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Big Mick
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 03:32 PM

Yep, Rick, that clicking is a drawback. I have been trying to modify how I hold my hand. I have been trying to fold my second and third fingers in more of a fist than before. Between changing chord shapes and trying to adjust to avoid the clicking, I am really screwing up what was not a great style to begin with.............hahahahaha. But I figure that once this all takes, it will be a leap. Let me know if you come up with a solution on the clicks.

Mick

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 02:39 PM

They don't make my fingers hot, but then not much does...

- LH

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: GUEST,KingBrilliant
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 01:57 PM

Just curious - don't they make your fingers hot? I can't even wear nail varnish, because it makes my fingers feel hot and claustrophobic and that puts me in a really vicious mood, and then I start being more than usually nasty all round.
Sounds a dangerous practice to me.... urgh.

Kris

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 12:22 PM

OY VAY! (or should that be 'oi vey', or 'oigh veigh')

Not as good as I would have liked. It was a house concert with no sound system, and I quickly realised that NORMALLY in that situation I'd be playing a little harder. This was difficult. I'd practiced with the artificial nails to the point where I wasn't REALLY screwing up....but with an audience, it's a bit different.

I played "Catspaw's Rag" on the banjo and made a number of small mistakes during the "rolls". Some hard pickin' on the 12 string felt really mushy. Six string was OK, but here's something I hadn't bargained for:

While using a flatpick, my middle and ring fingers (with artificial attachments) CLICKED on the face of the guitar.

Bottom line is that simple rhythm with simple bass runs worked fine, even medium speed 'thumb index' single string runs were ok, but the moment I tried to really "DRIVE IT", big problems started.

Not sure what I'll do. I don't play again til my concert in Branford Ct. next week, so I'll practice....BUT...I MAY put the metal picks in my pocket just in case.

P.S. Little Hawk dropped by, and played some fine harp and guitar. Plus a local fiddler got up and jammed on some blues and ragtime.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 09:29 AM

So how'd the gig go, Pickles? Did you put a gash in that acre of pick guard or slice off your thumb with one of the fingernails, or did you have fun and sound good playing naked? Inquiring minds, and all that...

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 11:53 AM

They actually rough up your nail, much like you would sand varnish before putting a second coat on. Mick, they might have used a power sander on you but they just used an emery board on me.

In my experience, Superglue is more brittle than acrylic. It seems to last for a while then come loose and shatter or crack. These acrylics seem to last forever if you get them filled.

If you don't get them filled, it might be best to just have them removed. They loosen at the base. Eventually they'll come off and probably take layers of your nail as well as the tip.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 11:49 AM

Mick, as always, I do so hate to be semantically pedantic, but they don't "smooth" your existing nail by grinding, what they are doing is roughening the natural nail to provide a physical "key" to promote better adhesion of the acrylic.

Murray

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Big Mick
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 11:36 AM

Craig, my experience is that you need to get them filled about every 2 to 3 weeks. Here in Michigan that costs me $9.00US plus tip. As I said before,they take getting used to, and you need to shape them to your liking, just as you would any finger pick. For me, I file them down to just slightly longer than my finger. If I leave them too long, they get in the way.

As to having to replace them, my experience has been the same as Jed's. You don't need to. The old line about the nail breathing also isn't so. The nail doesn't need to breath. If one is silly enough to pull them off, then the nail underneath will be weaker because you have pulled a layer off. Also, they smooth your existing nail before installing them by grinding it. If you don't like them, you will have a thinner nail until the real one grows out in a month or two.

Mick

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: CraigS
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 11:26 AM

As someone who shudders at the thought of a haircut, I've always shied away from artificial nails, but of late I've had a lot of broken nails and have been considering this seriously. I can't use fingerpicks properly, particularly metal ones, as I tend to do things like upstrokes with my thumb and frailing with the edge of my fingers. The picks spend a lot of time on the floor when they should be on my fingers. What I really want to know about is how long they last without attention, how long can you let them "grow" without replacing them, and so forth. I can see that as a fast fix they would work, but is this better than the old dirty tricks like superglueing a broken nail back together, or using superglue as nail varnish?

