I love the new additions, the lamp is great!

Thanks I have played for 45 years and now having a problem with weak nails I will give this a try

I logged in just to tell you what a great video that was. Just ordered those same products last night and then found this.

Just got the kit today. Can't wait to try it.

Thanks - exactly what I was looking for as I was struggling when I broke a nail. I don't like the feel of finger picks.

Simple and precise ! Well done . Very informative and most welcome

Being a guy I knew nothing about how to do this. Everything I was watching was so complicated. You did well.

Thankyou so much! Worked perfectly here! years of broken nail problems suddenly solved.

I just broke my thumb nail and found your video and quickly ordered everything and did everything as you've suggested. Worked like a charm! I think this is indeed the best method! The gel is thick and sturdy exactly as my original nail and looks very similar in appearance too (apart from the very tiny air bubbles it ended up with, which I will try to avoid in the future). Thank you so much!

I used to take tissues, peel of one layer and then super glue it to my split nail, then filed it and sanded it down, worked perfectly and is cheap.

Never even knew this was possible! Thanks!

Excellent tutorial.

Thanks so much for this video and your help! This is an issue I have been fighting for years. I just ordered everything.

Thanks for the video man. I am in a master's program now and my hooked to hell nails have always been a problem for me. I used ping pong for a while but it was never a thing I could figure out for my thumb nail. This will probably work better. I'm gonna try it out tomorrow when the package comes in!

Hi Evan, Nice video, you can use alcohol preps (available in drugstores) and be able to take on planes etc. They are little pieces of cloth saturated with alcohol and sealed in a foil packet. You could fit dozens in your kit.

There's a finisher you can get to get rid of the stickiness.

This is awesome. I have thin nails. Tried ping pong balls for a couple years before going acrylic. With the salons closed, I'm excited to try this.

Cool…Thanks 👊🏽😉 Great Info!

I was completely ready to totally shit on this video in the comments, I stuck with it and I am amazed at how good this is. Definitely going to get me some of this, just in case.

How do you remove it? Does it harm the Nail? Thank you😇

Evan, thanks for the fantastic demo - purchasing this through your affiliate link!

Thanks. I just placed my order

I want to thank you for the tutorial. My nails are getting thinner as I get older but I didn't realize how much it was inhibiting my playing. Once I started using the builder gel, I found I could play more freely and aggressively. There is a BIG but however, I purchased all the supplies from your Amazon web page and the recommended gel wouldn't harden very well with the recommended light. I purchased the IBD LED/UV Builder Gel and that hardened fine under the portable light. A little wipe with an alcohol swab and I was good to go.

Thanks for the video Evan. I have been struggling to find the right option. One question; does the gel continue to stick at the tip of the nail once your nail grows out? I mean when your real nail underneath gets to be the same length as the gel on top.

This is kinda crazy, I’ve talked to you a few times on ig back in the day and I do nails now and was looking up some info for a guitarist I know lol

If you don't want to carry a bottle of rubbing alcohol, you could buy the little foil packs of alcohol wipes. They're marketed to diabetic people a lot to sanitize before they have to give themselves insulin. You could throw a handful of them in your kit. Btw I'm not a guitar player, I just do nails and I somehow stumbled onto this. I had no clue guitarists did things like this. So cool.

If you want better longevity from the gel nails you need to add more product to the center of the nail bed. You want to see a slight curve from your cuticle up through the main portion of the nail and then a sight curve down towards the tip. You will see this when looking at the thumb sideways. Your tips will crack or snap off with wear if you don't thicken and strengthen the whole stucture of the nail. Take it from a nail tech. If your not sure what I mean, watch some gel nail application tutorials from professional nail techs. It will help if you are looking for more than a quick patch.

BRILLIANT!!!!

This is just an excellent tutorial! My thumbnail has an unfortunate tendency to split longitudinally down to base, and I've tried countless artifical fingerpicks (I don't want to retrain right hand for using thumbpicks) to compensate...all to no avail. Thank you so much for your gift of making classical guitar music more accessible to me!

