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Short or Long Nails?

Classical guitar is usually played with nails. The electric guitar can be played with or without nails.

Short nails do not produce as loud a volume, do not lend themselves to the fastest playing but perhaps for a beginner, they give you more control and sensitivity as you literally touch the strings with your fingertip. Short nails are also easier to maintain and easier to integrate into the rest of your life. Long nails give you a more vibrant tone, better volume and faster speed. But long nails can be a real maintenance headache. You have to keep them trimmed and watch out for their welfare in your normal life. If you have a job that is very manual in nature you may have trouble maintaining your nails. If you are serious about the guitar and certainly if you are taking the grades, you should go for nails.

It is most important to set the strings in motion with a right hand nail that is very smooth to produce a clear strong tone. An economical way to ensure a glass smooth surface is to buy a sheet of 600 grade Silicon Carbide paper from a DIY hardware store and keep this in your guitar case. Pay particular attention to the underside of the nail that comes in contact with the string.

The shape, thickness and quality of the nails will vary from player to player so be prepared to experiment in your search for solutions. The right hand nail in conjunction with the flesh at the tip of the finger is responsible for setting the string in motion. If the section of nail which strikes the strings is not smooth and well shaped it will be impossible to obtain a full round sound, and the stroke will not feel right if any section of the nail catches on the string. Therefore, the nail must be shaped in relation to the angle that the nail strikes the strings.

The steps below set out a method that will ensure that the nail is shaped at the appropriate angle.

 

Step 1. Cut a piece of 600 grade Silicon Carbide paper, available at hardware stores, into a 100mm by 200mm rectangle. Fold this in half and place it over the strings of your guitar around the sound hole area as shown in the picture below.

Step 2. Pick up your guitar in normal playing position a play a number of rest strokes on the paper starting with your index finger. Approximately 10 strokes should do. Examine the nail of your index finger and you should see a distinct line across the nail at the precise angle that your nail comes in contact with the string.

Step 3. Repeat Step 1 with the other fingers of your right hand as well as your right hand thumb.

Step 4. Take your nail file (needless to say that this should be a high quality product) and with your right palm uppermost proceed to shape the nail from the left edge up to the line marked by Step 2. You may find that the shorter the nail in this area the more stability the nail exhibits when you execute your strokes. Next round off the nail from the marked line to the right edge of the nail. Smooth off any edges left at the point where your filing meets the marked line but do not change the angle of this line for this is the area which will come in contact with your strings and must present as wide a platform as possible to produce a strong even tone.

Step 5. The final step involves the polishing of the edge and underside of the nails. With a piece of 800 grade Silicon Carbide paper apply a glass like finish to the edge and underside of the nail.