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 11:25 AM

It's mudpacks and spas next, Sinsull (or is that mudcats and spaws). yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 09:47 AM

Message to Steve P. My plastic surgeon recomended the full face transplant. I said I wanted to be better looking, he said did I want the Pete Postlethwaite or the Quasimodo. As you noticed, rejection set in!
RtS
("a face made for radio, a voice made for mime")

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: SINSULL
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 09:20 AM

SIGH! I have this awful vision of a line of hairdryers occupied by bearded men having their feet pedicured, their nails "done", their eyebrows and big toes waxed...and not a flannel shirt in the bunch. Tell me it isn't so!

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 11:13 PM

Holy cow Burke....No they DON'T!

I got the third one put on, and I've fiddled around with it a bit (Dremiling and such) and it looks like I'll try to play the concert sans metal picks (for the first time in .....oh.. lets say....ever!). They're still damned uncomfortable but I'm starting to be able to do my thumb-index single string runs (the Gary Davis technique) but not real fast yet.

As far as drop thumb on the banjo? This may not work (although perhaps , like the guitar I'm gonna have to spend some time at it. A lot of the subtlety is lost. If ya just wanna frail with no dynamics, the artificial nails work fine.....but if ya want it to SOUND like Tom Ashley, Buell Kazee, or Uncle Dave....it make take a lotta time. I'll try, anyway.

Rick

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Burke
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 06:30 PM

Do these nails work well for clawhammer banjo as well?

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Bert
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 01:46 PM

Of course TRUE folkies cut their picks from a plastic bottle. Cut a strip about half an inch wide and four inches long (Do those dimensions sound familiar Spaw?) and sharpen the point to suit.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Dave Swan
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 01:04 PM

Well, Mick I've had an earring since '76, and Patterson has tried the nails, though the nosebleed damn near killed him....

E.S.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 12:26 PM

It's a bloody good thing you don't know I'm wearing Heather's socks right now!

Geri. Thanks for mentioning the Kysers but they DON'T feel like Nationals.

Off to the nail lady.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Big Mick
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 12:08 PM

I have never seen a Weimareiner wearing an earring, Spaw. A few sheepdogs, but never a weimie. Come to think of it, I have seen a few sheep wearing ..............never mind..........bad, Mick, very bad...........

Now.....Fielding has an earring and nails, I have the same........when is the other half of Patterson, Swan, Fielding and Lane, Layabouts at Large and for hire going to get with the friggin' program??????

Mick

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Art Thieme
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 12:07 PM

Rick, WHEN DID NATIONAL PICKS LEAVE THE SCENE ?????????????

I was sure that, like LPs, low rents fried chicken, cholesterol and cheap cars, they would always be around. I never quit using them. But I guess I just had more of those here on hand than I realized. I always figured I had enough National picks to last me until the end. Strange, it seems I was sadly correct...

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: catspaw49
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 12:04 PM

As I have never been able to get used to the feel of fingerpicks of any sort, I can kinda' understand from a backwards direction what you're feeling. BTW, Dremels work very well on nails for shaping, and buffing.....they are used by most owner/handlers of larger breed show dogs. I can hook you up with a Weimaraner breeder Rick, not far from Toronto. As a matter of fact, her dogs have even done movies (the Weim in "Best In Show"-'Take Me Dancing'-- and she owns the Canadian Grand National Champion-'Riverdance').....If you arrive in a crate, she'll probably not notice you're not a dog.

Spaw

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Peter T.
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 12:01 PM

Rick has also taken to wearing an earring. Perhaps this is all a blind -- nails for guitar indeed -- I think he just wants long nails. I think we may be seeing the emergence of Rick's feminine side in a big way. You read it here first.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Jeri
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 11:49 AM

Well, the woman who does my nails is an artist, speaks English well and plays guitar, even if it is heavy metal on an acoustic. She said the nails probably wouldn't hold up. If I tried playing Led Zep or thrash folk, they might not, but I can't see myself fingerpicking that stuff anyway.