Hi Evan, Great video! I have a few questions.... 1) if you need to remove the nail do you have to file it off or will the material eventually separate from the nail bed? 2) Does this do any harm to the nail bed like super glue? If using these will the nail continue to grow naturally under the material without air it would normally get? I have a similar problem as you in that the left side of my nail is hooked at point of contact. The questions above are intended to give me some guidance as to if this is a good permanent solution or if it is best reserved for emergency situations when a nail is broken? Thanks!

Hi Evan, excellent tutorial, thank you! One question, though, do you build out your other nails too, or just the thumbnail only? I was thinking I need to build them all out. I noticed your other nails are short so not sure if you play like that or build out all of your other nails to get the best sound and performance. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!

I do about the same thing, but with superglue in thick viscosity. Works great for me, easy and cheap. You can also use it to repair small areas. Before I went to a beauty parlour, but the gel nails don't last as long as the superglue.

This was a very good and informative video. Thank you for making it. Like johnolivermusic I am also interested in future maintenance, touch up and/or removal of the gel. I noticed you only put gel part way up the nail. As the built up portion grows forward d you just file and add more gel or do you completely remove it first?

Can this be used for the other nails as well? Is there a different technique to use it for the other nails?

Nice work. So you have to file down each day as your natural nail grows from underneath ...and take off once a week?

That was well done and to the point. I’ve never tried this but may for future use. Little scary. I have poor nails that get chewed up when I play. I see James Taylor’s and was thinking about doing this.

Thanks for the video. I bought the whole kit but the thing won't cure on my led lamp. Can I ask the specs of your lamp? Led/uv and wattage?

Thanks for the excellent tutorial. What kind of guitar are you playing? It's a beauty. The colors of the Rosetta remind me of a Cervantes, though the shape is somewhat different. It sounds very good.

Have you tried acrylic press on nails? Mine last about 2 weeks. Do these ‘gel’ nails sound better, and do you recommend a specific acrylic nail shape-to start with.

So I did this, it worked fine, but the gel was applied too thick at the tip. It’s hard, and I can’t seem to file it thinner. How do you remove the nail to start over? It is wonderfully hard and permanent which will be great once it’s shaped right.

my problem has been at the cuticle. Where the fake nail catches on the guitar string. I had to put tape to cover the gap.. Tried other fillers but no good yet

The nail file Will last longer if it’s brushed off frequently with a stiff toothbrush, only use clean areas of the file (careful not to breathe in the dust !) Is there a way to build a dam on the foil, in the shape of the nail tip ? An adhesive foam rubber perhaps ? That way the gel would have something to stop against, allowing a thicker tip, and less waste of gel Thanks for a great video ! have you seen James Taylor’s video ? He has Great success with fiberglass nails (I think)

The main difference here with other tutorials is the use of the IBD bonding compound vs the pair dehydrator/primer. Hopefully both methods work, but it's slightly confusing.

Does this artificial nail affect the strength of your real nail when the artificial one has worn down. Is your natural nail still as strong as it was before you applied the gel? I used glued on artificial nails occasionally when I'd broken a nail before performing. They worked ok but when I removed them the real nail had become really soft and weak.

Just did my first one. I've had someone use those foil forms on my nails. She pulled the corners on each side of the black rectangle together so that they stuck and formed a cone that I pushed the tip of my finger into. It creates a more stable and nicely rounded form for the nail. I did that and it worked pretty well. Now I just have to see how it stands up to the wear and tear. I use steel strings. I've been using the powder system and it's OK but a bit complicated - 4 different bottles. This is much simpler

Does the gel make the real nail underneath soft when you return to it?

