String bending pain doesn't go away

Question

I have been playing the guitar since 2006, so I'm not new to the activity, and I have caluses. I started playing Flamenco on a nylon strings and in 2013 moved to play Surf on a stratocaster.

A couple of years ago, I began playing Blues and Rock (some Eric Clapton and mainly Mark Knopfler stuff), which required a technique I never used before - string bending. I have been doing it for some years now, but the pain at my fingertips still isn't going away (I'm using the right technique - bending with all 3 fingers, use rotating motion, etc, etc).

Currently I'm playting on a Les Paul, a short scaled guitar, with 9 gauge strings (the lightest set available in my area), with a low action and wrap arround tail (some claim it makes the strings more slinky. . . ) - this should be the easiest setup for string bending, but not in my case.

I watched many tutorials how to bend strigns the right way. It looks to be a casual and effortless act, but it doesn't come effortless to me. In fact, after about a dozen of bends, I can't play any longer, for my fingertips heart much. I feel as if my flash is moving away from the bone, and the sore feeling keeps for hours after - I feel like I'm playing a cheese grater rathar than a guitar

Again, I'm not a new player to experience such pain, and it hasn't improved with the years. I wonder if the issues is with the way my fingers are.

Have anyone encountered such a thing before? I found none in the common guitar forums.

I do a bit of dish washing on a daily bases as well as using hand moisturizer. Obviously not going to stop doing both.

(By the way, when playing Surf, which doesn't require bending, I used 11 and 12 gauge strings on a Stratocastr, without any issues)

Answer 1

No idea which videos you've seen, but if you're using one finger for a bend, it's going to be hard work. Whenever possible, use as many as you can - obviously those behind the fretted note are the extras!

Consider whether you're going to bend the string towards your head, or towards the floor. Both work, but on top string, it's more common to bend upwards.

You should be using the rotation movement of your whole hand to bend, not fingers. fret a note, and rotate your hand either way, depending on up or down movement. The rotation comes from the elbow! Your hand cannot rotate from your wrist.

Another consideration - with a good action and thin strings would be to drop the tuning. It's what used to happen back in the day when there was only one set of strings available - heavy(ish).

Go down a semitone or a tone, or try to get some thinner strings - I use .008, .010, .012 for my top three, but my guitars aren't as short scale as LPs. By going down exact semitones, you'll still be able to play along to backing tracks, albeit in a different key.

Answer 2

Too little information to really answer. Several things can cause finger tip pain in an experienced player. As someone else said, having them in water for a long time then playing. A couple other issues to consider are...

1. Does the pain or tenderness (I am assuming this is what you mean and not for example joint pain) ever get better? Do you have some periods of time where it seems fine then it flares up? I ask because this could correlate to periods of over practicing, learning a new song, etc.

2. Are you bending more than a whole step? The greater the interval the more stress you will put on the finger. It should adjust but if you stop for a while and start again you won't be used to it.

3. Is it the finger tip or under the nail? I used to get this a lot when I was younger. Things would be going fine then for some reason (usually right after clipping my left hand nails) the skin would tear from under the nail and that would burn for quite a while.

4. Could it be the brand of string? 9s are not that heavy. I bend up to a major 3rd, sometimes a 4th on 11s and I DON'T use 3 or 4 fingers. I do not like that technique as it takes freedom away from playing harmonies while bending. For many years (decades) I used GHS boomers because it just seemed like what everyone had and there didn't seem to be a lot of variety. More recently a tech who sets up my guitars recommended another brand, even said that GHS was not great for bending. I don't recall if he put on D'Adario, or Ernie Ball. Whatever it was it just felt loose and had both more "spring" to it and was easier to bend. It could be the material too.

5. High action might contribute to this. Make sure you have your guitar well adjusted. If the action is too high that will affect both the feel of just playing notes and bending.

6. Does the amount of pain or tenderness depend on where you are playing. It might be easier to play at the 12th fret than the 3rd or 5th.

Ironically, even though people say don't play right after you bath, I prefer to play when my hands are still soft right out of the shower. Perhaps this helps keep the callus developing. I find that my hand goes through phases and no surprise these depend on what I'm practicing and playing. If I keep up with the Zep, and Blues in general I don't suffer the problem you are having. But if I move on to other styles that don't use bending a lot and neglect to play a little blues every day I will notice when I do it again that I experience a little tenderness as part of the adjustment. These are perishable skills and your hand will acclimate to whatever input you give it. If you take a break for too long I'd expect that you will feel pain again as you get used to it. For mr this does not last long (and rarely happens).

Answer 3

My personal experience is that when my hands stay in the water for some time, the fingertips are definitely affected when it comes to playing.

And so I would definitely try a couple of things. For at least one week:

1. Always wear rubber gloves when washing stuff, avoid soaking your hands as much as possible.

2. Use moisturizer on the hands, but not on the fingertips, try to keep the last inch of your fingers completely dry.

If you can do this for at least a week, it's quite possible that you may start to notice significant changes. The bigger the changes you'll notice, the more you can draw the conclusion that the root of the problem is too much contact with water, rather than anything else.

Answer 4

Try distributing the force of your bend onto the strings with all 3 fingers. If you just use the ring finger to push the strings up and the index and middle are left hanging below that might cause an issue.

Answer 5

I found my problem. It consisted of 2 things:

1. The Guitar in question had its frets leveled but not crowned (for they became too low for that - old guitar). While it never bothered my playing, apparently it affects bending, for I compared it with the exact same guitar but newer which belongs to a friend of mine. He also said that string bending is painful on my guitar.

2. Unlike what is told in all the string bending tutorials - put 2 to 3 fingers in each fret and bend together, I starte bending only with 2 fingers, but always on the same fret. Even on the 10th fret and beyong. To me, that is a way more easy bending, and the strings doesn't move much under my finger as it did when deviding fingers to each fret.

Answer 6

think of your fingers as you do about any muscle; you need to properly stretch it before and after you use them, bendings are one of the most demanding movements fingers do when playing guitar. You should alse be properly warmed up.

on the other hand, you can use finger combinations to acomplish bendings; like using two fingers to lower the stress put into individual member.