How long are your finger nails?!

[Leigh Semmens]

Short on LH for guitar and bass, RH, all varying lengths because they never get the chance to grow long. They get broken in many and varied ways while doing "stuff". Now that I think about it, my index finger nail is about due to be broken by something as it is finally at a useful length for finger picking.

 

[pbass2]

Very short on both hands. I keep nail clippers in my gig bag at all times! I don't use my nails on my plucking hand really (I mean, they're there having whatever effect they have as part of my fingers, but not really making much contact w the strings). I play with a pick maybe 50% of the time, and the rest is pretty classic fingerstyle, except for when I do that palm mute/fingerpicking thing like Pino, etc. I don't like my nails hitting the strings at all like that--I want the thumb and the fingers to have a similar tone.

 

[Bassquest]

Gross. Down to the stub, Bub!

 

[GBBSbassist]

The thought of my fingernails hitting the strings repeatedly is just gross. If I can feel mine, they're too long already.

 

[Jogobass]

what nails?.. I had them surgically removed to get more mwah on my fretless.

For real though, very short. as short as can be. hate it when a nail hits the string.

 

[themickster]

Been searching for a particular tone for a while and realised this particular's player's tone was partly due to his nails getting involved. I've always cut mine short. Have I been making a mistake?

Only a mistake if you don't learn from it

 

[timmus]

Up until I was 40ish, I used to chew my nails down to or past the quick...I was finally able to kick that habit (not easy) but I still trim my nails down pretty short.

I have to carry a pair of clippers with me all the time because if my nails get a little long for me and I don't have my clippers, it's nail biting time again.

 

[lokikallas]

I hate my nails and keep them as short as possible sometimes to the point of pain.

 

[mikewalker]

fretting hand short as possible, but I do a bit of 'flamencoid' flailing from time to time so 'medium' on the picking hand...

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Been searching for a particular tone for a while and realised this particular's player's tone was partly due to his nails getting involved. I've always cut mine short. Have I been making a mistake?

No. If you only knew how much crud and bacteria accumulate under there. Best advice keep them short and clean, and for heavens sake, don’t bite them.

 

[Topkat13]

Grow your nail and see.

 

[Rich Fiscus]

Ultra short, which makes me sad, as I'd prefer to have longer nails and have fun painting them, etc. But I can't stand the feel or the tone when my nails are any longer on my plucking hand fingers.

It’s funny how many personal sacrifices we make in service of playing music.

 

[GreyBeard]

I cut them short enough so that they don't grab the strings.

 

[Grizelda100]

...I have fingernails?

 

[Mike Sorr]

For me, if you can see past the skin on my fingers the nails are too long. I keep them short, and I mean short as in any shorter and they’d bleed short. If they’re any longer they annoy me to no end.

 

[dpaul]

Been searching for a particular tone for a while and realised this particular's player's tone was partly due to his nails getting involved. I've always cut mine short. Have I been making a mistake?

Reminds me of an interview I read about Geddy. Grow your plucking finger nails out and give it a try, see what you think. I actually used acrylic nails in my ‘20’s to try and achieve a tone where is sounded like I was picking, though I was playing finger-style. This track is a good representation of my tone back then;

 

[marchone]

Always short. I used to keep fingernail clippers in my bass case when I was going to rehearsals and gigging.

 

[bolophonic]

Short. But I don’t have any trace of calluses on my fingertips.

 

[J Wilson]

I learned to keep them very short in my piano days, you don't want any click-clack on the keys.

I was stunned to see Geddy playing with his fingers in the several films they released in their later years:. I'd wrongly assumed he was a pick player to have that tone.

Then I remembered reading about an in-house experiment that Bob Taylor staged. In an effort to find this or that tone, he made several of his standard models in several prototypes using varied wood combinations.

While this did indeed show him what combinations worked for a certain tone, there was one factor that could not be engineered for: A given fingerstyle player's hands.

Some guys had more fat, some were bonier, it was all over the place. He described this X-factor as 'Bone Tone', over which he had no control.

So . . . if I had to woodshed some Rush, me, I'd be forced to use a pick to approximate that tone.

Geddy doesn't. Who knew?

 

[ryco]

Short, especially on my right plucking hand.
Started playing with a pick a few years ago and find that if I don't keep them short the nails start splitting out and catch on the strings - splitting them even further - on my index and middle fingers. Not a good feeling.
Plus it just feels better having them short.