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Calluses-The pain and other things that come with.
- Thread starter TallicaDeth
- Start date
This was probably the biggest non-issue for me when I started playing bass. 
Coming from a LONG Brazilian Jiu Jitsu background, my fingers are so tough that I never once got sore fingers or noticed any changes. Dealing with the rough texture of a gi in long grappling sessions will get your fingers tough and your hands strong.
Now if only my playing ability would come along that easily I'd be in heaven. LOL! Been playing for 11 months now and am loving it!!
Coming from a LONG Brazilian Jiu Jitsu background, my fingers are so tough that I never once got sore fingers or noticed any changes. Dealing with the rough texture of a gi in long grappling sessions will get your fingers tough and your hands strong. Now if only my playing ability would come along that easily I'd be in heaven. LOL! Been playing for 11 months now and am loving it!!
When I first started out my instructor was a big fan of Rotosound strings. The tore the crap out of my fingers. No blisters but it was like playing with a cheese grater. I now use flats and while I have some thickening of the tips of my fretting fingers no big calluses. The biggest problem that I have this time of year is cracking of the skin around the tips of my thumbs. I have to moisturize once or twice daily or they do bleed.
Finger Care that has worked for myself : (much of which has already been mentioned)
The obvious: regular playing. For me, getting through 3 hour gigs meant pulling myself out of "the moment" and back off on e finger intenity (Gary Willis would NOT be happy with you!)
I certainly play withe aggression at a gig, so I try to back off at the shows, and make it a point when practicing at home and "dig in" here and there to play the way I play live. I feel this helps if you are playing one or twice a week, say on the weekends only. This is subjective of course, but there is some logic to this; on either hand the main point is to not over due yourself and injure your hands, keeping a balance to your overall technique.
I have used Crazy Glue with the brush applicator to coat the plucking fingers if I haven't played much that week as it feels as If the fingertips don't get as much time mileage on the gig, kind of like playing half or only about 2 thirds of the actual gig time, if that makes any sense.
Another obvious thing: warming up a little, stretching the fingers AND massaging your forearms a little to losen and relax your whole forearm.
Again, letting the amp do a little more work for you; I use to play original gigs a on a fretless and really dug in hard, and had many compliments on my tone, but often gave myself a blister on my index finger during the one 45 minute set. Now I eq a little differently and think I still manage to get the attack and punch I like, kind of a Bernard Edwards sounding attack, (which I really like) without killing myself.
Raising my strap a little also helped fatique the hands a little less.
Use a little Finger Ease, especially on brand new strings; just wipe that stuff off as much as you can.
In colder weather, I purposly avoid hand lotion on my finger tips as another poster has also pointed out. To combat finger tips cracking, I do use Crazy Glue to seal them back up, and taking flax seed oil capsules seems to really help as well.
The obvious: regular playing. For me, getting through 3 hour gigs meant pulling myself out of "the moment" and back off on e finger intenity (Gary Willis would NOT be happy with you!)
I certainly play withe aggression at a gig, so I try to back off at the shows, and make it a point when practicing at home and "dig in" here and there to play the way I play live. I feel this helps if you are playing one or twice a week, say on the weekends only. This is subjective of course, but there is some logic to this; on either hand the main point is to not over due yourself and injure your hands, keeping a balance to your overall technique.
I have used Crazy Glue with the brush applicator to coat the plucking fingers if I haven't played much that week as it feels as If the fingertips don't get as much time mileage on the gig, kind of like playing half or only about 2 thirds of the actual gig time, if that makes any sense.
Another obvious thing: warming up a little, stretching the fingers AND massaging your forearms a little to losen and relax your whole forearm.
Again, letting the amp do a little more work for you; I use to play original gigs a on a fretless and really dug in hard, and had many compliments on my tone, but often gave myself a blister on my index finger during the one 45 minute set. Now I eq a little differently and think I still manage to get the attack and punch I like, kind of a Bernard Edwards sounding attack, (which I really like) without killing myself.
Raising my strap a little also helped fatique the hands a little less.
Use a little Finger Ease, especially on brand new strings; just wipe that stuff off as much as you can.
In colder weather, I purposly avoid hand lotion on my finger tips as another poster has also pointed out. To combat finger tips cracking, I do use Crazy Glue to seal them back up, and taking flax seed oil capsules seems to really help as well.
I find that flats are harder on my fingers than rounds - it took me quite a while to get used to them when I started using them. When I played my first 3-hour gig with flats, I literally carved a trench into my left index finger from all the slides that I played in that blues-rock band! I had to alternate sets between two basses, one with flats, one with rounds, for the first few gigs until my fingers hardened up!
I now use flats exclusively on my basses.
Slightly OT, but I find that the callouses that I develop from playing bass do not help me at all when playing guitar (and vice versa), so if I slack off on either one I pay for it!