Underfile, yeah, but I don't have the right tool. What I need is one of those little half-circle rasps. I'm still not ready to try the Dremel. Fine sandpaper works. I think Jed once mentioned concrete. I haven't really needed to do this since I've had 'em put on by a pro. These are perfect - smooth, rounded at the tip and just thin enough. My own work was a bit...chunkier. Frankennails.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Big Mick
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 11:31 AM

Rick, don't be afraid to grab a nail file and "adjust them to your liking. When I first had mine put on, they were too long and I was afraid to mess with them. And they were clumsy. Finally I grabbed file and took them down to the appropriate length and shape and they have been great! The nail ladies often leave them squared off which doesn't work worth a damn. Shape 'em to where you like them and you will never go back to finger picks. Oh.........and make sure you use a good quality nail file. Shape it with the coarse side and then use the fine side to even them out. I also underfile them a bit so the tips are thinned out. Not too much though, as they will break.

Mick

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Naemanson
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 10:53 AM

The last time I saw Gordon Bok he had three nails on his right hand that looked awful pale. Maybe he shares an artificial enhancement with Dolly Parton and others...

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Jeri
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 10:43 AM

Kyser says they have a pick like the old Nationals.
Click for the pick, Rick.

The strangeness in the new nails does wear off, but I guess how soon depends on each person, and you're scrutinizing them right now. Nothing gets less noticible while you're scrutinizing it.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 10:29 AM

Wow.....far more information about artificial fingernails than a simple nerd like me can absorb.

Sally Hansen? Matrix? Jesus on the Mudcat? Little Hawk? Asian 'Pay-now ladies'? K-Y Gel? I simply don't understand what these things are all about.

OK, let's see now. So far I'm toughing it out but they DO still seem very awkward. I'm obsessive about my metal picks and spend a LOT of time cutting grinding and polishing them. Actually that's the reason that I recently realised that they're using different metals in them. Both Dunlop and pro-pick seem flimsy to me. Partly this is because I play very hard, but I'm sure it also has something to with reaching the age where you complain about EVERYTHING!

Anyhooo, I may go over to the (Mexican) lady in an hour and ask her to put the third one on.(ring finger). If I'm not comfortable by tomorrow night I'll use a flatpick.

Thanks for all the feedback.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: JedMarum
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 09:15 AM

I really don't believe the nail beneath should get damaged. I have been doing three nails on my right for a couple of years now - and last month I had broken one, so the nail-lady removed the fake one to replace it. The nail beneath was a hard and strong as ever, though just a bit scratched up. I have heard people say that the nails beneath fakes get soft, but I have seen in my own personal experience that it is not so. So I don't know if the "conventional wisdom" is wrong - or if I'm just lucky.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Jeri
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 08:29 AM

Here's the other recent thread we had on acrylic nails:
Help: Playing With Acrylic Finger Nails

I believe Murray is/was right about damage. They rough up your nail to put the acrylics on which makes it a bit thinner. If the hard inflexible acrylic accidently pulls off, it can take some of the nail with it. I think this is more likely to happen if you don't get them filled. Mine sure are staying on great, with no problems.

I can't understand how it's possible for them to damage the nail bed. Fingernails themselves don't seem porous - they're certainly waterproof. Also, the nail actually grows from a matrix deep inside the finger. It's covered by tissue and grows out and over the part it's stuck to (the 'underneath' that's visible) but does not grow from there.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 04:12 AM

They didn't work for you, did they Roger!

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 04:09 AM

LOL, RtS!

Jande, my daughter and I did the Sally Hansen ones for awhile. If you have a Sally's Beauty Supply store near you, they carry all of the "fixin's." Those I found easy to do and I built up just the tips, as it sounds you did and I didn't worry about my nailbed.

I am so usde to keeping my left hand nails short, like Sorcha, that it took awhile for me to get used to them. Then I played piano or got out the fiddle and had to get rid of them anyway.

