dead nerves on fingertips

[Wesley]

I am a guitar player who has been playing DB for about eight months. Playing bass has always interfered with playing guitar - the calouses I develope from DB compromise the feel I have on guitar. I have this now under control as I now regularly pumice stone my fingertips. I still, however, don't feel the strings of my guitar with my left hand as much as I used to. I am curious to know if this is permanent nerve damage caused by playing DB. I also wonder if I could regain feeling in my fingers by laying off the bass for a while. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated and if there is anyone else who doubles on guitar and bass I would be curious to hear your perspectives.

thanks,

Wes

[Chris Fitzgerald]

WESLEY,

You need some advice? As you wish...

Your nerves are not "dying". You are just building up much heavier callouses than you are used to. I was a guitarist many years ago, and I've noticed the same lack of feeling after playing DB. My solution was to put heavier strings on my guitars, which accomplished two things:

1) I was able to get more of a feel for the instrument due to the increased tension - which didn't hurt my playing at all because of the increased hand strength I had developed by playing the DB.

2) The tone quality I was able to get on the Guitar improved dramatically because of the heavier strings.

This is just my experience, but for me it has turned out to be the best of both worlds. YMMV.