Taping fingers. Does it help?

I've only ever taped fingers to prevent further injury in the context of sports. Where's the pain coming from? The joint, the muscles, er whut?

 

Sounds like you are playing too hard... Try to ease up?

 

I've heard about some pro using super glue on the fingertips, I just can't remember who... Never tried it myself, but I guess it could work!

 

Maybe you can't hear yourself well enough and are compensating for that. If you move your amp higher or point it at your head, you might naturally play lighter.

I find with my more energetic bands that I get a bit of an adrenalin dump while playing, so strings that ordinarily feel very stiff (which I like), start to feel floppy and loose. I have to be very deliberate about trying to lighten up my touch, but it's disturbing. I like to feel the resistance of the strings and instead I feel like the Hulk playing a rubber band.

 

Its natural to dig in harder if you can't hear yourself.

I split my middle finger tip before it callused, and that was rather sucktastic. I used Nu Skin to close it, and that worked OK for the rest of the day, but it wore off too quickly. I think actual Super Glue would have worked better in that it'd go on thicker and last longer.

 

Tape or super glue - I got super glue on my fingers a couple of days ago fixing a broken dish, uggaug. IMO this would mess up me feeling the strings - which I think I would not like. I'd suggest you change up and use a pick or your thumb on some of the songs.

Good problem to have...

 

Agree.

 

I just finished up a three week production of the musical Shrek, where I was playing 7 gigs each week (not to mention a couple rehearsals and church services thrown in for good measure). I ended up taping my index and ring fingers, but only because I was shredding the cuticle area of the nail (I've been using Damien Erskine's right hand technique, which will explain this a bit better). So for me, it was more for protection of that over my finger tips.

 

This is one advantage of playing with a pick. The hand position with a pick in my opinion is more ergonomic. I have seen finger players get bad tendonitis and blisters. In fact I think Geddy Lee had to cancel some concerts due to real bad blisters.

Is switching over to picks full time a viable option for you?

 

I've done it and it worked O K. Two band-aids on each finger , one long ways over the end of the finger and the second around the finger to hold the first one in place. This was years ago and I had some really crappy strings on the bass and they were tearing up my fingertips. I have Chromes on both my basses now and never have any problems , even on really long gigs.

 

the only time I taped my fingers was when I developed blisters from not playing for an extended period - a couple days and my calluses were back - in my off time I untapeed them and practiced with them slowly and lees harder.

 

Playing flats will eliminate that problem I know it did for me.