After more or less abandoning my Les Paul and the rock/metal type stuff I used to listen to and play nearly 10 years ago, I've found that CD Players and turntables haven't really helped maintain the hard skin on my fingers. Recently picked up a OLP MM32 and an unhealthy obsession with slappin' and poppin, and am getting a bit frustrated with the blisters that keep forming.

I'm only messing around at home, not gigging or anything, so resting up for a while as they heal isn't a huge problem... but I'd like to try and develop the tougher skin as soon as possible, obviously.

The first one I instinctively chewed through (man that blister juice really doesn't taste good at all :spit: ) and it's healed up OK.

Then I got a matching pair on my 1st and 3rd fingers, and tried out a little experiment - popped and drained one, and left the other untouched.

The one that I left alone healed much faster than the one I popped. The other one's still not quite ready for playing on comfortably again, so I'm not sure how they'll compare in terms of resisting future blisters, but it made me wonder... on here so many people seem to recommend lancing and draining blisters, and/or filling or coating with superglue....

Is there any reason that this is so often recommended to be the best approach? Is it just that it's the quickest way to get your fingers back into an "OK to play" state for most folks, or does a popped blister definitely heal harder than a non-popped one. :confused:

Anyone else tried both ways to compare how they heal?

Well, I've personally found that "popping" (or biting them off) them sets you back quite a few steps, because it removes a layer of skin, and you get to the more tender skin underneath. Whereas whenever I left them alone, they quickly turned into hardened skin.

Leave em.

If it's an E-mergency type situation, superglue may be the way to go, but they heal quicker if you just leave them alone.

pop 'em with a sterilized needle, but don't remove any skin. Just poke it a couple of times until the liquid comes out and then squeeze out any remaining liquid.

I did this a couple of days ago and I was playing the next night with no problem.

leave it alone your body with absorb the liquid and you will be left with a stronger callous capable snagging the tastiest meat products off the BBQ.

pop 'em with a sterilized needle, but don't remove any skin. Just poke it a couple of times until the liquid comes out and then squeeze out any remaining liquid.

I did this a couple of days ago and I was playing the next night with no problem.


This is disgusting....but very true. I've not developed any blisters playing bass because I play almost every day now. But I go days sometimes without playing drums and will develope blisters usually on middle portion of my middle fingers and this is always the easiest solution. To add to that if you need an immediate fix you can cover it in superglue after the fact...again disgusting and probably not sanitary but it works.

pop 'em with a sterilized needle, but don't remove any skin. Just poke it a couple of times until the liquid comes out and then squeeze out any remaining liquid.

I did this a couple of days ago and I was playing the next night with no problem.

I do this. The sterilized is the most important part of the advice though lol.

The other way, leaving them, just seems to prolong it for me. I eventually burst them on accident, or get impatient and pop it anyway. I'd rather get it out of the way and move on.

I also find superglue does nothing at all..

If they're there and painful, you'll feel it whether it's got some glue on top or not. Best thing when playing live is to get into the music and in the 'zone' cos you won't feel any pain then till you stop playing!

Pop it and drain as soon as it fills up with clear liquid. DO NOT remove the layer of skin unless it's flapping around. The secret is to pop close to your fingernail, so the whole you created doesn't snag on the string.

If you leave the liquid in there it's softening the underneath layer, and impeding your next callous. Simple anatomy.

After it's drained and cleaned, apply several layers of newskin. You'll be able to play the gig the same night, no problems.

the old double bass dudes would rub metholated spirits on the tips of their fingers to keep them really dry and hard ..

its pretty hard core also but keeps the skin on the end of your fingers really dead .. I tried this for a while and my calouses actually got too hard and I coudln't feel what I needed too .. so don't over do it if you try it

If you just practice consistently, you won't get them anymore. But then where's the fun of spraying your drummer with the pus from your blister?

True story. Bassists 1, Drummers 0.

I'd have to say.. stay away from slappin' and poppin'.. it really dosen't sound that good anyway. I've clearly found that really seasoned guys that have been playing for years and making money in live music, rarely resort to slappin'. (specifically: electric bass )

If you can very gently poke a tiny hole in one edge of the blister, drain it and cover with a bandaid, you will indeed get a new callus started there.. definitely don't remove the skin... just cover it well.

leave it alone your body with absorb the liquid and you will be left with a stronger callous capable snagging the tastiest meat products off the BBQ.+1

Weird. I guess I'm lucky. I actually have pretty soft skin/hands but have never gotten a blister playing bass. This thread really helped me understand how to handle my next blister though :)

I'd have to say.. stay away from slappin' and poppin'.. it really dosen't sound that good anyway.

