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Eat. Gelatin.

Find out the foods that contain natural gelatin, such as fish and foul skins, etc. and also plain old "Jello" - and add it to your weekly diet regimen. No need to overdo this one, but not paying attention to it can be the kiss of death for the guitarist's nails.




The notion that gelatin does anything to strengthen your fingernails is an old wives tale.
If you need an excuse to eat Jello you will need to come up with another one.

If you are going to be finger picking nylon strings, they are much easier on your fingernails than steel strings. All my finger picking is done on steel strings and with the exception of the plastic National thumb pick and metal finger picks that I use for Scruggs style picking on the 5 string, I use Fred Kelly Freedom finger picks and a Fred Kelly Bumblebee flat thumb pick. The Freedom finger pick wraps very tightly around your finger and when properly positioned it is very much like your natural nail. It leaves the flesh of your finger exposed so that you can strike the string with both flesh and finger. The picks come in small, medium, and large sizes and you can also apply heat to customize the fit and then plunge them into cold water to make them retain their new shape. The Delrin freedom picks sound more like natural fingernails and the polys sound a little brighter.

Now I'm going to share a trick with you all that I've never shared with any one before but it was something that I came up with last year after years of trying to find something to keep my finger picks and thumb picks in place. Believe me I have tried every thing without complete success. Earl Scruggs wrote in his instruction book about his method of scratching up the inside of his thumb picks with the blade of a pocket knife so that was one method that I used. I've used the fake finger nails, the ping pong balls, AlasKa picks held in place with a tightened strip of Velcro but I drew the line at applying super glue. I tried gorilla snot (rosin) which was only moderately successful at keeping picks from flying loose while picking. I finally had a Eureka moment when I applied a wad of poster putty to the inside of my freedom picks and pressed the picks firmly down on my fingernails. The poster putty not only held the pick tight to my finger while I was playing but it remained stuck to the inside of the pick when I took it off, meaning that I did not need to reapply it the next time I wanted to use the picks. I found that I could also apply the poster putty to my thumb pick with similar great results.

The first experiment that I did with the poster putty, I used WAY too much. Use too much and it is gushing out onto your strings and the top of your guitar. I use a very tiny ball of poster putty which I apply to the finger pick so that when I press it onto my finger nail that it won't spread out all the way to or past the end of my fingernail. Just press it down very firmly and the pick will stay in place. Experimentation will teach you how much to use without making a mess. I have found it to be a very minuscule amount. When you want to take the picks off, they come off just a little bit hard, but as I mentioned, if you have done it right the putty stays stuck to the inside of the pick and is ready for the next go.

Keith
2025 Audiophile Windows 11 RYZEN THREADRIPPER 3960X 4.5GHZ 128 GB RAM 2 Nvidia RTX 3090s, Vegas,Acid,SoundForge,Izotope Production,Melodyne Studio,SONAR,3 Raven Mtis