Finger soreness.....

[Cliff Fiscal]

 

As you can see in the picture.....I'm getting soreness in those areas.....not joint pain, but from wrapping my thumb around the top of the neck and on my pointer from wrapping around the bottom. I think it's causing issues from sliding up and back......my skin is coming in contact with the fret ends. It almost feels like a blister forming......just like when you rake the lawn a certain way for too long.......but there aren't actually blisters, but I can feel that same tenderness under the skin.

 

Is wrapping the thumb poor technique?

I don't have as much accuracy with my thumb planted on the back of the neck....and I lose quite a bit of speed.

 

What to do??

[Renfield]

Don't use your severed hand to play?

[prosigna]

Stop playing left handed.

[Cliff Fiscal]

[Perfessor]

[prosigna]

 

Is wrapping the thumb poor technique?

 

 

Yes, but many great & legendary players (with bad techniques but killer chops) do it all the time. Wrapping you thumb means you are strangling the neck and leads to fatigue.

[Tolka]

I'd say your problem is in your technique. While there is no such thing as "right" technique there is a generally accepted way of fretting and positioning your hand. You say you dont have the same accuracy with your thumb on the back of the neck, so you are aware of this generally accepted way of doing it. Speed comes with practicing s-l-o-w-l-y and building up the speed by degrees. There are numerous sites that show left hand technique. I've picked just one here from You Tube. Try the technique, practice it regularly, be patient and your problem will be solved.

 

Best of luck.

 

 

[dDigitalPimp]

i play about 80% of the time with my thumb pad pushing against the middle of the neck.

 

give it a shot, your whole hand wont cramp up as much and those two points of soreness will no longer be touching the edges of the fretboard.

[Cliff Fiscal]

i play about 80% of the time with my thumb pad pushing against the middle of the neck. give it a shot, your whole hand wont cramp up as much and those two points of soreness will no longer be touching the edges of the fretboard.

 

I'm not getting cramps or muscle soreness.......just the raw skin....but you're right.....when I do put my thumb on the back, it solves the problem......just find it very hard to do.

 

It's probably a combination of things too......since I don't like my bass to be in my arm pit......I'm not a Metal/rocker guy either with the bass strapped down to my knees. I tend to have the neck PU around my waist/bellybutton area. So kinda low by "proper" standards.

[Bryan316]

I'd say, get your frets dressed properly.

 

If you go to a good guitar tech and let him work on your neck, you'll come home happy as a pig in mud. Let him do EVERYTHING. Level the frets, redress and recrown them, round-off the fret ends, set your neck and action, set your intonation, inspect your nut and bridge saddles for binding/pinching/slipping, and clean/oil that fretboard.

 

After it's all smoothed out, you'll love playing again, but you should also stop ripping up your skin on those fret ends.

 

I was demo-ing a bass down in Atlanta. Felt great, sounded great. But then I noticed my skin on my pinky finger was TORN UP like I touched it to a belt sander accidentally! Just 5 minutes, and my finger was all chewed up and sensitive. I felt the frets, and they were sharper than a hacksaw blade.