Well... your ears are very different to my ears then, cos it sounds good to me. :confused:

I've clearly found that really seasoned guys that have been playing for years and making money in live music, rarely resort to slappin'. (specifically: electric bass )


Are they making as much as the likes of Flea or Les Claypool? Maybe they should expand their repertoire a bit. :p

Can't argue that there's no need to overdo the slap thing, but to completely overlook an evidently popular technique or sound, and to advise others to do the same just because you're not keen on it.... what gives, fella? :confused:

My two cents is dont pop them leave them. Turn up your amp so that you start to develop a lighter touch and muting techniques. Not that you dont, its just advice that helped me. Dont wait till its completely healed to play again. Once you have hard callouses dont let them get dry and split open. What I do when I see that its dry is rub it on the side of your oily nose. Works f in great for me.

hahaha!!! i just have had this same problem for the first time EVER!!! in the last few days. i changed the way i finger the strings and this happens lol! but yeah, i popped mine. my reason being that the new skin underneath would harden and begin to form a callous. ive had to use a pick last few times but then i just thought...play the pain away! :cool:

Sometimes i got abit of tiny bleeding, but rarely blister. It hurt sometimes though, espeically when i double pop. I wonder whether there is anyway to play pop without the pain?

once again.

anatomy 101.

the purpose of the pus is to soften the skin below.

pop it and drain it, apply newskin. the pus will only make your next recovery time longer.

secret road lessons of professional touring musicians, volume 1.

I've dealt with blisters quite a bit, especially in the Marines where I had a very physical job. I've learned that you need to take a STERILIZED needle and pop the blister from the side, right next to the unaffected skin, drain it out, and then soak it in some hydrogen peroxide. After that, put neosporin on it and wrap it up. Repeat this, the neosporin part, 2-3 times a day. If you absolutely need to, you can put super glue on it but as soon as you're done, wash it with peroxide and wrap it up with neosporin.

Superglue is perfectly fine to use, especially since it was first developed by the government for military use. Notice how quickly it sticks to skin and hardens. That's to quickly close up wounds on the battlefield so it's completely safe to use on open wounds.

superglue+antiseptic=Newskin

every bassist should carry newskin with em all the time.

for what it's worth, my vetrenarian buddies claim to use superglue on our pets all the time...

good point btw about popping away fromt the affected area.

ask me over a beer sometime about how I poorly popped a blood blister on my first gig with a major jazz artist and bled all over my bass...

just keep playing, make the blister work around you, rather than you working around the blister.

Pop it and drain as soon as it fills up with clear liquid. DO NOT remove the layer of skin unless it's flapping around. The secret is to pop close to your fingernail, so the whole you created doesn't snag on the string.

If you leave the liquid in there it's softening the underneath layer, and impeding your next callous. Simple anatomy.

After it's drained and cleaned, apply several layers of newskin. You'll be able to play the gig the same night, no problems.

the old double bass dudes would rub metholated spirits on the tips of their fingers to keep them really dry and hard ..

its pretty hard core also but keeps the skin on the end of your fingers really dead .. I tried this for a while and my calouses actually got too hard and I coudln't feel what I needed too .. so don't over do it if you try it

once again.

anatomy 101.

the purpose of the pus is to soften the skin below.

pop it and drain it, apply newskin. the pus will only make your next recovery time longer.

secret road lessons of professional touring musicians, volume 1.

All good especially the metho tip

what ever happened to just ignoring them and playing on? works for me.

ignoring them and playing on? can lead to a blood blister. even if you pop a blood blister the right way, it can get real messy. see above reference to my first gig with a major jazz artist, where I bled on my bass so much it looked like a horror movie. by the second set I was walking with my ring finger. and by the end of the third set, I had a blister there too.

:eek:

i just switch to another finger. Not ideal, but it gets the job done. I only pop the blisters after the gig. Try to keep the hole small though

I occasionally get blisters from upright. If you have fluid form under the skin you need to get rid of it pronto or you WILL lose the skin that is over it. As has been previously stated, lance it with a sterile needle and drain. I always lance the blister away from the side that I will be plucking the string. That helps keep the small needle hole from snagging on the string and enlarging. If the skin gets fairly loose I will go ahead and trim it off with some fingernail clippers and then file down edges to prevent them from snagging and enlarging the wound.

