Preparing the Nails

With a nylon-strung classical guitar, the best sound is produced byplaying with the nails. The right-hand nails should be long enough tocatch and play the string, but no longer, because a long nail is animpedance and is more likely to break. As a guide, when you look atyour hand with the palm facing you, you should see a ridge of nailprojecting just above the fingertip and following its contour.

The nails should be shaped with a “diamond dust” or similar nail file,and after shaping a very fine finishing paper (600 grade or better) maybe used to polish off any rough edges. The result will be a pure tonewith no scratch to it.

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