Originally Posted by: robha27

bought a cheap electric guitar...having no problem with the chords and start up tutorial..my problem is my small index finger is killing me with pain from the steel strings..advise please..thx RH

Take your time and don't overdo it. As you play longer, your fingers build callouses on the tips like PhxSon said. It takes time. Eventually you won't feel tip pain because the callouses absorb the pressure instead of a soft fingertip transferring the pressure to your fingertip nerves.

However, getting there might occassionally include tender fingers. The key is not to play to the point where one of the tips gets a blister. Then you gotta stop altogether until that heals up. Don't do that. Don't buy the 'until my fingers bled' junk, it ain't true.

With that said, eventually the tender fingers do stop.