If I wind up trimming away skin, I've had excellent results with using very hot (ie: steaming) brine to harden the new skin underneath. This method isn't for everyone as it involves sucking up a little pain but it seems to work better for me than using alchohol to toughen up new skin. I will take a coffee mug fill it halfway with water, dump a lot of salt into it then nuke it for approximately 45 seconds to a minute. I will then dip my hand into it briefly. I usually can't keep it in the water for more than a few seconds at a time before I need to remove it do to pain (this is steaming water after all). Eventually I can just leave my hand in as the water has cooled off. I keep this up till the water cools down to roughly room temp and then reheat and repeat a couple times. This really sucks the moisture out of the new skin and encourages it to form a callous. After doing this once a day for a week I've usually got my callous back. Once again this method isn't for everyone but it has been useful for me. Don't blame me if you scald yourself silly. ;)

I dont pop them ever. If I leave them be they heal faster and harder.

Great to see people talking about blisters!
the way I keep them at bay is to,
pop them with a sterilized needle on the side where the string was not going to aggrevate itand get the liquid out.
then do the old metholated spirit soak
it is a great suggestion to play a lot lighter but still a hot night club playing full on tends to get the sweat happening!
another thing to do is wear surgical gloves when having a shower...yeah sounds pretty funky but as my bass playing friend pointed out that getting your hands wet can lead to watching your hard earned callouses go down the drain!!!
rock on
BASS PIG

Just gotta say

Playing lighter?

We're the macho guys in the band.

Play harder

practice harder

be consistent in your practice

Man up. Pop it, move on, and dig in til you sound like Jamerson and Jaco!!!!:bassist::bassist::bassist::bassist::bassi st::bassist:

Hey all ( and Chicago Doubler---I'm sure we must know eachother)
Haven't had a blister in 25 years, but occasionally get a cut or whatever. I do know that (with blisters) I had good results with sterilized needles and popping them.(and keeping antibioic cream on when not playing) These days if I get a cut I use flexible fabric bandages. I can actually play fine with them on (right or left hand) First couple of days I'll wear a bandage with antibiotic ointment all the time, but clean the wound and use a bandage without the ointment when playing. The ointment can come through the bandage and make it pretty much impossible to play. When done playing, clean it and put on the ointment and bandage. When it's getting near healed, I'll still use the bandange when playing, but let it air out otherwise. Keep the bandages onhand so that if the area is feeling tender you can put one on. If on a finger tip I'll put one strip over the finger and one wrapped around.They also make them in fingertip bandages.
I always have some in my car. This is not a paid advertisment for Johnson and Johnson.

Where can I buy these mentholated spirits I've been hearing about?

This thread has a lot of good info. Subscribed.

Yes, this spirits thing sounds intriguing. What is this and where can I get it? :eyebrow:

Also I'm not familiar with newskin either.

I just keeps it real and play with em. but i have to say that it hurts SUBSTANTIALLY more when you bite em off, if you have a gig and the blister bothers you, use the sterile needle method, but if you want to develop thick skin, leave em, the skin under will develop harder than the past layer.

quick note on building calouses, try your hardest to play just long enough that your fingers are "sore" and note blistered, because it sets you back in the long run

I'm not sure if it's manufactured anymore, but when I was in the military, (due to the job that I had) blisters were quite common and we used a product called moleskin over the blister once we drained it. The product felt like suede with an adhesive backing. It would allow you to continue performing your task while minimizing friction in the affected area, thereby reducing irritation. Some guys would even place moleskin in areas prone to blisters BEFORE getting one in order to prevent the blisters all together!

Pop with a sterilized needle (poke one small hole, preferably on the side, not the playing surface). I generally chuck a bandaid on there after that. Don't get blisters from Bass Guitar as I play hours daily, but my double bass time is few and far between, and that's killer on your plucking hand (especially on a bass set up for bowing :|)

I've found that using a little Vitamin E after the gig works well, and this technique really only works if you've got several hours of downtime before you play again.
1)Lance a liquid Vitamin E capsule with a sterile needle
2)Lance the blister with a sterile needle
3)Pick up the Vitamin E with the unaffected hand
4)Squeeze the blister
5)Maintain pressure on the blister and cover it with Vitamin E
6)Release the blister, go to sleep, get loaded and make fun of the drummer, whatever...
Again, this doesn't work mid-gig as you've effectively created a Vitamin E blister, but the next day you'll be set.

i had a big one come up on my middle fretting finger last week. this time i didnt pop it and after a few days it just became a hard callous

Really I just played through the pain and I stopped getting them.

