I have just cut my finger nails last week and I am getting that nail plucking edgy sound again. My nails are only slight less than 1mm long!

So how often do you cut your nails? How long is it considered too long?

Pretty often cos i don't like the sound they make :D I use a pick if i want that sound :P
I cut em when i hear that sound, never noticed how long that period is.

I cut the left hand constantly, maybe once a week. The right hand I grow to about 1/8" long and use Kevlar impregnated nail-hardner on. I play fingerstyle and use a pick when I fell it's warranted, I just like the sound and feel of fingernails on the strings

I usually end up biting mine :ninja:. I can't stand the feel of my nails poking me if I'm writing or drawing and if I'm in the middle of doing either, I don't feel like finding nail clippers. So, the longest they may get is 1 or 2 mm and they're off!
Except the thumbs, those usually dont get in my way until they go past the end of my finger.

I also found if I had long nails I had an annoying habit of always tapping them against whatever I was sitting near. I do that with my fingers too but at least its not "click click". When you drive yourself crazy doing something, thats bad :)

Weather affects nail growth. Man, I still like " a little nail" on my strings, but all my instructors have told me to keep 'em trim.

I cut mine whenever they feel too long - it has nothing to do with my bass playing, I just don't like nails longer than a certain length, they just *feel* uncomfortable. I've jammed enough fingernails and nearly torn them off - without them being that long, just a very active lifestyle, or very unlucky, to have a serious dislike of long nails.

So.... probably about once a month, 6 weeks on the outside.

Once a week for me, generally. I carry clippers in my pants pocket most days, in case they're needed.

If myn get 2 long they get mashed by my playing but i rarely cut them, i just bite off the damaged 1s

When I was trying to freaking grow them for playing guitard I couldn't get them to grow for anything. Clear nail polish and all that good stuff. Now that I don't want them they grow like weeds. It seems like I have to cut them more than once a week.:help:

Everyone's hands are different. On some people the tips of their fingers naturally extend quite a bit beyond where their nails grow, so even if their nails were a few mm long they wouldn't contact the strings when playing fingerstyle. I'm the opposite. Even if I clip my nails as close as I can they still come in contact with the strings so I have to file them as far back as I can to prevent nail/string noise. If I'm playing a lot I file them every other day.

All the time. I'm constantly surrounded by nail files for a quick tune up.

way too often.. at least once or twice a week (which i suppose is BECAUSE I cut them so often...) It is very irritating.

Constantly, I hate the feeling of nails on my strings or tapping against my desk.

the worst is when my nails start cutting into my rosewood fingerboard (yea.. they grow that fast... its kind of scary)

Weekly. I find that cutting them more helps devlop your caluses (forgive the massive failure of spelling) faster. :bassist:

Weekly. I find that cutting them more helps devlop your caluses (forgive the massive failure of spelling) faster. :bassist:

+1

I find that too, but on the other hand I don't have much of a choice.. because if I do not cut my nails I practically can't play.

I keep both hands cut as short as I can get with the clippers, then filed a little beyond that. I hate the feeling of my nails getting in the way.

long fingernails plus bass= YOUCCCHHH

About once a week give or take. I do not like the feeling of my nails on anything.

twice a week usually.. i like to keep them at a certain length

Never.... However I tend to chew my nails constantly when I drive (I'm not nervous...actually I think I'm bored when I drive) so I dont need to cut them.

i cut mine 2 to 3 times a week... back to the point where it feels like if u went back any further u'd be bleeding because i like em that short, and i HATE my nails ever coming near my strings unless I'm playing with backstrokes and then i dont get that option lol

I like the nail sound. If I cut them too short I can't play.... yeah the opposite of an above poster.

I did this once in my old rock band before I knew. Luckily no shows but I could not keep up in practice LOL

I am so used to playing with them that I can't not play with them.

So when i cut my nails I usually leave the 2 pluck fingers about 2 or 3mm longer than the rest. yep, Im weird!

Wow, so this is a common thing and I thought that my fingers are not born to play the bass. The thing that I dislike about cutting my nails is the raw discomfort everytime I cut them but it looks like I will have to live with this if I want to continue bassing. I simply hate the pick-like sound of nails.

heh, I actually did experiment and let them stay long, to see how it would sound.

I also really disliked the pick-like sound. I need the ability to have a smooth sound.. and the nails really kill that for my playing.

I have just cut my finger nails last week and I am getting that nail plucking edgy sound again. My nails are only slight less than 1mm long!

So how often do you cut your nails? How long is it considered too long?

I came to electric bass from a classical guitar background. I have *books* about fingernails. I shape, file, and buff the nails on my right hand daily (I NEVER use fingernail clippers), and sometimes use a clearcoat low-gloss nail polish if I need a brighter tone or know I will be playing a lot and need them not to break. On my left hand, I just cut them as short as I can stand, using clippers.

I never use picks. I can get a great pick tone from my nails if I use them correctly (or a soft, mellow tone if I use the fleshy part of my fingertips, instead), and I can play much, much faster with 3 fingers + thumb (PIMA) than I can with a pick, anyway - and I used to play electric guitar, too!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3241/2456369328_eacea20565.jpg?v=0

Edited to add: Here's a decent vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSiQLkWv0f0 - I have the book he mentions and I recommend it, too.

