Animas "less rough" on your fingers?

[Bruce Lindfield]

So I was a bit concerned at Jazz Summerschool - there was an afternoon where a small group of us bass players were sitting around with one of the bass tutors and one of them mentioned about how beaten up their fingers were getting.

This inevitably lead to a quick comparison of the state of our "working" fingers and how playing DB all week had meant blisters and cuts etc.

But my fingers were/are completely unscathed - not really any callouses even and I was thinking - maybe I'm not playing hard enough - although the tutor said that normally his hands weren't as bad, but he had had some time off and was just getting back?

I have tried playing harder, louder - still no effect and then I was thinking, maybe it's the fact that I am using Animas all the time - whereas all the other people I was talking to, were using stiff, higher tension steel strings?

What have other people found - are Animas "kinder on your hands" ...maybe they should make this part of an Advertsing campaign!!??

[Uncletoad]

It's been several years since I had them on a bass of mine but my experience was the opposite. My callouses were shredded by the windings. A big part of my getting rid of them is I'd hang up on the windings in the heat/humidity and it would slow me down, more than once tearing up my fingers.

Never have those problems on spirocores.

I've heard they may have changed since then, I don't know.

[Marcus Johnson]

They were soft in the tension department, but the wrap isn't as smooth as Spiros or Pirastros. I dunno, you get used to it, I guess. The main thing with Animas was the black coating that I'd get on my fingers, which I referred to as my "Anima Badge Of Honor".

Rufus Reid has said that after you play for awhile, you get beyond callouses and develop a few deeper layers of tough tissue that sounds better than the sound of hard callous. I think that's true, because I don't really have callouses, and I play as much as just about anyone I can think of. I haven't had a blister in many years, regardless of the strings I use.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by Marcus Johnson

Rufus Reid has said that after you play for awhile, you get beyond callouses and develop a few deeper layers of tough tissue that sounds better than the sound of hard callous. I think that's true, because I don't really have callouses, and I play as much as just about anyone I can think of. I haven't had a blister in many years, regardless of the strings I use.

That's interesting - I do feel that my fingers are sort of harder - I used to get blisters when playing BG, but then making the transition to EUB and then DB, I have played more and my fingers have got tougher but don't actually have what I would think of as 'callouses'...?

When I go to Jazz Summerschool there are always people who have blisters or end up bleeding all over the place..

I tried a few other people's basses and they felt very stiff after animas and that made me think of this...but maybe it's not the answer?