callus hang up

Anyone else have an issue with your finger tip calluses getting hung up on a string when you go to change chords?

I saw the title of your post and thought someone callously hung up the phone on you.

To answer your question, No. I haven't experienced that.

Originally Posted by: mmurray57Anyone else have an issue with your finger tip calluses getting hung up on a string

Yes, a long time ago [u]only during the first few months[/u] of playing. IMPE it's a temporary phenomenon when the soft skin of new players first develop tip calluses and the epidermal layer shreds & separates resulting in hard dry dead skin at their ends which will inadvertently catch on the strings.

In time assuming regular practice & playing, the skin on your fingertips will toughen up so the toughened epidermis is more resilient and won't separate or even appear particularly callus like, just universially tough across the tip & less elastic. In the meantime, here's what I did which you might like to try, the apple cider vinegar application a common knowledge remedy shared amongst guitarists on other sites I visited.

To accelerate the callus development process and minimise the hard dry skin catching on the string, [u]after[/u] playing, dabbing with a dampened cotton ball or using a cotton bud, apply raw apple cider vinegar dermally to the callused tips which will accelerate the toughening and healing, as well as sooth the tips. Trim off any hard separated peripheral [u]dead[/u] skin with a pair of nail scissors so that the separated edge of the callus won't catch. Better to trim it off than have it catch and lift more of the initial callus skin off before it's ready to detach.

As with almost everything about playing guitar, time and consistent practice will deliver the desired result.

I had the same experience, very similar to what manXcat describes. I went through two distinct phases of building external calluses that had a lot of dead skin that could catch on a string, then that kind of peeled off. I am several months further along now and just like manX says, you can't really see the calluses on my fingers anymore. The calluses are there, but not visible; just a thickening of the skin on the fingertips. I never tried the apple cider vinegar trick, but sounds plausible.

If you do trim the skin be sure to only trim dead skin. manX emphasized this, but I mention it too because it is really important. Trim too much and you will expose tender new skin and it will set you back.