Rick,

A table saw lacerated all the fingers on my left hand almost precisely at the primary joint of each finger and half way through my thumb at the same point. The middle finger was only held on by tissue. The good luck in this was no tedons where damaged. The finger was reattached and I have very limited use of those fingers. They lack considerable strength.

In my case I was pretty much ready to turn the guitar over and become a backwards Bill Staines. My current and probably continuall condition is this. I have considerable scar tissue in the joints of the fingers of my left hand. This limit flextion and extension to about 50 % in all directions. More maddening is the nerve damage that makes it very hard to feel the strings.

I find it most helpfull to play capoed way up the neck. Above the fifth fret. This shortens the distance of travel for chords. I fing chords covering two frets much easier than those covering three. Three fret chords aren't bad when they cover the width of the board, "C" shapes. But if they are limited to the first half of the board, "Bmin" they become very dificult.

I found 'D' tuning to be just about as bad as regular tuning but DADGAD is an area I haven't ventured yet.

Best advice. Warm up suffciently before you play. Stretch fingers, heat the hands, Do dishes. Maybe a hot wax dip. Very often I play with 4 advil in me just to cover the finger pain.... With no feeling in the tips its hard to know how hard I am pressing the strings.

I have heard of prosthetic users on guytar but with the lack of feeling I wonder at the success. I find bridged "A" shapes and "D" shapes played up for "F" "G" and "A" to be a benefit.

A month back I tried to start a thread deeling with partial chords to help with my playing but it didn't get much interest. You might try that thread to see whats there.

I will follow this with great interest.

Don