hey guys,


I was wondering how many of you have let their right hand fingernails grow and most importantly - what shape did you give them? How do you use them in your playing (if you do)

I'll take a pic of my nails and post it here

I've never used my fingernails for guitar playing yet.. plus I used to have a bad habit of always biting my nails which I only stopped doing a couple of years ago

Never grew fingernails, actually I tried once when starting to play guitar, but as soon as I started playing, I remember they were grinded, cause I was using the nails in similar way I would play with a pick

Hehehe this is going to be a nasty thread - I can see it already

On the topic - I once tried to grow them but they were just too weak for fingerpicking and broke easily.
I keep them ultra short for years now.

I do a fair bit of fingerpicking, but I use the tips of my fingers rather than the nails. However, I got a friend who plays with his fingernails quite a bit, and his nails on his right hand look like claws. I always tend to try and keep my nails as short as possible on both hands, but especially the left, since they can be a hindrance to your fretting.

The only utility I've ever found out of having long nails is their tremendous capability to mine gold nuggets out of the mineshaft that is my big nose

I've just started finger picking and have been perfectly content with very short fingernails. I work on my car and bike a lot so having long nails is very impractical. Plus I occasionally listen to The Bee Gees... I don't need anything else to put my orientation into question

hahaha when I was at the classical conservatory my guitar teacher asked me to let my fingernails grow but I didn't do it. I used to paint my fingernails black at that time ( yeah! I was very into the Gothic music) and I didn't want to have long & painted fingernails..

Nowadays I don't play too much with fingerpicking tehcnique, I use Hybrid Picking and I don't really need long fingernails for it...

I cut my nails short now...

The sharp pointed thumb nail pick for shredding was a complete and utter fail!

Next attempt, to use a drill, YEAH!

I cut my right hand nails short enough not to be a nuisance but I like the fact that i can use them when I hybrid pick now and then. People tend to look in a very weird way at my nails usually but, hey, if i have the beard I must have the claws as well don't I?

I play flamenco and fingerstyle
These does the trick for me. Fairly short and with a tip where its needed

Haha.. yes.. a thread with men sharing their beautifully crafted fingernail pictures.... 'Do you use varnish on those, Sir ?'l

After posting, we'll all need to go and do something really macho like wrestle a bear and drink petrol !



I told you that you were turning into Wolverine !!

Yes sir! gonna get me a bear to wrestle with right away!

Loool Yeah we can do that after we smash some beer cans on our head \m/