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Help! Bad finger injury.


Michael Martin

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4 days ago I chopped of a chunk of the well-calloused pad of my left index finger, while using a very sharp bread knife. There's now a hole about half the size of a dime where there is no skin, right at the end of the fingertip. I can play guitar with the other three fingers, but there are problems. C and D chords especially. I can manage G, A, Am, E, Em OK. F is impossible, unless I do a barre chord.

 

Problem is, I don't use barres much. My way of playing utilizes a lot of droning strings.

 

Has any one had something like this happen? I'm interested in any advice, either about ways to promote healing or some prosthetic device that would allow using that finger without putting a lot of pressure directly on the tip. It's extremely painful. We have gigs lined up this summer and I need to fix this!

 

I am working on utilizing alternative fingerings for chords. It's surprisingly difficult. I feel like I'm learning guitar all over again.

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Yea, but it concluded with healing as the sole effective fix. Now, if you're brave you can place a piece of paper towel over the injury and then wick into it low viscosity superglue (water consistency). After a few moments screaming in pain you have a rather durable patch over the wound. Repeat the procedure for a second application to build up the wound site and you just might have a playable finger again. Problem is the superglue cure causes it to rise significantly in temperature and it's the heat that hurts like a bastid.

 

Edit to add: The above method is a battlefield temporary patch developed to close up wounds until they can be properly tended to. Just thought I'd add that so you wouldn't think I was completely farcing your injury.

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Well, Django only used two fingers or you could do a little bottle neckin'.

 

Seriously, this might be a good time to experiment with altered tunings. The chord forms in open G or D are much simpler than standard and often you can play entire songs with just a barre and one finger.

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I know you don't want to hear this Michael, but you should let that heal before trying to play with it again. Steel strings will tear the heck out of it.

 

Big Al

^ This but if you absolutely must play then Freeman's suggestion is worthwhile. Also, the 5-string banjo uses open G tuning and is easy to fret so maybe some clawhammer?

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On the topic of using open chords that are in another tuning and then using a bottleneck/slide method of play, I'm pretty sure MM doesn't play slide, gents, LOL. I also think he's been here long enough that you probably already know that. By the time he's finagled some semblance of music using that method he'll have been healed up for a couple months or more. Just a guess.

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4 days ago I chopped of a chunk of the well-calloused pad of my left index finger' date=' while using a very sharp bread knife. There's now a hole about half the size of a dime where there is no skin, right at the end of the fingertip. [b']I can play guitar with the other three fingers, but there are problems. C and D chords especially. I can manage G, A, Am, E, Em OK. F is impossible, unless I do a barre chord.[/b]

 

Problem is, I don't use barres much. My way of playing utilizes a lot of droning strings.

 

Has any one had something like this happen? I'm interested in any advice, either about ways to promote healing or some prosthetic device that would allow using that finger without putting a lot of pressure directly on the tip. It's extremely painful. We have gigs lined up this summer and I need to fix this!

 

I am working on utilizing alternative fingerings for chords. It's surprisingly difficult. I feel like I'm learning guitar all over again.

 

Will it ever heal back? The idea of a steel thimble is interesting.

 

You can substitute. Play a partial Am7 for a C. Start on the 4th string.

 

On a D - deaden the 3rd string with your bandaged finger. Play the others and start it on the A string.

 

OR

 

Play C,D, F chords with partial 'A' barres using only your ring finger.

You lose something. But it's an easy position. And what choice do you have besides a steel thimble or Super Glue?

 

 

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I know you don't want to hear this Michael, but you should let that heal before trying to play with it again. Steel strings will tear the heck out of it.

 

Big Al

 

Ouch! Sorry to hear this, Michael - bad luck.

 

I agree with Al, let it heal then play nylon strings for a month or so (you can just restring your regular guitar - psst - did I ever tell you about my nylon string dred? very-happy.png.197c47f720636f02390cc2b0a33804da.png' alt='smiley-veryhappy'> )

 

 

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Hey y'all thanks for suggestions and well-wishes. It's true I don't play slide. And I don't like barres and avoid them except where necessary. My routine now is to endlessly practice playing C and D with the other three fingers--but it's very difficult. Am and E shapes are easy to switch to the other three fingers because of barre chords. My G already had no index involvement except for C suspensions and such.

