Tendonitus

the thumb i didn't even realize i did for a week, other than jam it. the knuckle either, other than some swelling, but it never goes away. i didn't realize i cut my pinky until someone told me it was bleeding. my index finger, though, well... i knew something was wrong when i saw half a tendon.

the thumb i didn't even realize i did for a week, other than jam it. the knuckle either, other than some swelling, but it never goes away. i didn't realize i cut my pinky until someone told me it was bleeding. my index finger, though, well... i knew something was wrong when i saw half a tendon.

where is the 'fainting' emoticon when you need one.

Tendonitis is tough to shake. I had injured my Achilles tendon years ago when I was about 20 playing baseball and there wasn't much that I could about it. the doctor told me I had to stay off it as much as possible but how can you stop walking and I sure wasn't going to stop playing sports.

It really only hurt after I played baseball and got irritated and tightened up which wasn't fun cuz I couldn't move my foot at all but eventually it healed.

Probably took about 2 years though to completely heal. I know it was a long time. Did something similar to my foot this winter and it's still bothering, especially if I'm on my feet long.

One week on and just to follow up my wrist is now a lot better. The brace and anti inflamatories have settled me down and I have started to play guitar again. Im going to keep wearing the brace for a while well Im working to protect my wrist.I cant believe how much better it is in a week and I'm thrilled to be playing again.

Yeah, the brace is a good help. I used it daily when my writs got burned from typing, up until I changed my keyboard to a more ergonomic one (the DataHand Pro-II if you wanna know.)

Anyway, just don't rely on your writs while you're on anti-inflammatory. It might masquerade the symptoms of an injury since you're not going to few any pain from the inflammation. Just let your writs rest a little longer, until you're not using any medicine to fix it.

Cheers!

well since my problems iv:

changed to 8 guage strings
started doing light stretches before play
warming up slowly
lighten my touch
maintaining good posture
taking mini-breaks of 30 seconds - 1 minute; and longer breaks every half hour or so

All these together make a real difference.

8 gauge strings are way too thin IMO.
if you must use them for recuperation I guess it is ok.
but really, 8's are terrible. they have very weak tone.

hope the healing and strengthening happens.

8 gauge strings are way too thin IMO.
if you must use them for recuperation I guess it is ok.
but really, 8's are terrible. they have very weak tone.

hope the healing and strengthening happens.

Well I guess it all depends on what u play, what sound you like n what gear you have. I have active EMGs which I guess compensates for the thinness of the strings, even clean stuff sounds great - a nice tube amp always help :) . But I can easily imagine a strat with regular output pickups and not much gain would sound pretty awful with 8s

I think I also compensate quite a bit with a very thick pick (3mm) and I like to get some very strong pick attack when playing blues - i hit em hard

there you go. :)

Ive got tendonitus in my left wrist.

I hear you loud 'n clear. I've had the same for 1.5 years now. Yet is much better now. It may take you that long to have it repair so be patient.

Hello everyone. My first post here and this thread has shed some inspiration to me. I am 43 years old now and have been playing guitar seems like all my life (actually started when I was around 10 or so). I'd say that in the past year, I have been noticing pain in my fretting hand's wrist and forearm. The forearm pain is attributed to when I still try to shred. No biggie here as I believe it is muscular issues and I'm really not a shredder anymore anyways. Remedy - stop shredding and the forearm pain goes away. I'm good with this. However, the pain that still exists in my wrist is located just beneath the thumb joint so this would be on the left side of the wrist if my palm was facing me. Now here's the mystery - this pain only comes with certain guitars! When this all first started, it was with an Ibanez RG. Very, very thin neck and caused me very, very much pain. I traded this guitar in for a '72 Tele Custom re-issue, which was a pain free guitar. I could play it hours on end and not a single twinge. Unfortunately, had to sell that one due to financial reasons (really miss that guitar). To replace this one I got a Jackson SDK 2. This guitar causes a little bit of pain if I play it too long (usually more than an hour or so), so I just keep it under an hour, no biggie. Recently, I just aquired an Ibanez Artcore AF75 which sounds sooo nice, and plays sooo nice, but gives me this terrible pain only after 5 minutes of playing it. This is the pain I was referring to being just under the thumb joint. This is what I can't explain. I'm thinking that it may have something to do with the neck sizes?? I know that the Artcore has a thinner neck than the Jackson (which is odd because Jackson is known for having them wafer thin necks, but the SDK 2 has a pretty beefy neck), and maybe the fact that there is more air between my hand and the neck is causing my thumb to work overtime??? I am curious to know if any of the posters in this thread notice the same thing. Also, if the users of the wrist braces could link me to what braces they found works would be much appreciated. Sorry for the long read.

bfloyd,

I'd risk saying that the radius plays a good role here and I'm not sure a brace will help you, since most I've got to know let the thumb free to move.

I just tried squeezing different necks just now, so I could see how that impacts the thumb and its position on thinner necks and it looks to me that I have to put the thumb in a really awkward angle to keep my hand in the same position I'm used to play.

You could try adjusting your hand position to one that's more suitable to thinner necks. Maybe talking to an occupational therapist could help you achieve an optimal angle.

bfloyd,

I'd risk saying that the radius plays a good role here and I'm not sure a brace will help you, since most I've got to know let the thumb free to move.

I just tried squeezing different necks just now, so I could see how that impacts the thumb and its position on thinner necks and it looks to me that I have to put the thumb in a really awkward angle to keep my hand in the same position I'm used to play.

You could try adjusting your hand position to one that's more suitable to thinner necks. Maybe talking to an occupational therapist could help you achieve an optimal angle.

Thanks for the reply. I'll check into that.

Yeah I'm definetly seeing a pattern... Its prolly the radius of the guitar and how the neck is shaped, for example I have an Ibanez 2550 Prestige and the neck is super thin with a Radius of 16.. I love it the neck feels really edgy, but I can see how this could cause pain.. on the other hand my Fender Squier has a rounder neck, radius of 12 or 14 I'm not sure about that one, the neck feels rounder and easier to hold on to ( but the Ibanez Prestige neck is to die for :D ). So check that out.

I had it in both hands.
I also had trigger finger.
I'm good now.

JJ