Can it be done?

Hello all, newbie here with a question or two. First a little background , then the question.
I am a newbie to playing guitar. The only experience I have with one comes from a brief spell back in the mid 80's when I was trying to teach myself on a old Kay brand. I was about 3-4 weeks into fondling it when a work accident cost me the tip of my left index finger. The docs sewed it back on , but it is now a 1/2 inch short , dead to feelings and basically skin covered bone with a nail on it. I have grown use to not using it much and compensating by using my middle finger as my main finger.
Lets fast forward to last week now.
I work in a pawnshop part time on the weekends and last saturday a Hamer XT series, sunburst walked into the shop. I have always enjoyed looking at the guitars that come in the door and for some reason this one spoke to me. Take me home it said. So I did. Now after 30 years on hold I am going to try and teach myself how to play .

Now for the questions.
1. How much of a problem will the short, dead index finger cause me? I am right handed so it will be my neck hand.

2. Hamer guitars, quality, OK, or junk ? I have never heard of Hamer guitars before.

3. Esteban instructional videos, Worth my time or not ? I also ran across a 10 dvd series [Crystal Star -Esteban] at the shop and brought it home.


Thanks in advance,

Respects, JB.


The Hamer.

Originally Posted by: 911JBHello all, newbie here with a question or two. First a little background , then the question.
I am a newbie to playing guitar. The only experience I have with one comes from a brief spell back in the mid 80's when I was trying to teach myself on a old Kay brand. I was about 3-4 weeks into fondling it when a work accident cost me the tip of my left index finger. The docs sewed it back on , but it is now a 1/2 inch short , dead to feelings and basically skin covered bone with a nail on it. I have grown use to not using it much and compensating by using my middle finger as my main finger.
Lets fast forward to last week now.
I work in a pawnshop part time on the weekends and last saturday a Hamer XT series, sunburst walked into the shop. I have always enjoyed looking at the guitars that come in the door and for some reason this one spoke to me. Take me home it said. So I did. Now after 30 years on hold I am going to try and teach myself how to play .

Now for the questions.
1. How much of a problem will the short, dead index finger cause me? I am right handed so it will be my neck hand.

2. Hamer guitars, quality, OK, or junk ? I have never heard of Hamer guitars before.

3. Esteban instructional videos, Worth my time or not ? I also ran across a 10 dvd series [Crystal Star -Esteban] at the shop and brought it home.


Thanks in advance,

Respects, JB.


The Hamer.

1) One of the greatest jazz guitarists, Django Rheinhart played with two fingers so anything is possible. Also, Neal Walter here has posted about a a fingertip covering that may help too.
2) Hamer are great guitars. Should have no worries there.
3) Estaban is ok. Register here as a full member. It is awesome.

Hello JeffS65, thanks for the response.
I thought I would get a feel for the place before I go full member, but so far so good, so it may be in my future.

Thanks again, JB.

Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi lost all the fingertips of his fretting hand in a work accident, but went on to inventing heavy metal riffs, because of it, as a necessity, cutting up an old leather jacket and improvising.

Originally Posted by: 911JB
I thought I would get a feel for the place before I go full member, but so far so good, so it may be in my future.

They have the free trial... also, you can just sign up on a month-by-month basis. Guitar Tricks is run by real people... John is right on top of keeping people happy. If you decide after a month or two that you want to stop or take a break, there won't be any weird "hmmm... they're still charging me..." stuff, or if there were, he'd correct it as soon as he was aware of a problem. They want you to be happy with what you're getting out of GT.

As for your finger... just start playing and see what happens. Allow yourself to work around your own physical limitations... if something comes up in a lesson that you simply can't do, see if you can find a way to work around it. There's lots of cool stuff you can play on guitar with limited fingering, so just be aware of what works for you, and what doesn't, and see where your interests take you.

More about Django Reinhardt from Wikipedia;

" Reinhardt is often regarded as one of the greatest guitar players of all time and was the first important European jazz musician who made major contributions to the development of the genre. After his third and fourth fingers were paralyzed when he suffered burns in a fire, Reinhardt used only the index and middle fingers of his left hand on his solos and invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique (sometimes called 'hot' jazz guitar)... "

His music can be found on YouTube.

Thanks for the replies.
I must say that after spending the last couple weeks on a bass my fingertips are really starting to toughen up. I am also starting to get some use out of that index finger again. Its ben almost 30 years now since I have used that finger for anything. Of coarse my accuracy with that finger is still waaaaaay off and I am constantly missing the strings with it, but its getting better. Biggest problem is I cant feel that finger, so I cant tell when I am on the string until its to late and I have already plucked a clinker. However, like I said I have improved and it has only ben a couple weeks now.


JB

Glad to hear you are making some progress already. Maybe it will turn out that playing guitar will be good therapy for your finger.

Hey JB, as an additional approach there are always some great slide guitar tunes you could get into. You can check out the approach in some of Anders' tutorials, like the following:

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=13468

I've got bad arthritis in my index finger so this is one of the ways I hope to keep playing if it ever packs up completely!

Good luck, Steve

Maggior, I think starting with the bass is helping alot . It has ben so long since I used that finger that I forgot how to. Hahaha. If I can get my accuracy down when playing the large widely spaced strings on that bass, I think I will be able to switch over to the guitar much easier. I know it will take me some time, but I think it will work out just fine.


Thanks for the link Steve.


JB