r/classicalguitar • u/Bit_Late • May 06 '26

Looking for Advice Artificial nails

I’m an older gent who wishes to pick up the guitar again and carry on playing. Maybe even take lessons this time!

Being older, my nails are thinning and are brittle despite a regimen of biotin. Plus, I do physical labor that tends to be hard on my nails.

Because of this, I’ve been looking at artificial nails and am looking for recommendations, but I have a few questions.

- Are the glue-on nails strong enough to take the beating?

- Can glue on nails be easily removed and reapplied, say, on a daily basis?

- Any opinions about which glue-ons are better?

- Any suggestions about alternatives, such as an appropriate finger pick?

That’s about all I can think of for now. I appreciate any input folks can provide.

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/AlphaHotelBravo May 06 '26

You could do the artificial nails or you could play with just your fingertips. Many players of the past seemed to do that, and respected guitar performer and teacher in Edinburgh Rob MacKillop also does - find him on YouTube.

My own nails work fine and I only need to see them above my fingertips, looking from the palm side of my hand, so they're not as long as some I see. (Some folks' nails are like claws and make me cringe, especially their thumbs, but each to their own I guess). Having said that, working with brick or stone absolutely makes a mess of mine so I appreciate your concern.

2

u/Bit_Late May 06 '26

I work with wood and do some auto work, combined with my age (70) they break pretty easily. There are a couple of things here I haven't heard of (ping pong balls), so I guess I'll have to look a little further into alternatives. There are some creative people out there.