The Steel Guitar Forum

I am a relatively newby when it comes to playing pedal and non-pedal steel guitars. Most of my slide playing was on guitars and dobros previously.

I accidentally wasn't thinking and went to play my eight string without throwing on the 'mandatory" fingerpicks. While the "bite" wasn't there, i instantly had more than twice the control I would have with finger picks. I didn't have to look down at the strings and I even wanted to start using a thumb and three fingers instead of two. Since I did this for a short time I imagine that one of the pitfalls would be aching raw fingers. I haven't done it long enough to want to find out. Do any of you players use your fingers?

By the way, I did buy the expensive perfect touch fingerpicks and thought they were an improvement over the "normal style" fingerpicks (they fit a little better and were lighter) but still nowhere close to using my fingers.

If there are any finger style playeres out there, I would like to know what you do to keep your fingers from becoming raw.

Thanks
Super Kristen

I do both. My fingers have gotten so tough over the years, that I can play for hours without picks.

Fingers only for me. I only use picks as a change up for something different.

On electric - mostly bare fingers, on acoustic - mostly fingerpicks.
I've always played barefingered a lot when playing regular guitar, bottleneck slide and bass, so my right hand fingers have about as heavy calluses as my left.

SG, mine are so tough that when doctors used to try and prick my finger for a simple blood test, they had to do it on one of my toes!

John Billings wrote:SG, mine are so tough that when doctors used to try and prick my finger for a simple blood test, they had to do it on one of my toes!

Ha, that's nothing, I won't even mention where they had to do it on me!

Kristen - Freddie Roulette - no picks ever, coated bar, no volume pedal, generous use of volume knob - here's a little youtube of him. - Bob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09FdHpqX1iA

Bob, that's fabulous! Do you know what tuning he's using?

Thanks! ... and I thought I was alone.....
Its encouraging to know that other players are playing successfully with their fingers. I think i may be able to learn a little faster doing it this way.
I still intend to master the fingerpicks, but will be spending half my time with my fingers as well.

Super Kristen

No picks here. (Music examples on my website and youtube - links below).

I did use picks when I started out, but it feels so much more natural for me to play without them, and I prefer the lower "attack-noise-to-tone ratio" of bare fingers on my acoustic lap steels.

I do intend to try and get used to them though, as the louder volume and crisper attack can be a good sound to pull out at times in addition to the barefingered sound, when such a sound/texture is desired.

Cheers,

Fred

One of my reso guitars just requires picks to sound good. The other two don't. And sometimes the music decides. I don't "hybrid" pick, never use a flatpick, and a song like "Highlander Boogie" necessitates the picks due to it's quick tempo. Single string stuff that you would normally up and down stroke with a flatpick, I have to tremolo pick with my thumb and fingerpick.

freddie must be an 'acquired' taste....it kind of rattles my nerves!

Kristen,

I'm also a newbie, but I have a lot of experience playing classical guitar and fingerstyle steel string guitar, both of which I play at the point where the fingernail meets the pad of the fingertip. The sound is very much like a pick, maybe closer to plastic than metal. I find that a plastic thumb pick matches the finger/nail tone closer than the thumb nail does, so I'm using one of those (John Pearse) for dobro and steel.

All subject to change at the drop of a hat, of course.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll figure out what works for you.

I started out as a classical guitarest I learned to relie on my fingers with nails that extend a 1/8 inch past the tip of my fingers.When I started playing bottole neck or slide I eventualy included a thumb pick in the situation. when I want a softer tone I use my fingers, when I want a more biting tone I use my thumb pick.
It was really easy to move to lap steel for me. I tried using finger picks I kept getting tangled up in the strings. I stroke the strings with a flick of my fingers
in some pieces.

John Billings asked about Freddie Roulette's tuning.

I was lucky to spend some time with Freddie a few years ago at an informal gathering. He was playing A7#2, as listed by Andy Volk in Lap Steel Guitar (p. 151), hi to lo: E C# A E C# A E G

Freddie said he often varies the bottom 2 strings to suit the tune and mood. Roulette is one of a kind, and a fine person with a great sense of humor. - Bob

Thanks Bob! Gonna try it on my Stringmaster. Gotta figure out the string gauges first though.

I play without finger picks on pedal steel, lap steel, dobro, banjo, guitar, lute, cittern, etc.. Bobbe Seymour plays pedal steel without finger picks.

You do, however, get a duller sound without picks.

Just to clarify (for those without Andy Volk's book) ...that "#2" was used by Andy only to indicate the second version of the A7 tuning used by FR, with the 7th string being E instead of A.

Don't mean to quibble, Bob...It's good to see you back on the Forum!



And yeah, I play without picks. Never used one much on standard guitar either, so I started on steel the same way. Now that I've developed habits that seem to work well for me-- doing a lot of blocking with thumb and fingertips-- learning to play with picks would be a big change. I'll probably give it a shot, eventually.

Don't recall anybody complaining about raw skin from going pickless, though.

--Steve

No picks for lap steel or slide guitar, however I do sometimes use a thumbpick if I need some hard attack for some songs. Doug MacLeod told me to "do what's comfortable" whan i asked him about picks, and that was good advice IMO.

I learned guitar with both a Classical German Maestro, fingers picking, ...and plectrum picking / "street"-learned Rockabilly at the same time. As I advanced into all sorts of music styles it became natural to combine the two, plectrum and 3 extra fingers for fingerpicking along with the pick, for 47 years now. BUT when I started taking Steel lessons with Jerry Byrd, finger picks may as well have been carved in the Ten Commandments stone ....which I have used exclusively on Steel. However, I've watched Jr. Brown allot with suspicion I would like to revert back to pick and fingers on Steel too ....just being too lazy to take on that learning curve I suppose. Jr. Brown rips it up with plectrum and fingers, and I'll bet it is as natural as it is for me on spanish guitar; And I further suspect that a pick and fingers together would provide allot more tacit dynamics into the strings than finger picks whose attack seem to me to have a rather narrow range of tacit dymamics. .....fwimbw.

No finger picks or thumb pick. Just the flesh and a bit of nail.

Flatpick and fingers...just like my armpit guitar.

LOL - "armpit guitar". very good.

On pedal steel I use fingerpicks, but on lap steel almost always no picks. Not sure why...maybe the way I play lap steel is more guitar-like, and I don't like to use fingerpicks when playing guitar, so I go without for lap steel. On dobro I use the picks though.

I prefer to play without picks, but feel I have to get used to using them for the times I'm playing out. I'm much more accurate with bare flesh, but as we all know' the flesh is weak. The finger picks give me a more crisp and louder tone, but I find myself frequently making adjustments - not to mention a minor amount of pain after playing for a few hours. Building up callouses for lap steel seems a little more trying than building callouses for playing my 'belly guitar'.