Advice on a bum finger, please?

[McSpunckle]

Ok, so here's what happened. When I was about 6, part of my finger got chopped off by the fan of an unguarded leaf blower that, for some reason, I was allowed to play with.

It was never treated. And now it's all... sensitive. If I play guitar for any amount of time, it begins to hurt too bad to keep playing. I can play bass with it, since that generally only involves the tip, but chording on a guitar, where the side of my finger presses on the string, it gets bad.

I tried taping it, but that only makes it a little better.

Perhaps the Iommi plastic/leather deal is in order? Any ideas? I may just have to stick to open tunings. :?

[masked elwood]

you know about tony iommi's finger tips don't you? he has plastic tips on the ends where they were chopped off in some childhood accident.

have you try coating the area with superglue? it makes a callus like coating. i have to do that ever so often as i am a lame brain and seen to cut my fingers alot. *note to self, stop playing with knives.

anyway....it may not work for you but it's easy to try.

hope this helps,
elwd

[JonathanF]

Maybe you could use one of these: http://www.alaskapik.com/ ?

Good luck!

[McSpunckle]

Maybe you could use one of these: http://www.alaskapik.com/ ?

Good luck!

It's on my fretting hand. :-/.

[JonathanF]

Maybe you could use one of these: http://www.alaskapik.com/ ?

Good luck!

It's on my fretting hand. :-/.

Oh, sorry, my bad
Didn't read your entire post...

[Ghost Hip]

I take it the more difficult things to so are A major shaped barre chords. I know some that use their pinky to so those (I think Billy Joe armstrong does too... not sure). Otherwise I sometimes just use my first finger to barre the D,G, and B strings and use my thumb to mute the E and A strings.

I don't know how you play G chords but being a Pumpkins fan I usually just play it with one finger (either middle, or first finger depending on what I'm doing) like this:

e-x-
B-0-
G-0-
D-0-
A-x-
E-3-

Of course there's also drop D and alternate tunings you could experiment with.

[McSpunckle]

That hard parts are basically anything that requires my ring finger to be in front of other fingers.

Like... a C...

e-0-
B-1-
G-0-
D-2-
A-3-
E-x-

Hitting the C note with that finger hurts. I guess I *could* use my pinky.

As long as I can use the very tip of the finger, it's OK, but if it has to bend back at all it hurts-- eventually too bad to play for a while.

[Ghost Hip]

To me it seems your guitar playing would be great for a band but not alone by itself with this problem. I don't know what your agenda/goals are with playing guitar, but you could always play a C without the bass note and you'd still have all the notes of a C chord. It'd just be inverted with the major 3rd on top....which is awkward alone but when you have a bass player busting out a low C it sounds great.

the other thing Tony Iommi did was tune the strings down a half or whole step which made the strings easier to press/bend/etc.

[leastwise]

use it to your advantage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt

[metalmariachi]

Super low tension strings, down tuning or maybe slide, a finger splint?

MM

[CBGB]

Another example is Django Reinhardt, two of whose fingers on his fretting hand were paralysed.

I suppose the main thing is to re-finger chords to take that finger out of the picture, unless only the fingertip is needed.

With Reinhardt and Iommi, the things they couldn't do didn't hold them back but instead pretty much created their own style.

[sev]

The superglue thing sounds worth a try. From what I understand, it was developed as a medical glue.

Any interest in electronics?
I'm a drummer who started playing in grade school. At a very busy point in my musical career, I developed an elbow injury. Long story short, I all but stopped playing for a few years...but channeled my musical creativity into samplers, drum machines and synths. My elbow is mostly better now, but I still have a machine addiction...and even play a drum machine by hand on stage with my current band.

When life hands you lemons, make whiskey sours!!

[McSpunckle]

The superglue thing sounds worth a try. From what I understand, it was developed as a medical glue.

Any interest in electronics?
I'm a drummer who started playing in grade school. At a very busy point in my musical career, I developed an elbow injury. Long story short, I all but stopped playing for a few years...but channeled my musical creativity into samplers, drum machines and synths. My elbow is mostly better now, but I still have a machine addiction...and even play a drum machine by hand on stage with my current band.

When life hands you lemons, make whiskey sours!!

I have. I'm looking into some sort of analog synth to put through my bass/guitar rig.

But feel of an instrument is really important to me. Like, I don't really LIKE playing an instrument if I can't feel it. Like a good bass guitar shaking through your body, without even being plugged in. I think I might be weird...

[Ghost Hip]

Like that lady on Talladega Nights, "The only good thing about these races is the Vibrations - from the cars!!!!"

[McSpunckle]

Basically, except I'm sexier.