How long are your finger nails?!

[marchone]

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?

Bone Tone. That’s good. I’ll turn my index finger sideways to pluck with the fat side if I neglected to trim my nails before playing.

 

[Thumpin6string]

Short, short on both hands.

 

[2112]

Usually quite short (I hate getting dirty nails), but I'll grow them a bit on my right index & middle when I'm playing lots of flamenco style.

 

[Fynn]

If this turns into a thread of old men showing their toenails I'm out

I'm a young man. Does that allow me to show my toenails now?

 

[2cooltoolz]

Long enough to scratch with, but short enough not to pluck the strings. I clip 2-3 times a week. Clippers always in reach at my practice/learning "station".

 

[DianaBass]

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?

I keep them short, which is a bummer because I have beautiful nails when they grow out, imho. However, I DO need to keep just a bit nail line because I found out I can't play things like Killing Floor without that little bit of nail. I think everyone is different, though

 

[MasterMonkeyMan]

Kinda tricky one for me. I have taken to playing Classical Guitar the last several years. I like having my plucking hand finger nails somewhat long for that. But for bass I don't like having nails. I have developed a compromise. I file them on an angle so that the leftmost side is long enough to accommodate the nylon string playing and the rightmost side is short for bass. I have to alter each playing technique somewhat to manage this. It works.
At times when I am playing bass outside of a group situation, and I haven't gotten around to filing the nails, I enjoy a bit of the "clicky" sound. It approximates a sort of slap sound that can get a bit funky. Good funky. Also there are times when I take a short hiatus from C.G. and so I cut 'em down for bass and vice versa.
I keep the fretting hand nails super short.

 

[BassNamePun]

I prefer my nails shorter, but because I also play classical guitar and get paid for it sometimes, I keep them longer than I'd like. But if I have a long period of time with only bass gigs planned, I keep them a little shorter, which is especially helpful since I play fairly aggressively and if I do some slappy nonsense with longer nails sometimes it'll break the nail or do the thing where it separates it from the nail bed and I feel a constant cut sensation under the nail and I hate that.

On the other rhand sometimes when my nails are longer it DOES give a scratchy picky sound which can sometimes be desirable in the punk band I play in.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

I always keep them pretty dang short, though truth be told I kinda like the *click clack* sound that I can get with a little nail. I hate, however, the feeling of my nails getting tugged on by the string. Getting one bent back is no fun. Hasn’t happened yet, (from a string anyway), and I intend to keep it that way.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

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?

Enough, enough …

 

[Sam Evans]

Pretty short. I play piano more than bass these days, and I can't have the nail hitting the keys, makes my fingers slip. I don't clip them, though: files only. That's a habit I got into years ago during my brief attempt to play fingerstyle guitar, and I've stuck with it.

 

[Nashrakh]

Usually very short, though I'm also thinking about growing them out a bit to see if I can get closer to what a certain player does. (In my case, Thundercat)

 

[Acoop]

For the last fifty-years if I hear a click or clack when we right hand fingers hit the strings I file them down till they don't. ... I often wonder, if I didn't play, I wouldn't care and I might look like Howard Hughes at the end.

 

[brianrost]

I trim my nails as soon as I hear the right hand nails clicking on the strings.

 

[jamro217]

If this turns into a thread of old men showing their toenails I'm out

Could be worse. It could be old men chewing their toenails. Which reminds me, I'm overdue for a pedicure. (Yum Yum!) My fingernails were getting long so I cut them short just the other day. Do I win a prize or something?

 

[-Asdfgh-]

If I see a white line past my quick, they are too long.

Plucking hand, mine are around 3mm past that point, although closer to 2 to 2.5mm is more typical. I play fingerstyle with significant amounts of nail but at 2mm I can vary the attack angle and soften the sound. Left hand - very short. I've never got on with picks, so that's not a sound variation that works for me. I don't even much like them for guitar strumming and have used them in that context mostly because using my nails was wearing them away and armouring them with Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails as a sacrificial layer was getting tedious when I was playing guitar in a band for a while.

If at 4mm the nails drag and they definitely get filed down then, but at 3mm as today typing on a computer keyboard begins to get annoying which is the sign that some filing is required. If I overdo the filing I feel almost naked.

 

[Kaa]

Plucking hand, mine are around 3mm past that point, although closer to 2 to 2.5mm is more typical. I play fingerstyle with significant amounts of nail but at 2mm I can vary the attack angle and soften the sound. Left hand - very short. I've never got on with picks, so that's not a sound variation that works for me. I don't even much like them for guitar strumming and have used them in that context mostly because using my nails was wearing them away and armouring them with Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails as a sacrificial layer was getting tedious when I was playing guitar in a band for a while.

If at 4mm the nails drag and they definitely get filed down then, but at 3mm as today typing on a computer keyboard begins to get annoying which is the sign that some filing is required. If I overdo the filing I feel almost naked.

(shudders)
Lol.
I can completely dig where you are coming from, your nails being a functional fingerpick. I've always kept my nails cut as far down as possible (except for the one pinky nail for when I was hanging out at Studio 54, if ya know what I mean).

 

[BlueTalon]

I don't cut mine down to the quick, but it's pretty close. I leave about 1/16" (1-2 mm) when I clip, and let them grow until they're about even with the end of my fingertips.

That length is useful sometimes when plucking/picking. I can get some good clank with them.

 

[Plectrum72]

Medium-short. Definitely not trimmed back all the way, but not even with my calluses/fingertips either.

 

[FrenchBassQC]

White line past the quick of the nail for me. I'm in between medium and short I guess.