Damn LaBella Jamersons (blood blister content)

[GeneralElectric]

So I've used LaBellas on and off for the last 8 years, usually the JJ signature set, but I stopped using them because their QC and CS suck in my opinion and experience.

Maybe about a year ago I got my last set of LaBellas. I strung them up on my faithful old P-bass once again. I'm convinced that this bass has the world's strongest neck. No matter what kind of strings I put on it, I've yet to adjust the truss. The last three string changes were TIs, heavy Roto Jazz Flats, and now the JJs.

Pretty much I just used the bass to for a lot of slower stuff (Motown, Reggae, Country, Folk, Blues, etc) but I just played two shows in a row with a country punk rock band. Lots of fast playing, all fingerstyle. I have a hard attack (just to cut through)

After 2 3 hour sets my fingers are killing me. I have blood blisters on my plucking hand (thumb, index, middle) and on my index and pinky fingers on my fretting hand. They hurt like a bitch.

Its been a long while since I've had blisters of any kind (probably about 6-7 years, not counting the few times where I've literally cut my hand open) let alone blood blisters. Whats the proper ettiquite with these? I don't want to pop them.

I used to dip my hands in denatured alcohol (I think) when I was a kid to prevent me from getting blisters from DB. Should I do that?

I want to get the girth and thick fat chunkiness of the LaBellas, but I think the fact that the tension on these is super high, and the fact that I have a heavy attack when I play with these guys, its inevitable that I'm going to keep ****ing up my fingers.

Any advice?

[RicPlaya]

No pics no blisters...LOL

Keep playing and your fingers will toughen up, or I guss the superglue trick over your fingertips

[irishpride28]

man up!

just joking- in all reality, blisters hurt like a son-of-a, and they hamper your playing also.
this may seem ridiculous, but is it possible to take like some soft cloth tape (hockey tape, medical tape) and carefully cover the blisters when playing?

With sweat, the tape will easily slide off when you pull it, but it should stay on for playing.

[tehbassist]

Most people I know just take a sterile needle pop them an let them heal, but if you want to keep playing, as I'm sure you do, do the superglue thing after words.

[whocaresnotme]

Ummmmm--Do you have really sensitive skin or something? I have played for over 40 years and NEVER had a problem like that!!

You say you play hard but hard enough to cause blood blisters is TOO HARD! You should probably consider altering your actual finger to string method. You don't need that much pressure.

I used to get cracks in the skin on my fingers because of my job but not from playing but nonetheless it hampered my playing. The diagnosis was dry skin so years ago my Doc. rx'd some Lac-Hydrin cream which I still use everyday. It makes the skin supple and allows the callous' to form uniformly as intended. Give that a try.

[paramountz]

Originally Posted by GeneralElectric

I used to dip my hands in denatured alcohol (I think) when I was a kid to prevent me from getting blisters from DB. Should I do that?

This is from the MSDS sheet I would not use this method.


Prolonged skin contact causes drying and cracking of skin. May affect the nervous system, liver, kidneys, blood, g.i. tract and reproductive system.

[Double Agent]

IDK...play with a pick?

Maybe switch to TI Jazz Flats, forcing you to lighten up on your technique? Or turn your amp up so you don't have to play so hard?

I play pretty hard, usually hard enough that my calluses are shredded after gigging 2 nights in a row. But, I've never had a blood blister. I've never been close to one, actually, even using higher-tension stainless rounds. Just please don't pop them.

Listen, I'm not the guy on here to be telling people about "proper" technique, so I don't wanna lecture you about that cuz that would make me a hypocrite. However, anything that injures you (and a blister is an injury in this case) needs to be looked at. If changing strings will allow this to not happen, then you need to switch to a different type of string. Make whatever adjustment is needed so that this doesn't happen again. I wish I could be more helpful.

[adbass]

Turn up the amp and play so hard.

until then, wait 12-24 hours, drain the blisters by making a small hole using nail clippers or a safety pin . . . flame sterilize whatever you use. Then, just before the next gig . .. NuSkin.

this is from 15 years of experience playing electric and upright bass. See if it works for you.

[PrivateHigh]

I play labella 76fl 104 gauge, and they're fairly light tension for flats. I have tried rotosounds and chromes of same gauge, but labella's seem to be the slinkiest in my experience. Theyre about the same tension as my rounds.

