superglued fingers... help!

beavertoof

This kind of goes along with the stage fright post below, but I did not see this specific issue addressed.

I do not have an issue with being afraid of playing in front of people, but I do have this strange anxiety that hits when I am first playing with people I have not played with before, or the first set of a gig before I relax etc.

I want to play good and it seems to cause this weird anxiety, that results in my hands excuding some strange sticky sweat! Bizzare... this does not happen when playing alone, or with someone whom I know real well etc...

It is a serious stickyness too... as in major slowdown effect. Slide up to D, and maybe end up on Db instead kind of thing.

Wondering if anyone else has the sticky sweat issue, and if you have tried anything to help it?

I did try baby powder once, which worked wonderously but really deadened the wound strings quickly.



:x

richdaigle

individual combination of PH, perspiration, and skin oil, is a very crazy thing, I've known guys that can corrode a set of strings in 15min and I've met other guys that say they never have to change the strings on their guitars for months. That's what I would attribute the hand thing to, ...as far a stage fright, the only cures I know of are 1. Gig more! it'll go away and 2. Beta Blockers... I knew a couple guys in college that used those to battle serious stage fright.

also Steer clear of hand lotions etc.

RD

Homer Jay

Hi! I was at a masterclass once with Richard Smith (a professor in guitar) and he told us he used to put some vaseline on the backside of his headstock when playing live. So whenever it got too sticky, he would simply just touch the back of the headstock with his fingertips and smear it out with his thumb. I don't know how healthy this is for the strings in the long run, though...

KvonNJ

In the theater community, it's called, "Flop-sweat." You get so keyed up and wired that your body is working a mile a minute, and generates this incredibly acidic, profuse, heavy sweat. I have seen it destroy a pairof boots, rotting the insides in three performances.
Not much you can do about it, except get more comfortable on stage, breathe deeply and slowly, and calm down.

beavertoof

KvonNJ wrote:

In the theater community, it's called, "Flop-sweat."...

Interesting... thanks for the info. Strange as mine has essentially no wetness factor to it... it is not like drops of sweat (that might be better), but like it just makes my fingers very tacky/sticky.

Michael Bauer

Interesting... I loaned my oval hole Manouche to Samson Schmitt and his brother to use at Djangofest at Byrdland last October. I put brand new Argies on the night before the first show. When I got the guitar back a week later, the strings were a dark reddish brown actually rusted to the point that I could not slide up or down the stings at all. I had never seen anything like it; I'd have ripped a finger open! I can't figure out how they played the thing at all in those final shows. A couple of the strings had been broken and replaced, but they were still as corroded as the original ones. I speculated that a steady diet of hedgehog must produce acidic sweat, but I see there is a more reasonable explanation. I can't imagine that those guys get nervous, so maybe it's just the excitement of playing great music.

slimbo77

I have extremely sweaty palms, not necessarily when nervous, but when I am nervous it does get worse... and, yup, I can get through sets of strings like you wouldn't believe. It was never such a problem for my left hand - it sweats like mad, but doesnt really affect my playing too much. However I used to have a big problem on my right hand when playing finger bass. My fingers would start off wet with sweat, but after about 10 - 15 minutes, they'd get tacky, and would really snag on the strings, making plucking the strings with them very difficult, and would cause nasty blisters after a full set (I remember dreading the end of our set, where we'd play 3 pretty darn quick rock'n'roll numbers back to back, where I'd be playing pretty much playing 8th notes for the whole song... by this time, I'd have nasty blisters on my very tacky fingers, and they'd feel they were stuck to the strings, and it was like 10 minutes of troture getting through those numbers)...

Anyway, to cut to the chase... I got to trying vaseline on my fingers, and it made such a massive difference. Still get through strings too quickly, but I think I'll just have to live with that.

I'd say give the vaseline a try - just a tiny little dab on each finger tip whenever they get tacky.

Hope this helps,

Cheers
Slimbo

spatzo

Play without thumb when you've got this problem

Jazzaferri

There is a liquid sold at guitar stores that coats the strings and actually slows down the process some. can't remember the name.

One can minimize sweat acidity with diet

Harry-Dippo

Check out FastFret or TheSwipe guitar string lubes, I personally use FastFret on occassions and it really helps!
All the best,
Harry

gotgenes

I'll recommend Kyser's Dr. Stringfellow String Cleaner and Lubricant. It works exactly as the name suggests. I spray it on a cloth, then wipe the strings down with it, both on top and underneath, before and after playing. Between sets I'll wipe the strings down again. My strings have very little corrosion and I replace them only when they sound "dead".

I've found Dr. Stringfellow at about half the music stores I've been to, but it's easily procured through online shops. I'm a big fan of the stuff, to the point where I half-jokingly refer to it as "talent juice". You might want to give it a try.