Leaderboard

I do the same. Much prefer it. My problem was not breaking nails but rather a phobia I'd rip one off, or the high E would slide up between finger and nail like a cheesewire and pull it off. Never had a problem picking with the pads of my finger clawhammer style. The other easy option would be to get some finger-picks that slide onto the end of the fingers. Come in metal or plastic. Cliff Gallup used metal ones with his Gretsch back in the 50s, if memory serves.

I'm not cool enough to participate in this thread. I was a teenager in the eighties.

Heavy, though they had a reputation for good tone. I always get a kick out of seeing guitar snobs try to square that with the "tonewood" superstition. I always think of Switch when I see these. Switch were (are?) an electric guitar brand who came out about twenty years ago with plastic composite guitars. The body and neck were plastic, and the theory was that by altering the recipe, they could match the sound on individual wooden instruments with the sort of consistency that meant you'd never get a dead one - if you like one, the next is guaranteed to sound the same. Then they could, in theory, alter the spec to match different wood types or sounds, with guaranteed results. I loved the concept, but unfortunately they went for a very futurist / sci-fi superstrat look and tech that didn't appeal to my preferences (also don't think they did lefties). If I could have bought a bolt-in plastic body and/or neck with a Strat look, that would have ben interesting to try. It's a shame, really, that the market is so conservative when it comes to this sort of thing, otherwise we might have seen some very interesting developments. That said, the plastic guitar concept is probably environmentally unsound now, and there are a lot of interesting changes happening in the acoustic world at least with new, sustainable woods being explored.

Eventually pulled the trigger on a Gibson LP standard. Beautiful sounding, beautiful just to gawp at love it.

Hi there Jon, and welcome. Just a few words on the subject of handedness if I may (hoping it doesn't sound too preachy as it's not meant to)... First up, it's not an either/or. Most people can do things to a certain level with their 'wrong' hand at need. Total one-handedness is actually rare. You probably know this already, but all the same... That said, most people have a preference one way over the other. It can vary very widely as Douglas has indicated above, with people routinely doing different tasks with different hands being fairly common. Again though, proper ambidexterity (the ability to do all things equally well with either hand) is pretty rare. As has been said above, try both ways and let that be your guide. If there doesn't seem to be much difference then you might as well go Righty. If it feels very different then you'll know fairly quickly even as a beginner. (You could still go Righty in this latter situation of course, but you need to be prepared for the likelihood that it'll be hard work - as in 'harder than if you'd gone Lefty'.) One more thing: there are couple of myths about handedness on a guitar that you need to be aware of: 1. "It's all a bit strange at first so you might as well play Righty." In my years as a guitar tutor with the RGT I once had a protracted and heated argument with - of all people - a senior and well-respected member of the Registry over this through the pages of our professional journal. Yes it is all a bit strange at first, but that doesn't necessarily make it an equal challenge. 2. "Left handed players have a stronger left hand, and since the fretting hand does most of the work you should really be playing Righty anyway." I've heard this one on a number of musicians' forums (including, sad to say, Guitatchat's sister site, Basschat). In the first place, it isn't the case that the fretting hand does all the hard work. All the fretting fingers need to do is be in the right place at the right time: the subtleties and nuances of note production are carried out by the strong hand. In the second place, even if it were true, then by that logic all right-handed players should be playing Lefty! Hope this helps. ETA: In case this seems a little OTT given what you've said up top, around 90% of the population is predominantly right-handed, so the fact that you've mentioned left-handedness at all indicates that it's an unusual thing to be considering. Hence the speil.

I’m sure that others will chip in with suggestions that he sit with his nails in a saucer of vinegar or paint them with clear nail polish or similar. Ive always just filed mine short on both hands and use the pads of my fingers rather than the nails. Almost certainly a poor technique that’s frowned upon but it works for me.