I now use flats exclusively on my basses.
Slightly OT, but I find that the callouses that I develop from playing bass do not help me at all when playing guitar (and vice versa), so if I slack off on either one I pay for it!
I have callouses on my left hand, but my right hand is fine. I turn up the amp and play softly with my right hand. I like the tone better, and it gives me some headroom should I want to emphasize a note.
I've only been playing for about a month. A rank newbie. But I practice as much as I can, sometimes for hours a day. It's not uncommon for me to pick up my bass at 8:30pm and not put it down till after midnight. Now, that's not constant playing, as I do typically read up on a technique, then try to apply it and I get up to go to the bathroom and such.
That being said, what hurts me is my FINGERS. Not the tips, but the actual fingers. I sometimes pop Advil for the pain. The constant stretching and pressing on the strings makes my fingers really sore. My shoulder muscle gets sore too. I try to play with proper posture, and that includes keep my wrists straight. I don't rest my arm against my bass, instead I keep my elbow up to keep my wrist straight.
I recently discovered that instead of resting my bass on my right leg, if I put it between my legs (I always play with a strap, even when seated) or stand up, that I'm MUCH more comfortable. Keeping the neck up helps too, especially on the higher frets.
I've always been a bass lover. Now that I'm learning to play, I can't stay away from it. Even if I am just walking by my bass, I'll pick it up and play a few scales or something. Just love hearing it.
I figure that the pain is just because I'm so new at it, and as time goes on I'll develop the required muscles.
I've only been playing for about a month. A rank newbie. But I practice as much as I can, sometimes for hours a day. It's not uncommon for me to pick up my bass at 8:30pm and not put it down till after midnight. Now, that's not constant playing, as I do typically read up on a technique, then try to apply it and I get up to go to the bathroom and such.
That being said, what hurts me is my FINGERS. Not the tips, but the actual fingers. I sometimes pop Advil for the pain. The constant stretching and pressing on the strings makes my fingers really sore. My shoulder muscle gets sore too. I try to play with proper posture, and that includes keep my wrists straight. I don't rest my arm against my bass, instead I keep my elbow up to keep my wrist straight.
I recently discovered that instead of resting my bass on my right leg, if I put it between my legs (I always play with a strap, even when seated) or stand up, that I'm MUCH more comfortable. Keeping the neck up helps too, especially on the higher frets.
I've always been a bass lover. Now that I'm learning to play, I can't stay away from it. Even if I am just walking by my bass, I'll pick it up and play a few scales or something. Just love hearing it.
I figure that the pain is just because I'm so new at it, and as time goes on I'll develop the required muscles.
but then again i suppose it depends on what style you play.
popping really tore up my fingers, never bled, but hurt waaay more than fingerstyle.
popping really tore up my fingers, never bled, but hurt waaay more than fingerstyle.
That's not completely true.
It's more like if he happened to be eating chicken wings before a show, that sometimes he wouldn't wash his hands before going on.
He never consciously was like "Right, I'm going to eat some chicken wings and then purposely not wash my hands."
Me too! We play a song in my one band that is a punk-style throwback: fast, furious, loud and intense. It makes me want to bounce off the ceiling! Last night I noticed my right thumb felt sore after playing it, just from anchoring it against the pickup cover. Normally not a problem, but when I get wound up . . .
Whatever you do, find a comfortable position for playing your bass where you can access all of the notes on your neck and keep both wrists strait at all times. Find some strings that feel comfortable for your fingers, and sound good to your ear.
Whatever level of calluses you experience from 4 months of playing, and whatever side effects you get from that will surely diminish after just a little more time. I remember feeling like my finger tips had been dipped in wax, and it felt weird to touch everything. I remember a friend talking some really disgustingly sappy B.S. about girls and being able to feel a girls soft skin when he held her hand, and thats why he played with a pick so he could at least feel things with his right hand finger tips. *barf* You see, the truth is, thats just a stage and youll move past it. Give it some more time, and yes youll have calluses on your fingers, but you wont feel them or notice them at all.
When you get to the well established callus stage, where you dont even notice them anymore, you wont really get blisters anymore either youll only ever get hot spots. Be on the lookout for that.
A hot spot is basically a blister under a callus, but it doesnt bubble up like a blister because its under a hard callus. Youll feel a finger tip starting to get real warm, and if you dont lay off, itll feel hot and when you look closely later, youll have a little tiny white spot there. It might be barely noticeable, but just like with a blister in soft sensitive skin, once a hot spot happens, the skin on top of it is doomed. With a blister, its going to bubble, pop, peel, and completely heal over within a couple of weeks. With a hot spot, because the skin on top is a callus, its going to take months. But trust me, once you feel the hot spot come on, and you can see it later, that callus is going to shed a layer of skin. Itll be over the course of the next few months. It will not bubble up into a blister. If you leave it a alone, it shouldnt really bother you at all. Itll just be like the callus gets really hard for a few weeks where you had the hot spot, then it cracks for a few weeks, not deep at all, just in the top layer of the callus which is all dead skin anyway, and then you get little hang skin things that hang from the cracking callus, and get really dry and flake off. Never ever pick at them.