[Metal Mitch]

Originally Posted by GeneralElectric

I just played two shows in a row with a country punk rock band. Lots of fast playing, all fingerstyle. I have a hard attack (just to cut through)

After 2 3 hour sets my fingers are killing me. I have blood blisters on my plucking hand (thumb, index, middle) and on my index and pinky fingers on my fretting hand. They hurt like a bitch.

Any advice?

Sweet.

I've only had the blood blister problem once. Guess what I was playing? Punk rock.

It was my own fault for not practicing enough. We would only rehearse once before a show. So I beat the crap out of my P bass at rehearsal, and didn't bother to pop the blister before the show. So it popped on the first song live onstage. Hurt like a mofo but I kept playing on it. Got some ductape from the soundman and wrapped it up to finish the set. Sounded like crap with one finger taped and the other one untaped. Afterwards I noticed this really cool blood splatter all over my bass, like it was airbrushed on there. Awesome.

Don't blame the strings. Just practice as hard as you play live. Pop your blisters and drain 'em, they'll form a hard layer of callous and you won't have a problem anymore.

[heroesofalma]

Emergency Finger Saving Options!

3M make an adhesive-less latex crepe bandage called 'Coban' that stretches and moulds together to form a 'skin'. Better solution than emergency Gaffer Tape! I've used it over sticking plaster to protect bad cuts while working in the garden and onstage.

Tea tree oil (from Australia usually) is a better alternative for callous building than alcohol. Also dries out and toughens blister skin pre and post pricking.

"Wedgie" pics made of a thick rubber-like compound make for good dull egded near-fingerstyle sounds 1-5mm. There's also the original pressed felt pics. I use 3mm Dunlop felt banjo pics when I need that sound.

Try spraying your strings with Tone Finger-ease by Chem-pak. Removes a lot of the friction between your fingers tips and strings. I've also found it lubricates pick playing.

Good luck.

[GeneralElectric]

I play bass on average about 3-4 hours a day, everyday, and I've been playing about half of my admittedly short life. (About 9 1/2 years now give or take) I play a lot of different basses with a lot of different kinds of strings (rounds, flats, tapes) and I've got heavy thick callouses on both of my hands (manual labor masonry job, plus bass) to such a degree where doctors can no longer prick my finger for a blood sample for the last 7 years or so. I also haven't cut my tips or pallms open either (plenty of cut marks in the skin though) except for when I got my hand caught in an engine, and again in a deli slicer.

I don't normally dig in this much, but it feels almost required for this band. Its a very heavy mix. Two guitars, drums, vocals, keys, and organ.

Right now I'm pushing 1000 watts into a 400 watt cab, so headroom/volume isn't a problem, I just need that extra oomph in the tone department from hard picking. I play hard by the bridge, directly in front of the bridge cover.

My problem is that I need the thick chunky tone that the LaBellas have. I don't want to switch to TIs. Only one bass I own is strung with them. IMO and IME, the TI flats sound good, but can get lost in the mix very easily. Ideally I'd like to find a string with the same kind of huge fundamental the JJs have. Just a bit less tension.

On the brightside though, I didn't get as many, or as bad, blood blisters as I had originally thought. I think... A friend of mine, whose training to be a nurse, looked at my hands when she was over earlier. She said that it looks like I bruised my actual fingertips pretty badly as my callouses are intact, and the fact that the blood looks spread all over lightly underneath my callouses.

I do have a small blood blister on the side of my left pinky though for sure. Oddly, its not on the actual pad of the finger, its slightly towards the side of where my finger actually hits the strings. Could I have pushed the blood from my fingertip into the side where it got trapped? I've got another on my thumb pretty bad.

[Metal Mitch]

Originally Posted by GeneralElectric

Right now I'm pushing 1000 watts into a 400 watt cab, so headroom/volume isn't a problem, I just need that extra oomph in the tone department from hard picking. I play hard by the bridge, directly in front of the bridge cover.

There's no tone by the bridge and the tension is higher there. Try playing over the pickup instead. You'll get that extra oomph with less tension. Raise your action a bit if you need to give the strings some more room to move.

