I have had acrylic nails applied to right hand 3 fingers and thumb for almost 20 years. Note *acrylic* ... prior to having acrylics applied, I tried every conceivable nail reinforcement, including gel nails, silk wraps, glued on strips of ping pong ball and god knows what else ... I went through the lot. Acrylics are IME immeasurably superior to anything else available.

For anybody who is unfamiliar with the process, these are not "glued-on" nails. The nail tech applies a thin acrylic paste, which hardens into a rock-hard layer. There is no need for ultra violet light curing ... the paste hardens on its own.

After 20 years, I can state that I feel no discomfort or embarrassment whatsoever about walking into a nail salon to get me nails done. It helps, I suppose, if, like me, there is no possibility whatsoever that anybody will mistake you for a closet tranny.

One thing to note is that the durability of the nails is directly related to the quality the acrylic powder and the skill of the nail tech. I have had at least a dozen different nail techs over the course of the years, and some of them were useless. I am exceedingly fortunate to have found a nail tech in Edinburgh who is by far the best I have ever come across ... she has her material specially imported, she doesn't use the normal UK suppliers.

If you want to achieve max volume with your fingerpicking, I heartily encourage you to give acrylics a try ... but be sure to use a tech who knows what she is doing.