Interesting...I've been losing my mind trying to cut, file and super glue acrylic homemade nails only to have them break off or crack immediately after due to the type of work I do - it's been a neverending problem for me...my real nails are thin and easily broken...this is a possibility, especially once I figure out what's involved with removing it and starting over if it breaks...thanks for the idea!💡

I have a problem with them breaking off and then taking a bit of the nail with them . Is that a problem in this product as well? I heard you say you keep them on for 3 weeks at least. My nail products start to peel after just a bit morr than half a week. Is this problem also with this product? Hope i am conveying my question properly, english isnt my first language.

what about the pouch at 1:43, can you post the link to that size? looks like a perfect fit

Thank you for this good video. I clicked the links but they are not working. Any way you can help? Thanks.

Can you post the nail file you used, and does this work for metal string too (such as an electric guitar)?

I have two nails that are down almost to the quick.

Oh look, that's how Apple should have added the charging port to the Apple Mouse.

Can you please post the link to the box that you use to store the various Gel Nails components?

Oye, y como se quita la uña ?

As a gardener and maintenance worker this will not work. I use cheap glue on nails so that when(not if, but WHEN) my nail catches on something it doesn't rip my skin at all it just pops the nail off. Then I can reuse the same nail or nake a new one. Using something too permanent can be quite painful and means when an accident happens I can recover quickly without damaging my practicing ability.

Thank you for sharing this method! What is the armrest called that you can see at 12:40? Would you recommend it?

You can use alcohol sanitizing gel.

Does this process harm the nail bed? Once the fake nail is no good any more, how do you remove it? Thanks for a great video!

thank u exactly what I am need. My thumb nail keeps breaking. However, I thought it came in a kit. All Im seeing is ala carte so to this comes to about 52 $ which is expensive. I dont even c the nail file u were using. If this only lasts 3 weeks this gets expensive. Hmm there must b a more economical way to do this. Unless the products last for a long time. Thank u anyway

Mine keep breaking

Doesn’t the gel glue to your skin?

I have short nails. Almost none. Like 2/32 of an inch, that's how I roll. And I don't know why I watched the whole video haha. And I also can't imagine playing with a nail that long. Great discorvery tho.

I’ve been screwing with broken nails during my 50 yrs of playing , I came up with a way of putting fake nails on . I went to the store and bought my fake nails in the cosmetics department. Form fit the nail you want to use and rough up the bottom of it with sand paper. Do the same to your finger nail Mix a small amount of quick dry JB weld 2 part epoxy apply on your nail and the fake one and then press them together, it looks messy but in 5 minutes it will come off . Now these nail are soft so in order to harden them I coat the nail with super glue trying to put it on as even as possible then I coat the glue with baking soda , this will instantly turn it rock hard, then file it down to make it look better This will stay on until your nail grows it out . The negatives are that you will have black fingernails and They will turn a pretty blue in the sunlight.

do they really have to be so long ? ...

I don't know how you have your thumb nail so long.

Warning! Warning! Thanks for this great video but you might want to also pass on this warning. While this works very very well for a temporary nail that sounds and works great, there is a danger in using it for a longer time. When my nail broke, I was so happy with the nail I created I thought I would leave it on while the nail grew back. During that time I had to replace it every now and then. I also broke a second nail and decided to do the same for it. I became very good at creating and replacing gel nails. But over time I noticed that my real nail underneath, instead of getting longer kept splitting and seem to be thinner. My playing never sounded better with the perfect shaped Gel nails I created but I found out after doing some research that the gel nail, UV light and the acetone used was actually damaging my real nails. It became apparent that my nail would not grow back correctly if I kept the Gel nail on. I removed the Gel Nails and I am now in the process of letting my natural nails grow back. It is taking longer because the leading edge of the nail is thin and separates and breaks off. It has been a over a month with using Biotin and moisturizers and my nails are just starting to come back to normal. It looks like it will still be a few more weeks before I will be able to play with nails again. Playing classical guitar without nails is not as much fun. Perfect temporary nail for Classical Guitar but be careful and don't leave them on to long. That was my experience. Good luck everyone.

Or you just get yourself fake nails specifically for guitarists. Strip of glue on your natural nails, put the fake nails on top and voila ... you have better sounding nails than your natural nails.