Figured out how to have nails on guitar and not on bass

The theory is, when I have my fingers hanging down in bass posture, only the pad hits, cause the nail is short on the inside. When my hand is curled in a guitar position, the nail strikes the string.

Also makes it pretty easy to get that nain in there on bass for songs that might need a more punctuated attack -- songs you might normally want a pick for.

 

Unfortunately, I don't play classical well enough to cause anyone to give up either of their testicles, but I like to mess with it a bit, and with banjo, and some songs just work better on guitar fingerstyle, even though I'm mostly a pick player (on guitar).

I'm trying to develop a guitar technique like Chet Atkins (and others), where I use a thumb-pick and fingernails, and then just hold the thumb pick with my index finger like a normal pick for other stuff. Finally got the nail part figured out. The only trouble now is that I have very specific tastes in flat picks (thick, rigid, and pointy... we're still talking about picks here...), and I'm having trouble finding the perfect thumb pick to scratch that itch.

Also been playing bass with a thumb pick a bit, since I don't do a lot of slap with the band (i.e. church). I like having a pick always at the ready, but I do like to use the pad of my thumb as well sometimes (like, while palm-muting, for a pseudo-upright kind of decay), and since I can also get a decent pick sound with my fingernails, I'm not sure that it's a net gain. Luckily, it is not difficult to simply take off or put on the thumb pick between songs. Not really a choice I have to make.

 

Don't leave home without it! I just did my nails again today. They do tend to get damaged with steel strings, so you always have to keep that file ready for damage control. Put a triple coat of Sally Hansen's "Hard as Nails" on there today though. That always helps.