Missing middle finger tip help

[dbritton]

Hey everyone.
This is obviously my first post.
I am missing the tip of my middle finger on my left hand. I have tried adapting my chord playing in different ways with some success. I would like to know if there are any prosthetic tips available for people with this problem. I have considered trying to learn to play left handed, any ideas?
Hope this is the correct place for this question.
Danny

[ren]

As you may well know, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath lost the tips of all his fretting hand fingers in a machine press just before the band started touring. He plays with lighter gauge strings and does have some sort of prosthetic tips, so they must be available, but I'm afraid I couldn't tell you where from. Maybe your doctor could advise?

I just did a google search on 'prosthetic fingertips' and Tony Iommi featured in all of the first 8 results!

[dbritton]

Thanks for the response. I found the same results.

[Leedogg]

If you do decide to learn to play left-handed you could be like Jerry Garcia who was missing half of his middle finger on his strumming/picking hand.

[t_shirtsnjeans]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y7/gitpikker58/100_1158.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y7/gitpikker58/100_1157.jpg

These are on my picking hand and I do fingerstyle all the time. This happened while riding a motorcycle and it took a few years to get back to fingerpicking but now it's just second nature.
Have you tried wrapping the tip in tape just leaving the tip exposed? I know that I tried to play left handed and it seemed the flesh was just too flexible and my fingers were hitting several strings.
I just thought of that so I may give it a try. Good luck.

[Kutzki]

Toni Iommi's fingertips were glass-he lost the nerves at the tips so he got some glass sorta melted on as tips. Some people say he could take them off, some say that he couldnt. Anyways, I would just get some thimbles going on.
Good luck with that and hope that helped.

[Bob_Bunny]

I heard about your issue and thought you might like this. His did not use glass but a simple dishwasjhing bottle.. his words can be found on link at bottom. This is a short extract to what he did...

What I did was this: I melted down a "Fairy Liquid" [an English dishwashing detergent] bottle, made a couple of blobs of the plastic and then sat there with a hot soldering iron and melted holes in them so they'd fit on the tips of my injured fingers, kind of like thimbles.

When I got the caps to fit comfortably, I ended up with these big balls on the ends of my fingers, so I then proceeded to file them down with sandpaper until they were approximately the size of normal fingertips.

It took me quite a while to get them exactly right because they couldn't be too heavy or thick but had to be strong enough so they didn't hurt the ends of my fingers when I used them. When I had sculpted my "thimbles" to the right size and tested them I realized that the ends weren't gripping the strings so I cut up a piece of leather and fixed pieces to the ends of them. I then spent ages rubbing the leather pads so they would get shiny and absorb some oils and would help me grip the strings better. I filed down the edges so they wouldn't catch on anything and it worked!

Once I had done this it took me quite a while to get used to bending and shaking strings with those two fingers because I obviously couldn't feel anything. It was difficult to even know where my fingers were and where they were going. It was just a matter of practicing and persevering with it, using my ears to compensate for my lost tactile sense.

Hope this helps..☺
More at... http://www.iommi.com/archive/neversaydie.htm

[hunter1801]

This thread is 6 years old :eek: Cool info, but don't think a 6 year old thread needed a bump.

[Razbo]

....And welcome to the forums.