I just got done changing strings,. I'm cleaning the fretboard and I notice indentions in the wood, especially on the first four frets where you play all the cowboy chords. I figure it's from long fingernails. Is this common? Maybe bad technique?
I figure it's from long fingernails.
That's why most guitar players keep their fretting hand nails reeeally short. I do
I use a lot of vibrato. I dig in sometimes. my fret board has dents. eventually the finish will wear thru.
then I will be a real guitar player.
dents, dings, chips, scrapes all happen to our beloved instruments.
try as we may there is no way of keeping the guitar brand new looking.
I am careful and clean it, but I love my wounds.
I call it patina.
let it happen.
I'm with Dogbite on this one. A guitar's meant to be played, not polished to a high sheen and put in a prominent position to be stared at. All those little bumps, scratches, nicks etc add character to a guitar. On the other hand, damage to the fretboard isn't going to make it sound any better....I'd keep those nails as short as you can if I were you.
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
+1 on short nails.
Denny
Hi,
I read an interview somewhere with Keith Richards where he said that he enjoyed looking at other players' guitars because he could 'read' a fretboard like a book. You get all sorts of wear on the neck wood and the fret wires, from strings rubbing, nails etc. Depending on what the wear pattern was, and whereabouts it was showing up, he reckoned he could tell what sort of player they were, and what sort of music they were likely to have played on it. :D
Chris
:D Keef is the coolest 8)
Fretboard wear is nothing to worry about.
My old 63 SG's neck was SOOOO wore out....
I swear it has 1/8" deep gullies in it at places (on rosewood!!!!)
And while that's cool to have owned something like that, and supposedly the lore is that when you get a used instrument,
you get all the mojo from the previous owner(s)....
Nothing is better than your OWN wear on your own guitar.
My 88 Strat has a maple fretboard, and I have wore dark wear marks into the fretboard over the last 19 years.
They fit where I put MY fingers exactly.
And I'm VERY proud of them. (as the neck is finished in polyurethane, Not Lacquer.... much harder to accomplish :twisted: )
And like Keef states.... one look at my wear marks and the strange way my fretwire has worn would surely tell you quite
a bit about what I play and HOW I play.
So, instead of 'fretting' about why they are there....
worry about why there aren't more :D
Ken
"The man who has begun to live more seriously within
begins to live more simply without"
-Ernest Hemingway
"A genuine individual is an outright nuisance in a factory"
-Orson Welles
So, instead of 'fretting' about why they are there....
worry about why there aren't more :D
Ken
:D :D So true! Some of us wear out more computer keyboards than guitar fretboards - it should be the other way around. :oops:
Chris
(Definitely guilty of having too many clapped out keyboards and too few well worn fretboards... )
Look at Willie Nelson sometime! He must have been playing the same acoustic guitar for decades, it's so beat up it's amazing it not only stays together but sounds so good!
Jeff