Cut (just short of painfully short) and filed about once a week. If I want a pick tone I'll use a pick.

I bite my nails, so they're short constantly.

Sucks sometimes when I bite a bit too far.

I came to electric bass from a classical guitar background. I have *books* about fingernails. I shape, file, and buff the nails on my right hand daily (I NEVER use fingernail clippers), and sometimes use a clearcoat low-gloss nail polish if I need a brighter tone or know I will be playing a lot and need them not to break. On my left hand, I just cut them as short as I can stand, using clippers.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3241/2456369328_eacea20565.jpg?v=0



Why do you have half of a wool sleeve on? Oh wait...that's your arm hair!

:p

Why do you have half of a wool sleeve on? Oh wait...that's your arm hair!

:p

Most people know better than to make fun of a Sicilian's body hair. Seeing as you're a fellow Missourian, I'll let it pass...... THIS time.

:smug:

:bassist:

Dave, with nails like yours I can understand what you mean when you said you use the fleshy part of your fingertips if you want a mellow tone and I can kind of imagine doing that if it was a slower number, but can you play that way in an uptempo way? I mean something like straight eighths at 150 bpm? Seems like it would be really difficult.

Most people know better than to make fun of a Sicilian's body hair. Seeing as you're a fellow Missourian, I'll let it pass...... THIS time.

:smug:

:bassist:

Might I suggest you reply with a comment about my basketball sized head, my hair that got so frightened of my bass playing that it ran away, or my resemblance to a member of the Adam's family...

Dave, I'm jealous of your ability to use your nails effectively. Once mine grow long enough to use, part of them bend in a downward direction. I've never found a use for them except for backhanded strums. That gives a nice chiming sound. If only my fingerstyle playing were half as bright...

It's hard to see in the photo above, but I actually shape my nails to be a little shorter on the left side of each one, so when I rotate my wrist to close the angle between my index finger and the strings (i.e., instead of 90 degrees perpendicular, I turn my hand so that the left side of my fingertips are along the edge of the strings, the same effect as turning the bass neck to be more upright), I get all flesh and no nail. I can play just as quickly with or without using my nails. It sounds like a heckuva transition, but it's really not. I often go between using- & not-using my nails in the middle of a measure to get different tones, to emphasize beats, etc. When I want full-on nail tone, I turn my hand so my fingers are perpendicular to the strings, borrowed straight out of classical guitar technique. It works very well for me; sixteenth-notes @ 184 are no problem (remember I use PIMA).

Regarding insulting you back, nah; I'd rather save it and have you be in my debt for forgiving you. One day, maybe you'll be in a position to do me a favor and we'll both know that you owe me one :smug: Haven't you ever seen The Godfather? lol

Cool, thanks for the info.

Hi Dave,

I was reading in the thread bout fingernail cutting that you'd mentioned coming to bass after guitar. Like many, so have I, though I certainly was never a very good guitarist. One thing I did pick up from guitar, though, is the idea of independant use of the right hand fingers. I can remember doing the exercises from my Mel Bay books (p-i-m-i-a-m-i-a-s, etc).

One of the reasons for me to write this PM to you is because it was nice to see that someone else is using that. I am a self-taught bassist for the most part, so I've had plenty of time to learn things "wrong." I've been playing 3 years, and I generally put my index finger to pluck the E string, the middle to pluck the A and so on. Doesn't make me the fastest or the most technically correct, but it's what I happen to do.

Anyhow, finally looking at osme bass instructional videos (you'd think I would have done that at the start, but nooo....), I am seeing this 2 finger technique. I think if I want to use it, it would take time to train myself out of the habit, just like it took time to train myself into the habit I currently hold.

So what are your insights on the 2-finger fingerstyle vs. the more classical use of the ring and even pinky fingers? Once I saw your post, I knew I had to ask!

Thanks for your time. :)

Thanks for your message. I'm presuming you're talking about I & M when you say two-finger technique?...

I change techniques depending on the type of music I'm playing. For softer stuff (acoustic music, etc), I generally use PIMA to arpeggiate and get some harmony in there. For funk (what I play most often), I use IM, sometimes IMA, and generally reserve my thumb for slapping or double-thumping, although I sometimes naturally revert to PIMA no matter what style music I'm playing if I need the range. It just depends on if I'm playing across multiple strings or staying on one string. I often also use PIMA or IMA on a single string for speed, as well. I don't do this often, but when I need a pick sound, I will grasp my thumb and index together (as though I were holding a pick), and "pick" with my index nail, upstrokes & downstrokes. I do carry picks, just in case I break my nails or otherwise mess up my right-hand fingers (blisters, cuts, etc), but I rarely/never use them. My bass has a pretty aggressive sound naturally (MM-style humbucker) so a picked sound is usually overkill, especially in the context of my funk band.

Hope this helps! If you don't mind, may I copy & paste your post and my response in the fingernail thread, in case anyone else could get some info out of it?

Best,

Dave

---- Received via PM; reposted with permission ----

Every week

haha i rarely cut my nails. i'm more of a clangy bass player. listened to too much Iron Maiden when i picked up the bass :-P. But i cut them when they effect how fast i can play. Having them slightly long helps me get a sort of double hit on each pass if that makes any sense. finger hits the string followed by the nail.

i constantly cut my left hand's fingernails though. they get in the way.