When you pick at the little bits of skin to pull them off, they may run deeper, and THAT will cause pain, little dents, little divots, etc in your finger tips as they heal. Your finger tips will take a real long time to become round again once they heal to a healthy callus with a divot or string groove in it because you pulled at bits of skin while it was healing. A string groove or divot in your callused finger tip can really inhibit your playing. You dont want a groove in your finger tip, it makes it super hard to fret any note without fretting out. You may want to lightly file your finger tips with an emery board to help get the little dry bits of skin off, but like mom said - dont pick at it.
If you are playing long and hard enough to get to the stage where you are playing through your calluses, you are probably playing hard in other ways too so, again, make sure both wrists are strait so you dont catch the carpeted tunnel syndrome, make sure you wear ear plugs so you dont go deaf, and do not pick at your fingers when they shed a layer because you insisted on playing till you got a hot spot - and rock out!
Whatever level of calluses you experience from 4 months of playing, and whatever side effects you get from that will surely diminish after just a little more time. I remember feeling like my finger tips had been dipped in wax, and it felt weird to touch everything. I remember a friend talking some really disgustingly sappy B.S. about girls and being able to feel a girls soft skin when he held her hand, and thats why he played with a pick so he could at least feel things with his right hand finger tips. *barf* You see, the truth is, thats just a stage and youll move past it. Give it some more time, and yes youll have calluses on your fingers, but you wont feel them or notice them at all.
When you get to the well established callus stage, where you dont even notice them anymore, you wont really get blisters anymore either youll only ever get hot spots. Be on the lookout for that.
A hot spot is basically a blister under a callus, but it doesnt bubble up like a blister because its under a hard callus. Youll feel a finger tip starting to get real warm, and if you dont lay off, itll feel hot and when you look closely later, youll have a little tiny white spot there. It might be barely noticeable, but just like with a blister in soft sensitive skin, once a hot spot happens, the skin on top of it is doomed. With a blister, its going to bubble, pop, peel, and completely heal over within a couple of weeks. With a hot spot, because the skin on top is a callus, its going to take months. But trust me, once you feel the hot spot come on, and you can see it later, that callus is going to shed a layer of skin. Itll be over the course of the next few months. It will not bubble up into a blister. If you leave it a alone, it shouldnt really bother you at all. Itll just be like the callus gets really hard for a few weeks where you had the hot spot, then it cracks for a few weeks, not deep at all, just in the top layer of the callus which is all dead skin anyway, and then you get little hang skin things that hang from the cracking callus, and get really dry and flake off. Never ever pick at them.
When you pick at the little bits of skin to pull them off, they may run deeper, and THAT will cause pain, little dents, little divots, etc in your finger tips as they heal. Your finger tips will take a real long time to become round again once they heal to a healthy callus with a divot or string groove in it because you pulled at bits of skin while it was healing. A string groove or divot in your callused finger tip can really inhibit your playing. You dont want a groove in your finger tip, it makes it super hard to fret any note without fretting out. You may want to lightly file your finger tips with an emery board to help get the little dry bits of skin off, but like mom said - dont pick at it.
If you are playing long and hard enough to get to the stage where you are playing through your calluses, you are probably playing hard in other ways too so, again, make sure both wrists are strait so you dont catch the carpeted tunnel syndrome, make sure you wear ear plugs so you dont go deaf, and do not pick at your fingers when they shed a layer because you insisted on playing till you got a hot spot - and rock out!
I've played with round wound strings for many years. I always thought flat wound weren't bright enough. 4 or 5 years ago I put ground rounds on my bass. Much easier on the fingers and brighter than flat wounds.
But I still have heavy calluses on all my fingertips!
But I still have heavy calluses on all my fingertips!
One time I decided to smoke before playing and ended up playing this funky metal slide tune that I made up and I played it loud and hard and I got a huge huge blister. That thing stuck out and was precisly the size of my whole index finger to the first knuckle.
Now my band won't let me play that song anymore or they worry about it when I do. To me, that means I need to master that song and play it without the smoke, which I almost never do when I play.
Now my band won't let me play that song anymore or they worry about it when I do. To me, that means I need to master that song and play it without the smoke, which I almost never do when I play.
I just started a new job so I've not really had the time to play as much as I'd like to. Obviously, my fingers softened up, just as my callouses were at an all time high too!