 

I suppose that the short-term solution is barres. But it really changes my sound--loss of droning strings, plus all the pull-offs and adds/suspensions that I do. My last V.O.M. submission is the best example of what I can't do now. On "City of Refuge" those first two alternating chords are 079900/079700, which requires all four fingers (capo 1, so these are some sort of F rather than E).

 

Thanks MDLMUSIC for the reference to Tommy Iommi (Black Sabbath guitarist). I did some research--he cut off two fingertips on his fretting hand when he was 17, and did utilize some sort of improvised prosthetic. An hour of clicking around from there led me to something called the Galaxy FT-1 Finger Protector™, which works by relieving pressure from the tip and distributing it to the sides of the finger. I ordered one, so we'll see how that works.

 

I love the nylon idea Garth--in fact I am about to re-string a dread that way, but not for me--it's for one of the girls in the band who is having a bad time learning guitar with steel strings. As for me, at this moment, and probably for a long while, I won't be able to use that finger (unadorned anyway) for any sort of string. The lightest touch, much less pressure, is extremely painful.

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Fabulous news! First, the soreness has subsided (1 week since injury), although the wound is still healing and I'm a long way from having an intact finger. I've been going about my daily business with a glass slide over the finger, rather than bandaging it up, and just using a dab of that liquid bandage stuff to cover the missing skin.

 

Second: the Galaxy FT-1 thing arrived today, and it works! It's going to take a bit of getting used to it, but I'm able to use the finger. I was getting pretty despondent about my inability to adapt with new chord fingerings; now, thankfully, I can give that up. The device is way overpriced IMO considering it's just a bit of plastic with a leather pad attached, but well worth it for what it allows me to do. I have a practice tonight, a jam/song circle tomorrow night, and a gig next Tuesday. Me so happy!

 

Moral of the story: Fully engage brain and give full attention before a using sharp knife.

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Good news. I play everyday so the frustration of being prevented form that can weigh in. A few years ago I had a picking hand nerve problem from an old misadventure that involuntarily flexed a couple fingers. Very weird and pretty uncomfortable when it happened. Overall, though, it frustrated my playing to an extent that I was calling it quits and had listed my guitars. Didn't make sense to hold onto them if I couldn't play, so, yea, been there.

 

How does this contraption you bought work? It slips onto the finger and places the pad in a non-contact position with the tip?

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How does this contraption you bought work? It slips onto the finger and places the pad in a non-contact position with the tip?

 

It's really just a domed-shape cap (supposedly some super-duper hard high-tech plastic) with a suede leather strip that runs on inside and outside--so the leather part is what contacts the string and fretboard. I think it wouldn't work if the finger was still extremely sensitive. I think there's a bit of air space between the inside of it and the finger, so pressure on the fingertip is minimized.

 

It doesn't work great for sliding the finger up and down fretboard, but maybe I can get better at that with practice. It's also not great for making the standard F chord wherein you span two strings with that finger. And on barres, it's best to get it off the fretboard entirely and use only the skin of the index finger; otherwise you could dislodge it.

 

I played for about 2 hrs last night at a practice session, and it was fine. I had been worried that it would be disappointing and a waste of money (they do not allow returns), but this thing is a miracle. What's it worth to regain the ability to play? Priceless!

 

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Not happy to hear this has happened to you. Hope you heal quickly.

 

I've told this story before, so I apologize for the redundancy. I once cut a huge gash in my chording hand index finger. I taped it and braced it with a popsicle stick (true story). Should have gotten it stitched but being young, stupid and poor, it didn't seem workable at the time.

I continued to play my guitar using the three healthy fingers on that hand. It was a nightmare that lasted about 6 months before I was confident enough to begin utilizing the index. Took an additional couple of months before I was conditioned enough to ignore the sensitivity. To this day, that finger feels a little "weird" every so now and again. That's the bad news.

