Plucking Fingertip Pain

agfrag · #1 06-13-2009, 04:47 PM

I've been playing for 35 years now, and have recently run into pain on the fingertips of my right (plucking) hand. I usually practice an hour or two a night, rarely missing a day, and have just in the past year started to experience pain in the tip of my fingers, the middle and ring, never the index.

I am quite puzzled by this, however, I must admit that as I got older, I tend to concentrate the string contact area in a smaller and smaller point...that's efficency with practice I think. I also have a pretty light touch, and let the amp do most of the work.

I can play pretty fast, and I wonder if this pain may be a result of just smacking the fingertips into the strings for too long, however light the contact may be, over and over, year after year.

Anyone else experience this, and found any way to deal with it?

agfrag · #2 06-22-2009, 07:26 PM

No one?!?!

JohNLA · #3 06-22-2009, 07:39 PM

I sometimes get that and I just work on a new technique for a while(ie using my thumb or pick) until they stop hurting..

superiorpine · #4 06-22-2009, 07:56 PM

As we age, our skin thins out. As a young man of 35 years experience, you may be the beneficiary of seniority. A long time ago I read an article in Sports Illustrated about a baseball pitcher with the same problem. The trainer had him soak his fingertips in pickle brine to toughen them up. I don't remember the player's name, but I remember the result. No more pain or blisters, just the smell of pickles on the mound. Not that this will cure your problem, but it is a low cost, low risk option. Good luck.

agfrag · #5 07-02-2009, 05:35 AM

Pickle brine? That's interesting. Hmmm...where can I find a good source of pickle brine?

NKBassman · #6 07-02-2009, 10:26 AM

The grocery store?

DeluxeRed · #7 07-02-2009, 10:37 AM

Pickle brine = pickle juice.

Osteoarthritis can set in on well-used joints, and the toxic enzymes that are caused by the resulting inflammation can cause nearby tissue to "feel" the pain. Consult your doctor to see if that might be the case, and consider the use of low-dose NSAIDs, e.g. Tylenol, to reduce the inflammation.

"DR" does NOT mean Doctor, so take this with a grain of salt--oops, I don't mean to suggest you increase your sodium intake...

agfrag · #8 07-02-2009, 04:55 PM

Actually, I don't think it's the skin, the pain feels a little deeper, like under the skin, between the tip of the finger bone and the skin, whatever that part is. Hmmm...perhaps a little fingertip anotomy is in order. I'm sure the internet can help...

agfrag · #9 11-01-2009, 06:48 PM

Well, finally got to the end of it. I've seen my physician, I've had an EMG done on my right hand and arm, and I've had x-rays of the hand taken, and met with a hand specialist. And nothing was found. The specialist said the only thing he could think of was that the root cause of the pain is "mechanical", and that I should look at playing in a different way, or padding my fingertips with something artificial.

Obviously not a bass player. He also mentioned that as we get older, the layer of fat in the fingertips gets thinner, and this may be part of the cause. I thought about that, as I have also lost some weight lately, but in any event, I don't see myself using padding on my fingertips (he gave me a sample of 'moleskin' which looks like fine felt with a sticky backing) and I can't stand the sound of a pick (sorry pick folks, it's just me).

So I have no idea what to do, save keep on pluckin' away on the strings, and just get used to the pain. Or invent another way to play the bass that sounds like plucking, yet isn't plucking. Hmmm.

Fergie Fulton · #10 11-02-2009, 02:46 AM

Interesting stuff, what type of EMG did you have?
What fingers do you use in your plucking tecnique?
Has the structure of your fingernails changed? (Do they look a different colour, have changes to their surface structure become noticable, when cutting them did you notice a change in the quality? etc)

Now i would suggest that you have to find out if the problem is at the point of sensation or refered, by that it is somewhere else but you feel it in your fingertips. There is a nerve line from your fingertips to your brain, that runs up your arm, along your shoulder, in to your spinal column and to your brain. The fact you have a large concentration of nerve endings in your finger tips for sensation detection makes them sensitive to problems anywhere along this line, a lot like a hose. Problems along the hose line show up at the end of the hose in the water flow..but that's not where the problem necessarly is, that is where you notice it.

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...ogId=507420416

nysbob · #11 11-02-2009, 07:40 AM

I always go through a painful period if I go a couple weeks without a gig and then get back into it, but it's usually only a day or two ordeal. I'm no spring chicken either -54

- but when I play two gigs and a church service after two weeks off like I did last weekend - it can hurt a little. With me, it's like a blister that doesn't actually form so you can see it, but you can kind of feel some fluid under there and it's pretty tender.

If you've reached the point of pain, it really helps to take a few days off (2 or 3) and let your fingers re-toughen - then back at it again.

superiorpine · #12 11-02-2009, 08:00 AM

String tension makes a difference for me. Round core strings generally have lower tension than the more common hex core. DR High Beams, or Sunbeams are round core, so are TI Jazz Flate and Jazz Rounds. If nothing else seems to be working, the price of a set of strings is a small price to experiment, and is reversible if you don't like the result.

I also remember the pickle brine article, only, I thought it was more about toughening the skin to combat blisters.

Good luck.

agfrag · #13 11-02-2009, 06:13 PM

I don't know what type of EMG it was, the Doc didn't say. The fingers are all but the pinky and thumb. Fingernail structure hasn't changed. I understand about the "hose" analogy, that's one of the things the hand specialist talked about, but he couldn't find anything of that nature.

I took a couple weeks off in the late summer, and didn't notice any effect, except I lost a bit of my chops

And the strings I use are the Ken Smith Rock Masters, 45 to 100, been using them for as long as I can remember.

Good thing is, I'm doing worship stuff now, so gigs are widely spaced, and play time is about half an hour, but I still practice about an hour a night, just can't go without it...I've been practicing like that or more for 35 years. I'm quite a bass playin' fanatic