Rick, seriously, I'd love to hear how the sound changes with your using them.

kat

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 03:50 AM

Hmmm, gonna get the Canadian flag painted on them? So when are you going for the botox and the tush tuck?

***LOL***

RtS

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 02:14 AM

There are acrylic nails and gel nails... the acrylics can be soaked off with acetone... the gels have to be filed off. I had them for about a year...and yes they do destroy your nail bed but BOY... were they fun. After I removed them... it took a long time for my nails to grow back properly... but they are fine now and very strong! As to the comfort level... yes, it does get better... you probably won't even know they are there by tomorrow!

LL

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: JedMarum
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 12:15 AM

Yeah, Rick. Great stuff, eh??

You can brush and pick - you can even "flat pick" without a flat pick.

I have never had my nails get thin, beneath the acrylics. I don;t know if I'm just lucky, or the ladies where I go know how to do it - but when they take one of the acrylics off (every now and then, if I break one or something) the nail beneath is pretty damn strong. My natural nails alway were/are.

It's soooo easy - you're just ALWAY ready to play. For a guitar picker, acrylic nails are the best thing since the Pill.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Sorcha
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 11:38 PM

I don't do them, but I am still told that long term acrylics will damage the nail bed. I'm glad, again, that I am a fiddler and don't need them. We hate nails.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 10:50 PM

OUCH!!! Only a complete numbskull would do THAT! Oh..I mean.... Sorry, it just slipped out.

Well, I haven't been doing the Sally Hansen bit lately, cos I have been playing guitar a lot less, but I've still got the stuff around in case I need it.

I'm glad it has worked well for you, Jande.

- LH

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: catspaw49
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 08:54 PM

Around here the funniest and also most aggravating thing is that all of the salons that do this are almost exclusively operated by Asians. That's okay, don't get me wrong, but I wonder why so many are in this partcular business. Additionally though, NONE of them will take any form of payment other than cash and because your hand movements are a bit limited for the first bit after they do your nails, all of them have the standard phrase they use about halfway through before they start on the wet stuff.........."You pay now!"

And Sins....Karen had her's changed at one point and they didn't let them soak long enough and actually just ripped them off! We never went back to that one again....VERY painful I'm told!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Jande
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 08:51 PM

Little Hawk passed on his faux nails technique to me and I find it works very well indeed!

The trick, though is to make sure you only build up the last third or so of the nail so that you don't cover so much of the breathy part of your own nails. That way the actual nail stays strong aand healthy.

I can do mine in about 10 minutes now, and I do them all on the right hand. It has always been my style to play with my fingers rather than use a pick, but the nail wore down so quickly that I couldn't play for long.   

Now, using LH's trick I can play for hours. It makes my fingernails look as though they are a bit deformed (I don't colour them), but I haven't heard anyone comment on that yet. :`)

Oh, the stuff is made by the Sally Hansen co. --brush on gel, clear acrylic powder, and spray "activator" (hardener). I seem to have trouble finding it in the states, though.

But no way I would pay $5 a nail! Well... maybe when I'm rich I'll have 'em done for me. :) I wonder what they would charge for five one-third nail-jobs? Heh!

Good on ya, Rick! And the best of luck to you with them!

~ Jande

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Jeri
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 08:49 PM

You can file them down if they drive you nuts(er) - make them short and take some of the bulk off. Rick, mine felt weird at first but after a while you forget they're there. They aren't very good at picking things up (or even picking things besides strings) because they aren't as thin as other nails.

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 08:40 PM

Boy...here I thought Jesus had returned and launched a thread on Mudcat. No such luck, just that crazy picker, Fielding, with another weird anecdote!

See you on Saturday night, Rick. :-)

- LH

Subject: RE: They Finally Nailed Me This Time!
From: SINSULL
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 08:29 PM

File them off? Uh Rick...they don't file off. You have to soak your fingers in acetone until they shrivel then rasp them off. It can take up to two hours and when you are done, your fingers are peely and sore and your own nails like paper. You really were a virgin.