Ask Lemmy

It's been a long time since I played and I was never professional, but I just powered through. The calluses build up relatively quickly if you keep with it daily. Sometimes I wouldn't even play, just form chords for as long as my fingers would let me to reinforce the calluses

You could also try lighter-action strings. I've had some that were very heavy and absolutely not worth the pain. But as the saying goes, "you've got to pay your dues to play the blues"

Calluses build up fast if you keep at it.

The pain is just weakness leaving the body.

Your fingers stop hurting within two weeks. Absolutely no reason to do it

Superglue ends up hurting the skin in the long run as neither the glue nor the skin will withstand much fretting before peeling starts. It's better to just keep at it.

Your fingertips will harden surprisingly fast, one of the few things to happen faster to beginner guitarists than trying to play Wonderwall. It only takes some practice everyday and after a week or two you'll be fine.

Lol my dumbass thought you meant glueing the strings to your fingers to force you to play

Just keep playing and let your fingers toughen up. That's my advice.

This may come off as rude, but I ask out of genuine curiosity: why would you think this is a good idea?

Not a guitar player, but I've done my fair share of climbing, which is quite punishing to the skin on your fingertips.

My immediate answer is a clear no. The skin on your fingertips adapts very quickly, and hardens within a week or two of being worn down regularly. If anything, you want to make sure that you keep your skin well cleaned (helps it heal faster). Some people have good experience using moisturiser, and say that helps their skin recover more quickly. I've also known people who will carefully sand down the skin on their fingertips if it starts getting too hard, or if they haven't climbed for a while and it starts peeling (usually starts happening after 1-2 weeks of low/no exposure).

Regardless, the rawness of the fingertips is a quickly passing issue for people who have not worn down their fingertips sufficiently in recent time.

You can check out some of these skin products which are designed for climbers. Some are meant to improve skin healing time, and some are supposed to help harden your skin. If you want to use anything, I suggest something like that instead of glue.

Because the glue cracks instead of flexing, it'll start flaking immediately and make playing more irritating than the normal scratchiness that happens when the edges of a callus starts poking up. Accidentally got super glue on one finger and playing without using that finger was less annoying than using it.

Absolutely not. Your fingers will develop the hard skin necessary to play for extended periods. Just trust your body's ability to adapt and stop when it starts hurting. Using superglue or any other kind of protection only puts off the inevitable, and opens you up to other risks like accidentally supergluing your fingers together.

If you really can't cope then guitar is not for you.

My guitar teacher had me learn on a steel-string acoustic for this very reason. It sucked at first, but the calluses built up fast. Much, much better than superglue!

Are you using superglue to close cuts on your fingertips? Or are you trying to create a thick pad of glue to act as a protective layer? Do you already have a blister or cut? Or are you trying to prevent one?

To close a cut or cover a blister, superglue works in a pinch.

As padding to avoid blisters or cuts, it doesn't really work. If you're playing enough to cause a new blister, it just cracks and flakes off anyway. It might get you through a song if you're desperate. Long term, you're better off getting your fingers calliused and learning to play with different fingerings to take the pressure off an injury.

Pros have to go on stage and play. If you're playing for yourself, for fun, you can take a few days off and let your fingertips heal.

Listen, if you’ve never done this before, I can only see super-gluing your fingers going very badly!

With that said, yes you should absolutely do it and please update us after.

Coming from a point of complete ignorance - couldn't you use a guitar pick instead?

The other people saying the pain will go away in 2 weeks are correct. If it’s really hurting that bad, give yourself a rest.

Source: played on/off for 30 years, keep losing my callouses & getting them back. (Although they come back super fast - it’s just the first time that takes a while.)

Tony Iommi just used thimbles instead of superglueing the tips of his fingers back on and it seemed to work well for him

Why are you an exception to a long history of successful musicians and guitar engineers? It's not an extreme sport. Is there something wrong with you?