help: need to play bass & keep finger nails

[HelterSkelter]

Hi,

I am a guitarist who also plays bass. Since I play mostly acoustic guitar, I need to have finger nails. Yet these finger nails create unwanted sharp attack instead of typical bass growl (think jazz).

The question is: how can I get growl on bass without cutting my finger nails?

Here's what occurred to me so far:
1) use pick on bass - not for me, since I come from classical guitar background and my right hand 2 finger technique is very good.
2) use EQ - adding more bass and cutting highs helps a bit, but the attack itself is still unchanged
3) play with the side of my thumb - does the trick, but speed drops
4) dig deeper and use flesh as the main force behind the sound - helps, but the nail still adds a bit of sharpness, as well as strings tend to snap more
5) shave left side of the nails and slant the palm when playing growling bass - good idea, but haven't tried this; I wonder what effect will this have on my guitar playing...
6) stick gel-like substance onto tips of fingers to soften the effect of finger nails - but what?

I enjoy playing bass very much and I think I play fairly decently. Please share your thoughts. Any insight is much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
HS.

[peaveyuser]

cut off your nails and use something like this for you classical guitar.

[Poop-Loops]

Basically you have to make a choice as to what's more imortant to you.

If it's guitar, then keep your nails and use your thumb or something for bass.

If it's bass, cut your nails and use those fake things for guitar.

[lemur821]

Trim your nails short enough to play the bass but keep enough to pluck the guitar (or bass) with them. This really isn't that hard, people.

[The BurgerMeister]

Originally Posted by lemur821

Trim your nails short enough to play the bass but keep enough to pluck the guitar (or bass) with them. This really isn't that hard, people.

i don't think that'll work.

your nails need to extend pretty far off the finger to get a nice classical guitar sound. i don't think one could trim them back far enough to get both types of sound.

quite a conundrum! if you don't want to try a very soft pick... you might give different strings a try. flat- or tape-wound might do the trick.

good luck!

[lemur821]

Originally Posted by jetpackbassist

your nails need to extend pretty far off the finger to get a nice classical guitar sound.

Why? You just need enough to get a good pluck. I sound fine (aside from the mistakes). You may need to gently push back the point where your finger connects to the nail (hyponychium) over a period of time, but I swear it's possible to get your nails at an in between point where you can choose to use them or not.

[Richard Lindsey]

Originally Posted by lemur821

Why? You just need enough to get a good pluck. I sound fine (aside from the mistakes). You may need to gently push back the point where your finger connects to the nail (hyponychium) over a period of time, but I swear it's possible to get your nails at an in between point where you can choose to use them or not.

I've been trying to do this for 25 years, and IME it doesn't really work. I have found it impossible to find a point where you can do everything you want while always retaining the ability to choose between nail and no nail. Maybe there's somebody who can do this, but I have my doubts. God knows I can't. What I have had to do is simply accept the compromise. I need the nails at a certain length (not a very long length, BTW) to play guitar the way I want. At this length, it's not possible to really play the bass the way I need to without bringing the nails into play. So I have to accept the fact that I play bass with nails. Sometimes there is no answer that gives you everything you want.

[Richard Lindsey]

Originally Posted by peaveyuser

cut off your nails and use something like this for you classical guitar.

No, that would never work for classical guitar. IME and IMO, those sound like complete crap on nylon strings.

[BrandonBass]

i play classical guitar sometimes and i can play as well(or rather badly) with long nails as with short nails

it needs more accuracy and precision when u hav short nails tho

[HelterSkelter]

- I play 50% fingers, 50% pick on acoustic guitar, 60% steel string and 40% nylon string.
- The style is jazz, not classical.
- I do play electric at times.
- I try to keep my nails short (extending about a matchstick width over the tip of the finger flesh).

Thanks for the input so far and any bright ideas that you may have. Do you think it is possible to live with not so growly contemporary jazz bass sound?

[Brass Nut]

A whole lot of hammer-ons and tapping?
For jazz and the like. There ya go!
Of course you could try a Michael Jackson glove?

[perfektspace6]

I understand your predicament. Your screwed one way or another.

[Richard Lindsey]

Originally Posted by HelterSkelter

Do you think it is possible to live with not so growly contemporary jazz bass sound?

Well, I'm still alive, and still playing both instruments, so for me the answer would have to be yes. The alternative is to stop playing one or both instruments. To me, that alternative is unacceptable. It's up to you to decide whether it's acceptable to you.

[user101]

you could try playing like Stanley Clarke. His picking fingers are not directly perpendicular to the strings but they pluck at an angle (like how you would pluck an upright) and i think that it just barely misses the not-too-long fingernails. I'm not sure if it will work for you, but it's an idea.

[agreatheight]

Let someone else play bass?

[Christopher]

I'm often in the same boat. A good strategy to keep RH nails as short as possible to still get decent tone on the classical. Then you can collapse the fingertip a bit on bass, and the nail should get out of the way. Having read the above responses, I know it doesn't work for everyone, but it's a start. You may also want to refer to Scott Tennant's "Pumping Nylon" - it has a very good discussion on optimal nail length and shape.

[ColtraneWorship]

As a former student of classical guitar, i can only agree on the fact that you need strong and long fingernails to play certain styles of music with the guitar. In flamenco, this is a must.

Anyway, you can always emulate Fernando Sor, the classical guitar composer, who played without nails. His friend, Dionisio Aguado, used to say that his sound was mellower and rounder. Sor liked very much the stacatto and attack of the nails of Aguado. They are two different styles.

Personally, i had to switch to bass, cut my nails, and give up on classical guitar (i never really liked it that much). Nowadays i play the electric guitar mostly, but sometimes i pick the classical guitar and i can make it sound.

To me, what helped most was to know what instrument i prefered, at least for the moment. Think of that and make your choice.

Good luck with your double love affair

[Skel]

I used to study classical guitar and the OP doesn't play classical. Probably the greatest classical guitarist ever, Andres Segovia had very short nails but they were manicured perfectly. If he broke a nail, he cancelled the concert - that's how important the shape and length of nails are in classical. For jazz and steel string stuff, I don't really know, but the OP does. If it were me, I'd play bass with a pick.

[Sumosized]

They make these little rubber, thimble like things that people use to sort paper. You can find them at an office supply store.

They look like this:



You can find them here:

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?...tk=all&An=text

I think they're smooth on the back, so you could try these with the bass.

Just a suggestion.

[HelterSkelter]

I just realized that what I really need is to be able to add bass to my RECORDINGS (NOT to live sound). And it will be possible if I would practice bass as is (or experiment with various nail-muting devices), but cut my nails for recordings (they should grow back within two weeks or so).
Does that make sense?
I would have very much wanted to be a full-time basssist, hadn't I played the guitar fairly decently. Often I feel this physical urge to hear (and make) these low end sounds that truly make up the foundation of just about any kind of music out there. It is a fascinating instrument.
Many thanks for your thoughts. What a great forum!