How long did your fingers take to get completely calused?

[iamchipsmith]

I'm a begining bassist, been playing a little over a year and am wondering when my fingers will finally be as hard as stone.

[Phalex]

I've been playing for about 27yrs and sometimes they still hurt!

You just gotta learn to play through the pain.

[iamchipsmith]

bahh!!! I was afraid of that. It motivates me to keep my picking skills up to par with my fingers though.

[Xed32]

Play for like 2 hours every day. Play some fast rock or punk too. Just plain abuse them every day, they'll toughen up quick.

[vindy500]

after 3 years my fingers are hard, skin still sometimes leaves when playing rounds though. doesnt hurt.. just big patches of skin gone

[steveb98]

You can still get blisters even under calluses so even tough fingers don't stop all wear and tear. A couple months ago I was working on a tune that had a lot slides in the bass line and got pretty bad blister under my callus. Having calluses made it easier to keep playing while it healed, but still a pain in the ass. All I can say if it gets too painfull backoff for a day and practice with light touch. Maybe pratice using the bass in your head and work on read rhythms, study some theory, learn to sing the bassline to a new song, or really listen close to a drummer and bass players and study how they are working together. There is always something musical to do.

[YogSothoth]

I've been playin like six / seven years, and my stuff still hurts. Most when I'm slap/popping. Still get nasty blisters.

[Flintc]

If you don't practice enough hours a day, you never develop callouses. If you practice enough hours to develop nice hard callouses, you suffer repetitve stress problems in your joints and tendons. Playing any musical instrument enough to become truly competent on it, is an unnatural act.

[Bassist4Life]

I never got calused fingers. My fingers have always been kinda' soft. I never worried about it because my fingers never really got sore (except for that time when I played URB in a big band without and amp).

I majored on double bass (classical) in college and practiced hours daily. I guess we don't all get tough finger tips.

I'm always kind of shocked when I hear of people getting blisters and sore fingers playing electric bass. It makes me wonder how hard you're playing and how high your action is. I must play with a really light touch. When I was a teenager, I would play my bass all day long. No sore fingers here...

Joe

[j-bass-kreep]

I've been playing for almost 5 years , My left hand fingers are hard as stone , the ones in my right hand are not ( I also play with a pick)

[Silver Moon]

Ever since I was 10 years old I have had a bad habit of chewing the skin off of the tips and front of my fingers like crazy!! I have gradually been weaning myself off of the habit, so when I started playing bass about 10 months ago, I already had pretty hard calluses from the biting. ... Now I don't bite that area anymore and they are getting a bit thicker... I suppose that the bad habit of biting and getting calluses over the years helped me from splitting my fingers open in the beginning.

-K-

... I'm not saying to bite to get calluses... It takes years plus it's a very nasty habit! :-)

[Robynator]

Climbing rocks both indoors and out has made any finger irritation from practicing basically nonexistent, since it makes my hands tough to no end. Playing the bass doesn't really give me any issues at all aside from maybe attempts at slap...that has a whole different set of problems

[bburk]

Used to get them all the time (the gnarly, hard, gross kind that my girlfriend would complain about). If I played for too long and got a blister, it could cause a problem when it fell off. I used to always think it just went with the territory.

Recently, I took some more lessons and actually had someone physically show my how to fret better. I NEVER get callouses anymore. At least, not like the ones I used to get. The ends of my left hand fingers are a bit meatier than the ones I don't use on my left right hand (ring/pinky), but no more blisters or scratchy callouses.

I guess it could be that I've been playing for long enough to develop enough gristle under there that I don't irritate it anymore.

[98dvl]

strange how people are different...

I've never had sore fingers from playing bass or guitar, let alone blisters...

I'd been without playing for about 3 years, and developed caluses within a couple weeks on the four fingers on my left hand, and on my index finger on my right hand (and a smaller one on my middle right finger as well).

I usually just slide my fingers up and down the strings (lightly) for about 5 minutes a day for a couple days to get the caluses back... no problems.

To go along with the post above, my caluses are really pretty soft, but you can tell a difference with the surrounding skin... I'm sure technique has a lot to do with it all.

[VanillaO]

^Ever? The first day I played bass I was in so much pain at the end of it that I didn't even dare play video games. 3 years later, I rarely have a problem in the fingertips.. now it's all in the elbows and wrists

[iBass88]

my fingers dont really hurt for some reason.. perhaps because i have very low action and play lightly though i've experienced some minor pain in the first years.. i dont find my self sufferin too much.... u gotta touch that bass like a beautiful woman

[98dvl]

Originally Posted by VanillaO

^Ever? The first day I played bass I was in so much pain at the end of it that I didn't even dare play video games. 3 years later, I rarely have a problem in the fingertips.. now it's all in the elbows and wrists

Can't say I was ever in "pain", a little sore, maybe, but nothing that a little stretching didn't fix.

As mentioned above, I like my action low (to make it easier on my fingers!)... So maybe that has something to do with it as well.

[deaf pea]

I think that a more important (to me, at least) question is "How long can I go WITHOUT practicing before I lose my callouses?"

For me, it's about a week . . .

BTW, for emergency use only, superglue applied to the fingertips JUST BEFORE playing WILL give you a LITTLE relief from the pain of "no callouses". But, for best results, do not repeat often!

[Valerus]

I was born with rough hands, so I never callous.

[jeremyr]

i must be like Valerus because I never callous either.