[TomB]

I think you might be fine w/lighter-gauge LaBellas, like the 760 FS. However, Fenders are a LOT cheaper than LaBellas, they last forever, and have plenty of chunk. Comments I've seen here about Fender flats being extremely high tension are just plain wrong, IMO; I find their lighter gauges to be of average tension and less than JJ's:

From Juststrings.com for instance (http://www.juststrings.com/) Fender Electric Bass Guitar Stainless Steel Flatwound Long Scale 34 , .050 - .100, 9050ML, $22.50

[FenderP]

I use the thick Rotos (RS77LE) on three basses. They are the same gauge and probably the same (if not more) tension as the Jamerson set. However, the tension is slightly different due to the config of each bass. The Rob Allen Solid 4 makes those feel like they are thinner than they are; very easy to play (relatively speaking of course ... with my high action people may have an issue lol). Both my '76 fretless P and my '78 fretted P are set up similar (BadAss II bridge with metal plate to raise it further, high action), but the tension for whatever reason is slightly higher on the '78.

If I'm just putzing around with the '78 at home playing along to CDs, I usually don't have issues, but in a band situation, naturally I play slightly differently. If I haven't gigged or rehearsed with that bass in awhile and I whip it out, I usually have to re-develop the hard callouses, but after that, it's fine.

At the moment I'm playing the '78 along to some Rush and I'm not feeling it, but I've also been gigging regularly so I don't need to build up the stamina. I also attack hard, which is great with this setup.

These types of strings are not for everyone.

[bluesblaster]

If it were me, I would go to a lighter gauge string, Like FL,s or FS,s. Never tried the JJ,s but they sound pretty stout, especially for heavy handed playing. Its punk, use a pick for christ sake.

[stratovani]

Originally Posted by heroesofalma

Emergency Finger Saving Options!

3M make an adhesive-less latex crepe bandage called 'Coban' that stretches and moulds together to form a 'skin'. Better solution than emergency Gaffer Tape! I've used it over sticking plaster to protect bad cuts while working in the garden and onstage.

I'll second that stuff. I've used Coban at work to protect my fingers when machining brass. Stays on my fingers so well that I end up using my pocket knife to cut it off!

[Meddle]

You could do what Tony Iommi did and melt plastic bottles over your finger tips.

[Pilgrim]

To me, the problem is the Jamersons. I really like Labella Deep Talkin' flats, but the Jamersons are like tugboat hawsers. For me, they're MUCH too heavy gauge and MUCH too stiff.

My advice: dump the Jamersons and change to the Deep Talkin' Flats. You're still going to get that classic sound, but you won't punish your fingers.

OR - you can do what I advised on TB some time ago and learn to tape your fingertips. I started a thread on this, but I'll copy and paste the info here:

How to tape fingertips

I read a lot of messages about blisters and how to deal with them. The best way is to avoid them by not overdoing it with your fingers until you can build callus on the fingertips.

I learned to tape my fingertips 30+ years ago while playing upright bass in dance bands. I've commented about taping fingertips in threads here twice this morning, and after dong a search on the topic, I don't find any "how-to" here on Talkbass.

Looks like it's time to provide more info.

Here's how to do it:

1) Buy roll of Johnson & Johnson waterproof adhesive tape, 1/2" wide.

2) Tear off a strip about 2" long and tape from on top of your finger above your fingernail around over the tip, and up the inside of your finger. This puts one strip over the tip, in line with your finger.

3) Now we'll go around the finger. Using a longer strip, start taping over the nail, and wind it around the finger at a slight angle, working upwards.

4) Stop when you feel like it. Taping over the first joint may be necessary, but it stiffens the action of the joint and it will take some time playing to flex and soften the tape enough to get decent flexibility back in the fingers.

It may be a mess the first time you try this, so practice it a few times. Tape is cheap.

It is VERY important that you start the winding action at the fingertip so the "open" edge of the tape faces the tip. If you start high on the finger and tape down toward the fingertip, the "open" edge will face upward and the action of your fingers against the string will strip the tape off quickly.

Some people say that when the tape is stuck to the fingernail, it makes the nail sore. This doesn't happen for me, but if it does for you, put a small piece of gauze, paper or something else over the nail before you start taping.

This will prevent blisters, and it will REALLY help prevent making them worse.

Now go do this:

[jasper383]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

To me, the problem is the Jamersons. I really like Labella Deep Talkin' flats, but the Jamersons are like tugboat hawsers. For me, they're MUCH too heavy gauge and MUCH too stiff.

My advice: dump the Jamersons and change to the Deep Talkin' Flats. You're still going to get that classic sound, but you won't punish your fingers.

They are not a string to be trifled with.

I think that they sound fine with a light touch, after they break in. The idea that they only sound good if you really dig in is flawed.

I think Jamerson's touch was a lot lighter than many might think. You can't hop all over like he did, with such feel, if you're slamming the strings.