As I went through the whole "poor me. I can't play guitar) thing,thoughts of Django Reinhart kept coming to mind. His hand injury was a lot more serious than mine and he became a master.

I have been having problems with my hands for a number of years due to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. so much so that I pretty much stopped any flatpick leads and just stuck with back-up rythymn. My left hand figers would stiffen up and then go numb.

Most of my playing is simple finger picking with bare fingers. I use a thumb pick for both finger picking and strumming but no other finger picks. What's funny is that I've found my hand position with this guitar is pretty cose to what would be considered the "proper" position,totally unlike the way I play my steel string guitars. I haven't used the thumbpick on the nylon strings yet,but will try it.

The amplifier I plug it into is a Roland Jazz Chorus 50 which I have used for all my acoustic guitars and a couple of electrics. The Ibanez sounds great with the chorus on and a touch of reverb.

Back to the string question.Will the tension rating of the strings,IE. hard, be related to left hand playability? C-flat, you said the hard strings allow you to dig in deeper.While I know this means you can attack the strings a little harder with the right hand,do you find it means increased pressure with the left? Right now the strings seem fine, but again I am just learning this instrument.I guess I am looking ahead to when I am going to have to replce strings.

BTW this guitar really sings in open tunings. It almost rivals my six and twelve.

Thanks for your answers.It is going to be a new friend.

rr