ShortScale.org

I've had a sudden burst of guitar wizardry of late where my playing is taking off again BUT an old debilitating spectre has risen up once again. In my early twenties I ruined my index finger through playing heavy guage strings in drop D with heavy over use of the index. I'm pretty sure I've worn away the cartilage or cushioning sacks inn the all the joints to the knuckle, but the tip joint is the worst. This is exacerbated by my unusually small hands. This issue is what brought me to shortscale guitars in the first place. A short scale helps, but more so a thinner fretboard width.

After playing my guitar and mandolin all yesterday (In the ZONE!) today my finger is clicking and giving me gip something chronic. I think i need to face facts here: after over a decade this problem is not going to heal itself. I don;t think re-learning left handed is a quick option right now though I may instigate a long term strategy for this. In the mean time the only thing I found that helped was wearing a small rubber sewing thimble. The issue with this is that it gets all sweaty and isn't that comfortable, but it does take much of the pressure and impact off.

Ideally I'd like something like a miniature jointed leg brace to provide support all along the finger to the knuckle, with a flexible tough strip on the underside to provide bracing during bar chords, but THAT would be a feat of functional and flexible engineering almost certainly beyond me.

I've found two people doing tips (Iommi style), one seems really nice, the other charges a lot and has a really stupid late 90's flash site:

http://spirittips.yolasite.com/



http://www.galaxyguitar.com/

I'm going to contact the spirit guy to see if that's a possibility....BUT I'm putting this out there in case any of you good folks has an ingenious solution to my problem. I'd possibly invest some time and money into a project if a fantastic and practical solution could be found. It's really bugging me terribly. Any ideas?

You can get those office/paper handling thimbles. Made out of rubber. i tried them out once. worked okay. make your fingertip go white and sweaty after a while though

also, do some finger exercises. maybe get a gripmaster.

George wrote:also, do some finger exercises. maybe get a gripmaster.

This is what penis is for.

George wrote:You can get those office/paper handling thimbles. Made out of rubber. i tried them out once. worked okay. make your fingertip go white and sweaty after a while though

Yes tried them and came to same conclusion as you!

Dave wrote:

George wrote:also, do some finger exercises. maybe get a gripmaster.

This is what penis is for.

+1 LOL

What a strange and fortuitous coincidence...a random comment on a Shearwater youtube vid led me to read up on Tim Buckley and saw this:

During a football game he broke the first two fingers on his left hand, permanently damaging them. He later said that the injury prevented him from playing barre chords. This disability may have led to his use of extended chords, many of which don't require barres.

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One for the resources section...