 

The good news was that I learned to use my pinky in ways I never thought I would be able to. After a while I was able to make most chords with the 2, 3 and 4 fingers, freeing up my index finger for substantially more bottom notes. What it did more than anything was require me to use the pinky for lead notes on top of chords, While I never was the best guitar player, LOL, my playing was actually improved by the experience. Thanks to that incident, I went from a three finger player to a four finger player.

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I tried for a few days to utilize the other fingers and leave the index out. I couldn't believe how hard it was, and how little progress I made. But I am very much a creature of habit when it comes to technique, and I've always been an extremely slow learner.

 

Played again last night at an outdoor amplified song circle/jam that included a drummer, a keyboard player, a bass player and several other guitarists, and it went great--I kept up fine. I'm even making a dece F chord with it now. All things considered I'd like to have my finger back to normal, but this device is a Godsend. It has saved my summer. Highly recommended for anyone with a fingertip injury.

 

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Moral of the story: Fully engage brain and give full attention before a using sharp knife.

 

Sorry to hear the news, hope you're on the mend.

 

And about the quote.......Roger that. I am lucky not to have lost several fingers on my right hand due to a lawn mower 'incident' when I was a teenager.

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The index finger of my right hand was chopped off in an accident years ago. That forever altered my finger-picking and changed the way I hold a pic. My index finger was rebuilt, but, it is not the same as before the accident. Lucky for me it was not my fret hand. I did have quite a name for myself in the fly tying field and I was able to modify things there and still do exhibition fly tying shows. I finally retired completely from the fly fishing business last winter. As for music, it's in my blood. I'd work through whatever comes my way.

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Well, Django only used two fingers or you could do a little bottle neckin'.

 

Seriously, this might be a good time to experiment with altered tunings. The chord forms in open G or D are much simpler than standard and often you can play entire songs with just a barre and one finger.

 

I think I agree with this but I am not planning to chop the tip of my finger off to prove it. Trying other things until it heals means that he may come back from injury even greater than before

 

Phil

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Glad you could find something to get you through this difficult period. About fifteen years ago I broke the bone in my fretting hand that goes from the ring finger to the wrist. Doctor wanted to put a cast on from fingertips to elbow, but I begged him to let my index and middlefinger and my thumb free. Luckily he did, because I played gigs for the next six months by tuning my guitar to an open E chord and barring with my first finger. I also figured out how to play minor chords using the top three strings. Luckily I was in an oldies band and didn't need to worry about jazz chords. Leads were a little dicey, but I managed to pull it off.

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We had a gig last Tues night, and I busked last night for over three hours (not alone--with three others) with the Galaxy thing on my finger. It's getting better. Got a bit carried away at one point last night and knocked it off with the edge of the neck while making a necessary barre chord. I can span two strings with it now (as with standard F chord) but three strings is hard because the device isn't that long. So making a chord like the version of Am that goes xx7555 is not feasible. But getting used to it for standard chords anyway and a little basic soloing.

 

This would be more of a problem if I played "out" alone. When there are other people playing, the muffs are less noticeable.

 

What this episode has taught me is how un-adaptable I am (unlike you MDLMUSIC). Also to not take my fingers for granted.

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I bet anyone who saw the thing come off freaked out for a minute. Anyway, I'm glad you're healing. It reminds me of something that happened to me my freshman year in high school. [Warning: gross-out alert.] I'd gotten my nose broken in a fight and the doctor put a splint up my nose. One day I sneezed in English class and blew the splint across the room. Needless to say, it did wonders for my nerd credentials.

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I bet anyone who saw the thing come off freaked out for a minute. Anyway' date=' I'm glad you're healing. It reminds me of something that happened to me my freshman year in high school. [Warning: gross-out alert.'] I'd gotten my nose broken in a fight and the doctor put a splint up my nose. One day I sneezed in English class and blew the splint across the room. Needless to say, it did wonders for my nerd credentials.

 

LOL. Now I have this image...

 

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