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Thunderbird Club

#171,044
GonePlaid said:
Honestly, I do pretty well most of the time, but if I listen to some of the stuff we taped back when I was playing 6 nights a week, I can't move as fast. Fortunately, I rarely need to.
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One of the reasons I started playing (about 6 years ago) was because of arthritis. Over the last decade and a half, my fingers have become a bit stiff. I figured either start playing music or take up knitting. Although neither activity will stop creeping decrepitude, I hope to slow the progress of damage related to a life well lived and have something that will aid in coping with those changes.

The changes continue and the one I am contending with now is arthritis in the thumb of my fretting hand. As a result of a skiing accident, that thumb has a more significant problem (on x-ray, there is a nice little divot in the bone one side). I am trying to adapt to playing while wearing a splint on that thumb (the eventual choice will be having the joint fused when it is bad enough). Either that or I will have to pick and chose the days I can play and finish earlier than I would prefer.
 
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#171,046
PillO said:
One of the reasons I started playing (about 6 years ago) was because of arthritis. Over the last decade and a half, my fingers have become a bit stiff. I figured either start playing music or take up knitting. Although neither activity will stop creeping decrepitude, I hope to slow the progress of damage related to a life well lived and have something that will aid in coping with those changes.

The changes continue and the one I am contending with now is arthritis in the thumb of my fretting hand. As a result of a skiing accident, that thumb has a more significant problem (on x-ray, there is a nice little divot in the bone one side). I am trying to adapt to playing while wearing a splint on that thumb (the eventual choice will be having the joint fused when it is bad enough). Either that or I will have to pick and chose the days I can play and finish earlier than I would prefer.
Click to expand...
Hate to hear that. Not being able to play, even if it were just at home, is something of a fear of had. Maybe you could try learning to play less with your thumb on the back of the neck and more of the ball of your thumb joint (metacarpophalangeal joint) and palm. Not ideal for a technique but it might give you some extra time playing. And for goodness sake, stop abusing watermelons. I saw on the interwebs that it's extremely difficult on the thumb.
 
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#171,047
PillO said:
One of the reasons I started playing (about 6 years ago) was because of arthritis. Over the last decade and a half, my fingers have become a bit stiff. I figured either start playing music or take up knitting. Although neither activity will stop creeping decrepitude, I hope to slow the progress of damage related to a life well lived and have something that will aid in coping with those changes.

The changes continue and the one I am contending with now is arthritis in the thumb of my fretting hand. As a result of a skiing accident, that thumb has a more significant problem (on x-ray, there is a nice little divot in the bone one side). I am trying to adapt to playing while wearing a splint on that thumb (the eventual choice will be having the joint fused when it is bad enough). Either that or I will have to pick and chose the days I can play and finish earlier than I would prefer.
Click to expand...
Keep working it, of course don't overdue it. A great guitarist/friend of mine has basically no cartilage in his fretting hand thumb due to many hours of jazz and bar chords.
As for me, I have found the c shape of my 66J caused thumb discomfort, so most of my basses have a flatter neck and don't bother me at all
 
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#171,048
Yesterday was a great day, not only got my 1st Covid shot, but this sweet wenge neck, roasted swamp ash, Aguilar J PUP, Dingwall 4 way rotary PUP selector (it was originally to get the neck for my ThunderP project, but it's too nice to break up).
37e0e1a9-b9c9-4e56-9caf-e6feae7d2d00-jpeg.jpg
 
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#171,049
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#171,050
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#171,051
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#171,052
GonePlaid said:
They were upright when they took the pics?
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LOL - you're right. And furthermore, in his defense, he never placed the " ' " punctuation in front of the number 76 (i.e. '76) so he might have meant 7+6 = 13, which was the year the bass was built. Besides, it's a pawn shop, and those have a long reputation of being squeaky clean and honest.
 
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#171,056
dagrev said:
Hate to hear that. Not being able to play, even if it were just at home, is something of a fear of had. Maybe you could try learning to play less with your thumb on the back of the neck and more of the ball of your thumb joint (metacarpophalangeal joint) and palm. Not ideal for a technique but it might give you some extra time playing. And for goodness sake, stop abusing watermelons. I saw on the interwebs that it's extremely difficult on the thumb.
Click to expand...
The MCP joint is the one that is a problem.
thumb-mcp-joint-jpg.46720

If I had stretched or torn a ligament, it could be repaired. Instead, I managed to put a divot in the surface which means I have bone rubbing on bone. On the upside, it makes the other arthritic joints seem like less of an issue.

I don't think it will ever stop me from playing, but the impairment will mean that I will have to keep changing technique to something less efficient.
 
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#171,057
PillO said:
The MCP joint is the one that is a problem.
thumb-mcp-joint-jpg.46720

If I had stretched or torn a ligament, it could be repaired. Instead, I managed to put a divot in the surface which means I have bone rubbing on bone. On the upside, it makes the other arthritic joints seem like less of an issue.

I don't think it will ever stop me from playing, but the impairment will mean that I will have to keep changing technique to something less efficient.
Click to expand...
Maybe you should try playing left-handed.
 
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