I then went into practise with my funk band, got a bit slap happy and got a lovely blood blister on my index finger. Then had a gig 2 days later. I had a pick with me at the gig and probably should have used it but...alcohol kinda took over a bit and I didn't notice the pain when I was playing. This morning though...it hurts to type, we'll put it that way.
Pro tip! When you get blisters and you want them to harden up, bathe them in vinegar for a while. If you want them to go away and soften, use salt water instead. Works a treat
I then went into practise with my funk band, got a bit slap happy and got a lovely blood blister on my index finger. Then had a gig 2 days later. I had a pick with me at the gig and probably should have used it but...alcohol kinda took over a bit and I didn't notice the pain when I was playing. This morning though...it hurts to type, we'll put it that way.
Pro tip! When you get blisters and you want them to harden up, bathe them in vinegar for a while. If you want them to go away and soften, use salt water instead. Works a treat
When I first started playing the bass, I was practicing either without an amp or thru one of those headphone amp things. Because of this, I was plucking too hard, and occasionally got blisters/callouses.
As I started to play more with a real amp, I took the advice that I had been ignoring all along: let the AMP do the heavy pulling, not your fingers! Turn up the gain, and use the volume knob on the amp control the overall level. Now my plucking hand never callouses over, and on my fretting hand only my index finger has a bit of a callous just off center (gotta fret more on the tip with that one!).
As has been suggested before, technique can solve many issues!
As I started to play more with a real amp, I took the advice that I had been ignoring all along: let the AMP do the heavy pulling, not your fingers! Turn up the gain, and use the volume knob on the amp control the overall level. Now my plucking hand never callouses over, and on my fretting hand only my index finger has a bit of a callous just off center (gotta fret more on the tip with that one!).
As has been suggested before, technique can solve many issues!
Played a show on Friday, mostly punk, fast rock, and some occasional covers. We were really on that night, and I dug in real hard. I guess I am a resistance player, and enjoy the tension that comes from playing hard, I just love the growl out of the P when you really push it. But! I got a "hot spot" and was barely able to use my finger until yesterday, and it still doesnt feel perfect to play.
I am going to experiment at practice with my amp EQ so I dont have to rely on brutalizing my fingers to get the sound I want.
I am going to experiment at practice with my amp EQ so I dont have to rely on brutalizing my fingers to get the sound I want.
Calluses on my plucking fingertips where I dig in for accent, not much on my left hand since I use flats. I've a slight callus on my left index finger since I slide with that a lot.
And I have calluses on my first joint of my fingers on my right hand from drumming, hardened fingertips from piano... it's fun to point out to people which calluses come from which instruments.
And I have calluses on my first joint of my fingers on my right hand from drumming, hardened fingertips from piano... it's fun to point out to people which calluses come from which instruments.
My band got together for the first time in a while last weekend, and I noticed after a couple of hours that my right index finger was starting to sting a bit. My left hand fingers don't ever seem to really hurt that much.
The worst blister I ever got was on the middle finger of my left hand. It was back just as I was learing bass, but I got it while playing guitar. I was trying to learn a particular song's solo, and spent about 8 hours one day constantly playing it OVER AND OVER AND OVER. I noticed after a while that my finger was really sore, and had developed a blister. I let my wife pierce it with a needle, but apparently the needle wasnt completely clean, because the blister got infected. I spent the next week with a syringe poking the blister and squeezing the goo out of it. After about another two days, I pulled the dead skin of and it came of as one piece the size of the whole end of my finger, almost like a cap. The fresh skin underneath was very tender. My new bass I had ordered came in the same day. I just dove in and started playing. It hurt like hell but there was no way I was gonna just sit and look at that bass....
BnB
The worst blister I ever got was on the middle finger of my left hand. It was back just as I was learing bass, but I got it while playing guitar. I was trying to learn a particular song's solo, and spent about 8 hours one day constantly playing it OVER AND OVER AND OVER. I noticed after a while that my finger was really sore, and had developed a blister. I let my wife pierce it with a needle, but apparently the needle wasnt completely clean, because the blister got infected. I spent the next week with a syringe poking the blister and squeezing the goo out of it. After about another two days, I pulled the dead skin of and it came of as one piece the size of the whole end of my finger, almost like a cap. The fresh skin underneath was very tender. My new bass I had ordered came in the same day. I just dove in and started playing. It hurt like hell but there was no way I was gonna just sit and look at that bass....
BnB
I always used to get mean, thick calluses on my fret fingers and lighter ones on my right hand (oddly on the pad of my thumb right where I rest it on the string I'm not using). Then I stopped using nickel strings (or rather uncoated nickel strings) and they all but went away. I've never had an overly heavy hand though.. Turns out I have a slight allergic reaction to nickel that was causing my problem.
