Clive Carroll - Ping Pong Nail Reinforcement for Guitarists! 

I started playing guitar to get girls. Here I am 20 years later considering glueing pingpong balls to my fingers.

Thanks so very much for the tutorial Clive! Very helpful indeed! The first time I met John Renbourn was backstage at a show here in Toronto and he was hurriedly repairing a broken finger nail and he was doing so with a ping pong ball. I thought he was mad! That was about 25 years ago or so. I had never seen anything like that before. I am now at that age were my finger nails are not growing at the pace at which I am wearing them down with those big medium strings on my Collings dreadnought! So some reinforcement will be necessary. I will be jumping on the Renbourn/Carroll Ping Pong Train any day now! Wish me luck. Thanks again!

I will never forget you explaining this between songs, the perfect sincere patter

Brilliant. I finally bit the bullet and tried this method as you describe it so well. After a little trial and error I have it working and its great! The main challenge was shaping to fit. Thanks a lot for this.

Thanks very much Clive. Non-guitar players can't understand why we lose sleep over details like this :-)

Thanks Clive for this demo. I finger pick but also play clawhammer banjo where I find heavy wear on my index finger. I’ll definitely give this a try! Lol - did the salon a few times pre covid 19. I just purchased a Gibson L-OO and was searching different videos. Thats how I found you playing one. I not only enjoy your performance- but I so appreciate what appears your own personal enjoyment and ‘in the flow’ while playing! I hope you come to east coast of Canada some time! Cheers. Rick

Saw this in action mid-performance at West End Centre, Aldershot - plus great commentary!

I've been playing for 30 years with just fingers but love the attack you get. I tend to tear the finger nail to shred if they get long enough. If I can grow mine out enough I will try this. Tried a nail salon years ago but after a couple of trips my real nails started going soft. Going under the front of the nail is brilliant! Thank you for sharing!

Hi Clive! I was always curious how you do this. Thanks a lot for the detailed information. I'm used to go to a nail studio, but in these times it's not possible and my nails are wearing out! So this might be a good advice for us guitar freaks. And I just got into your truefire lessons. Some REAL work for me. Hopefully I can get 10% out of it. If not now, when is the time! Hope to meet you soon again when all is getting more normal. Cheers, Bernd

Incredibly useful, thank-you very much Clive! Pity I didn't see this a couple of months ago when I attempted to use a ping pong ball for my nails. I tried making a full nail to glue on top of mine, but had 2 problems; the balls I bought were too thin (bought cheap ones at a 'Dollar' store), and they didn't stick properly because the inside has some sort of shiny surface that the super glue didn't work very well with. I like the idea of gluing them to the underside as I find gluing on a full nail to the outside destroys the original nail (it becomes very soft; because of the glue? The lack of air?) which is probably not great. Look forward to trying out your technique as soon as possible (guess ping pong balls aren't considered 'essential', lol.) Thanks again 😊.

Thank you. Very good explanation.

Thank you very much for sharing.

Very interesting. Was surprised you didn't use guitar picks instead of ping-pong balls

I saw you talking about it in another video, tried in my thumb some weeks ago .. didn't sound so good for me, but I haven't done this finalization with the 'sandpaper' (don't know if I'm right with words...), gonna try again sometime. Thanks for the video Clive ! :) Hope to see more about other guitar stuff from you Be safe Cheers!

GREAT ! 👍👍👍

Chet Atkins used pingpong balls exclusivly for fake nails. I tried them once and realized that for me they would be useless, since my nails are a bit odd in that they are not convex as most peoples nail are. Rather, mine are dead flat lengthwise. Viewed from the end however they are normal. The result of this has been that in order to achieve full contact between the natural nail and the fake, I'ive been forced to manufacture my own fake nails from the sides of various plastic bottles, such as soda bottles. Some times the plastic "bubble" from bubble packs (such as key fobs, and other small items are displaid in. They ARE a pain to make since you must out middle of the bottle and cut that into lengthwise strips a little over 1/2 wide so they will cover the entire nail side -to side. If the bottle is "skinny" enough i just profile it glue it down. Flat pieces of plastic, after the plastic is cut into strips can be placed lengthwise in an electric curling iron about 10mm in diameter that I've sprayed with some kind of anti-stick cooking oil. With the iron on "high" they should keep their form when removed. Then just wipe them off,and profile them. This works well, but its very time-consuming and is a pain to do, but it works!

Great description! My approach has been the nail salon method. The lockdown put a halt to that and my playing decreased (along with the gigs) as my own nails revealed their softness after years underneath the gel. I've tried ping pong balls but without success: how do you deal with attaching them to a nail that is broken, with little left to attach to? What do you do then?

Great information Clive, thanks! I've been just reinforcing my nails with hardener and polish, which tbh is useless. I've been considering the salon/at home acrylic route, but may try this out first! Practical question... Does washing up/washing hands etc not destroy these?

Warning! Just go a nail polish salon and get your weak nails reinforced and built up! With hard gel polish. Superglue can irritate the skin! I play the violin(badly!)so I understand! G7 always, man! 🇬🇧

Just the sort of detailed, visual instruction I have always wanted on this. But I do have a nagging question? What do you do as your nail grows out? You mentioned you get about 5 days of usage; do you sand them down during that time? Eventually you would sand them down flush to your real nail, and at that time remove and reinstall? Or do you remove/reinstall earlier?

Is there a reason they are glued to the underside of the nail, I studied my favourite fingerstyle guitarist and he wore them over the top of his nails. Is it just a personal preference or is there more to it? Also how do you find they hold up on steel strings? Thanks!

Endorsing locktight maximum precision.

Paul McCartney gets his nails done. Beware superglue

Really difficult to understand the process without close shots

Alas, the nail salon method has destroyed my natural nails to the point that they hardly grow past my fingertip, and when they do get out there a bit (3 months?) - they're soft and gummy and won't support Alaska Piks, and likely wouldn't work with the ping pong method. Damned nail salons. AVOID THEM, GUYS.