I love to play too hard

[BrianJamesDeBo]

i play fingerstyle, i also play very hard. i thought it was because i couldnt hear myself well enough. so i tried turning up the volume on my amp, but instead of playing lighter i was just playing louder. i love the sound it makes when i play that hard. unfortunatly it is starting to do a number on my hands. i already have thick calluses on my fingertips, but it feels like flesh in between the bone and the callus is brused. does anyone have any helpfull hints or tips it would be well appreciated.

[southernrocker]

Don't stop playing. The pain will just give you another callus. Right on with the hard attack!

[vindy500]

just man up

[ryognbass]

i have the same thing, but the realization came when i heard how much it was killing my tone. i find myself digging in more selectively now

[ryco]

I like digging in too, But playing too hard can cause a lot of finger noise. You may not hear it through your stage rig, depending how you've got it EQ'ed - but out front there may be major flappage going on.

Sometimes you can get blisters under your callus, which may make the overlying callus come off. Very deep wound and painful. I used to get this playing double bass. Wrap it good with medical tape and keep playing is about all I could do. Some ppl put super glue in the wound, but I didn't want that crap in my bloodstream.

[ZanaZulu807]

You're gonna get bruises playing hard but the pain will subside after a while. I got bruises early on but now I just have dark spots under the skin of my finger tips. Not visually appealing but I can play as hard as I want to, what sucks though is I can wear down on my fingernails from playing and I get this terrible pain in the quick under the nail, gets so bad at times I can't play for a week.

[xgator4u]

Originally Posted by vindy500

just man up

YUP, or switch to guitar.

[Shawman]

that would be manning DOWN!

i dig in on pretty much all of my playing, however it can be an utter bitch, like last week i was doing a gig, the 2nd song out of our 9 for that night is about 4 mins of me playing just on the G string pretty much. blistered at practice the week before on this song, then at the gig the fresh skin cracked open and just got wider throughout the set, by the end my strings were kinda sticky from the blood

very painful, but very rock & roll haha

[parsons]

I have the worlds smallest, girl-like hands and skin. I dig in hard as hell and have 0 issues. You are all pansies.