I just played through the pain

A truly noble and mighty musical warrior of low end excellence and extreme epidermal endurance :bassist:

Where's the poll for this thread??

I used to leave 'em. But I haven't had a bass induced blister in 30 years. Used to get bisters on blisters playing upright. My teacher accused me of talking the school out in the rain. I informed her it was blood, not rust.

Super Glue is a curious fix. I'm not sure I'd want those chemicals going directly into my bloodstream.

I'm not sure if it's manufactured anymore, but when I was in the military, (due to the job that I had) blisters were quite common and we used a product called moleskin over the blister once we drained it. The product felt like suede with an adhesive backing. It would allow you to continue performing your task while minimizing friction in the affected area, thereby reducing irritation. Some guys would even place moleskin in areas prone to blisters BEFORE getting one in order to prevent the blisters all together!


They still sell it.

You can pick it up most places, I usually bring some with me for camping in case someone gets a blister.

it seems like I get a blister every time I play a show (though rarely during my band's practices)...granted I've started playing the bass more often than I used to...is consistency just the key to developing calluses? I never felt like I really developed calluses when I was playing guitar every day. I do have pretty soft hands and a reputation for really digging in on the bass and playing hard...

I tried the super glue thing once when I was going into a show with a freshly popped blister...the super glue ended up wearing off and during the time it was on there I felt like I couldn't feel the strings at all.

Another mil trick is "tincture of bezine". pop the blister, bite a bullet ( it stings to high heaven) , and schmear this stuff on. Calloused in a day. Ask for it at a pharmacy.

there is this guy, lets call him captain jackass, who is a guitarist but also contains drums and "bass equipment" in his house. by equipment, i mean a old pbass copy and a Peavy tube guitar amp, which is essentially like playing through and ODB3 with the knobs turned all the way up. anyway the good captain just leaves this stuff in his moist basement, and the string's feel something akin to 1400 grit sandpaper. so now i have this HUGE blister on my middle finger, but on the upside

i now know what it feels like to play as Jamerson did :) :) :) :) :)

I never really get blisters anymore, but when I used to I would always leave them and let them heal, or pop naturally.

I've always thought that it made my callouses stronger to leave them.

I was hungry until I read this... thanks. Haha. As I bio major I would advise against popping them if you can. Since your skin is in dead layers, when you pop it, the 1st layer (with the most keratin) becomes separated from the rest of the epidermis, and will peal off. And you lose most of your callus. If you're lucky, your body will just absorb the pus and the outer layer will be saved! Also avoid water when you have a blister because it'll make the skin come off easier. I find that I lose callus, and my fingers hurt like hell after I pop them.

I'd have to say.. stay away from slappin' and poppin'.. it really dosen't sound that good anyway. I've clearly found that really seasoned guys that have been playing for years and making money in live music, rarely resort to slappin'. (specifically: electric bass )

If you can very gently poke a tiny hole in one edge of the blister, drain it and cover with a bandaid, you will indeed get a new callus started there.. definitely don't remove the skin... just cover it well.
I never got blisters from slapping and popping, the only time I ever get blisters is when I'm playing my upright bass. I never really play jazz with it much, so whenever I do I end up tearing up my fingers. Just last week I got 3. On my index, middle, and ring. They're better now, but I just leave them alone untill they pop on their own.

dont pick at em or anything. leave em alone and they become hard for good and you can play all the time.

After several rounds with this problem myself, the following seems to work best for me:

- If it develops during the gig, play through the pain, don't pop it.
- Don't pop it afterwards either. Let your body absorb the clear fluid and/or blood (it ain't pus - if it is, you have opened it and allowed it to become infected). I usually lose the skin over the blister eventually, but until I do, it makes a great temporary callous, and when it comes off, the skin underneath, though tender, is whole.
- If it is stil tender by the time you have to play for an extended period again, a couple of layers of superglue over it will help cushion it some, but be prepared to reapply a few times during the gig. Don't apply superglue to it if it is still in an open, weepy condition.

Your mileage/opinion may vary.