Double Bass Playing with a glove

[Holdsg]

OK, now don't hate, but I have a situation here.

First, I had to travel for about 4 weeks strait and didn't play my DB for that long, my calluses were almost gone. Then I went to the Huck Finn festival in So Cal last Saturday and played for about 3 hours of jamming, and totally obliterated my fingers on my right (plucking) hand. So I still want to go to a jam on Thursday night, but am concerned with what I will do to myself without time for my fingers to heal. Thus, I am considering playing with a football receiver's glove on my RH. Anybody think I'm crazy?

 

[BobKay]

Over the years I've seen people play with a glove or tape on their right hand. If you need some protection, then why not?

 

[samson3382]

I've tried, and never found anything that didn't get annoying and discarded.

 

[Bass Doc]

Try some Dermabond surgical skin glue or Elastoplast tape both work well. I like the Elastoplast tape better.

 

[Holdsg]

the glove worked ok, was able to jam for 2 1/2 hours without killing fingers. Now, time to practice to start building back up the calus.

 

[IM BLACK]

I play 3-4 hour gigs and this is what my fingers looked like on my plucking hand...

So because playing like this every week was hard to do, I started to wrap my fingers in painters tape ( the blue kind). It works totally well, but I have to re wrap them every few songs because the slip with my hand sweat. It sure beats blisters!

 

[HolmeBass]

That plastic surgery tape for holding gauze on works better than painters tape.

Also, ice your blisters to get them to shrink and harden back up faster.

 

[IM BLACK]

Noted! Thanks

 

[skychief]

That plastic surgery tape for holding gauze on works better than painters tape.

Also, ice your blisters to get them to shrink and harden back up faster.

Ditching the painters tape.

10-4.

Curiously researching ice on the blisters...

 

[signboy]

My wife pokes holes in bad blisters with a needle or pin, then soaks her fingertips in hydrogen peroxide. Do it a few times, a couple hours apart. She says it speeds up the callous building process.

 

[M Ramsey]

I'll tell my tale, as I have once to twice before. I played banjo & mandolin from 1980 until 1990. In September of '90, on Labor Day weekend, I jammed on a borrowed Kay bass (that I later bought) and 3 successive blisters emerged on my right index finger AND broke during the jam, on Saturday. I came home, nursed them (I don't remember how) and auditioned for another group, on bass, on Monday. I got that job, played with them for another 16 months and have been playing bass ever since. I've played enough to keep callouses ever since.

 

[Root Five]

I've seen people play with a golf glove

 

[Johnny Crab]

Used to get blisters in 1965 when I started so I got the "banjo(?)" picks to use if things got too bad.
Back then all they had was white plastic, now you can get clear(scroll down on this link):
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I play with fingerless gloves all the time because of a circulation issue in my left hand. With gloves, everything is fine and my hands warm up quick & stay warm. Without gloves, my left hand may start tingling(like your foot falling asleep) and playing gets almost impossible.
Scott uses gloves too: http://www.scottsbasslessons.com/

 

[Reiska]

Scott has some sort of rare nerval disease ( cant`t remember exactly what it was about ) that forces him to wear the glove. He picked up that idea from a classical violin player with same disease.

Just go for it if you need to!!!