Shaping and Filing the Fingernails

1. It is impossible to produce a good tone on the guitar without first carefully shaping and smoothing your nails. No two guitarists have the same shaped fingers, and there is no ideal one nail-shape fits all solution. It will take time and a certain amount of trial and error to develop your own personal tone. However, the basic principles of filing and shaping apply to all, and the following advice should get you off to a good start.
Nail kit: My preference is to shape the nail with a sapphire nail file (available from most chemists). After using one of these, the nails should be smoothed with emery (silicon-carbide) paper at a grade between 600 and 1500, available from hardware stores.

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Shaping the nails: Some players achieve good results by shaping their nails to follow the general contour of their fingertips. My recommendation, however, is that the nails be shaped at a slight angle to act as miniature ramps, helping to guide the strings smoothly in a downward direction before being released. Filing the nails on the strings: Heres a simple and excellent method to automatically set the best ramp angle for filing each nail: Fold a piece of emery paper around the guitar strings, and hold it in place with the left hand, as shown in fig. 2. A nail file can also be held in place in this way and used prior to smoothing the nail with emery paper. Then, as you pluck your righthand fingers in the normal way, the nails will scrape across the paper and be filed at the precise angle that each nail comes into contact with the string! To file the thumbnail, fold the paper over the sixth string and play across the paper in the same way. When your nails have been filed by this method they will probably have a slightly bevelled shape (see fig. 4). You will also notice that the nail on each finger is angled slightly differently: that of the index finger will probably have more of a slant than the middle finger, while the nail on the ring finger is likely to have a shape that is closer to the contour of the actual fingertip. When the nails have been filed to the correct height they should be gently rounded off to a smooth curve. Filing away from the strings: You can use the above method to file your nails to the correct height, or complete the process by filing away from the guitar strings. When filing away from the strings, the following points should be observed. File the nails with your fingertips facing you. File from beneath the nail at an angle of about 45 (fig. 3a). File in a straight line (fig. 3b) according to the ramp angle already set by the above method. (Despite the straight-line motion of the nail file the resulting shape will probably still be somewhat curved. This is because the file is held beneath the nail at a 45 angle, which brings it into contact with a large portion of the naturally curved nail.) Keep playing the guitar to check the quality of the tone. Smoothing the nail: When the nails have been shaped they should be buffed smooth with an old and well-used piece of emery paper. You can also use the back of the paper to get a really glassy finish. Check for smoothness by running the edge of your thumbnail across the playing surface of each nail the nails should feel smooth and silky with no sensation of roughness remaining. 25

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