When I was performing regularly with acoustic guitar I used a diamond file to carefully shape and bevel the nails on my right hand, then treated them with thin CA adhesive, also known as Super Glue. You have to be really careful with the stuff--it was originally designed to bond skin as a replacement for sutures--but it was the most effective treatment I ever found. (If you go this route, which I recommend, keep a bottle of solvent around. You get it where you get the glue; hobby shops are the best source.) I was also changing strings daily, more often if I was recording. Fairly extreme, but the resultant sound was worth it, at least to me.

Edited to add: I almost never broke nails at this point. I was fanatically careful of my hands. Even if I did, I had healthy calluses on the fingertips of both hands, so didn't sacrifice much in terms of timbral quality. Finger picks just never worked for me, at all. For one thing, they're
only good on the upstroke. I was likely to strum in either direction. I was aware of a sitar pick which might have worked but was never
motivated to find them. They looked like a ring with a wire that went over the fingertip with an angle at the apex.

R.

Last edited by Ryszard; 02/05/13 05:36 AM.