A rather strange question. I've been playing for about a year, and I noticed after about a month that I get green stains on my fretting hand fingertips. These don't wash off easily and sometimes they get embeddeed in my callouses. I play two guitars, both acoustic, one nylon and one steel. One problem is that I still press a bit too hard with my fretting fingers. I'm still working on relaxing them. Any suggestions on this would be appreciated.
Thanks
Change your strings. They're probably way old. Thats all I can think of. That or gangrene. Lets hope its the former :).
aka Izabella
lol.
Actually, its neither of the two. The problem started about a month after I started playing, and I fitted new strings when I bought both guitars.
I agree with TaylorR. Strings will only last you about a month or two. The more you play, the shorter they last. After 10 months, I'd expect the metal to have been quite badly eroded by the acids in the residue left by your fingers.
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
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My guess is bronze from your steel stringed acoustic is rubbing off on your fingers, then oxidizing to form the green color you see. I know when I play for a long time my fretting fingers have a nice "fresh pennies" smell from fretting notes on the EADG (all the ones wound with bronze wire) strings.
If my idea is correct, then synthetic coated strings like elixirs would probably help. I personally can't stand playing them though.
Yep. It's just a happy sign that you're playing a lot.
Play slide with a brass or bronze slide, and after a few hours your whole slide finger will turn green. I grin when that happens to me.
If you don't like it, switch to nickel strings, or plastic coated ones. Even new brass or bronze strings will turn your fingertips green if you play a lot and have sweaty fingers.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Thanks for all the replies, guys. I'm off to change my strings, and will give the nickel or plastic coated ones a try.
