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Question Anyone else get overly sweaty hands when playing? What do you do?

billpepper82

billpepper82

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Messages
90
Location
Round Rock TX
It doesn't matter where I am at temperature wise but after 5? minutes of playing my hands get really sweaty, I use a hand towel in between songs and make sure I clean up my guitar when done playing I was just wondering if anybody else has this happen?
 
When it's hot I sweat all over my guitar ( too much info?), but my hands hardly ever get sweaty. So I clean the body of the guitar after playing, but have no problems with the neck.
 
I have horrible sweat issues! I've rusted the pole pieces on the pickups of almost every guitar I've owned and have done some damage to bridges too. The unfinished neck on my Axis doesn't seem to like my sweat much either. I also go through strings faster than a hooker through fishnets. The only advice I've ever gotten is to just wipe down the guitar after playing every time.
 
Do try the Coated Slinkys. They last so much longer than standard slinkys without losing tone it's pretty darn impressive. Aside from that, there is no real answer to sweat issues.
 
If I'm playing for a long time (like a four set gig) I get sweaty hands and then sticky strings. My solution is a small but powerful floor fan that I MUST have at a gig. I position it so it blows up on my fretting hand and guitar neck when I'm near the mike/pedalboard. This has made an enormous difference in my playing for gigs. Doesn't just keep the hand dry but also keeps the strings dry and more predictably slippery.

If I'm just practicing at home for maybe an hour it never seems to be a problem. But once it starts, I can't make it stop, and once the strings start getting gummed up, it really effects my playing.

And you're not alone, there's a lot of dudes who have this issue and use fans.

I haven't found that any particular kind of string is better than any other. I haven't found any amount of string wiping that works because it's my hand that's the problem.

Frequent hand washing and drying works OK. I used to just try to do that between each set, but if it's warm outside it only seems to help for a couple of songs.

I also seem to find that when I've been practicing a lot and my finger callouses are harder, it's less of an issue.
 
Dude. I feel your pain as I have the same problem. Strings last hours not days and all my guitars look like they have been through some sort of custom shop ageing process. My solution. But strings in bulk as they are cheaper! I was almost off to the doctor for a solution but I thought I would just live with it. Play the hand you are delt....and still win.
 
Hello

Do you practice some sport ? If you do some sports like running, your body learns how to regulate your internal temperature. When I run, I sweat a lot (so much that my cardio is most of the time out of order after 30 minutes ...) but when I play guitar (even under spotlights) sweat is not a problem anymore. Besides, if you do some sport, you lose weight and skinny guys don't sweat a lot !
 
No, François, that's just you! :-D Didn't you once try to get us to running with you, with the line "and you run you can drink as much beer as you want and still have a flat stomach"?
 
DrKev said:
No, François, that's just you! :-D Didn't you once try to get us to running with you, with the line "and you run you can drink as much beer as you want and still have a flat stomach"?
Click to expand...

I can confirm this assertion : beer is a very good drink for recuperation (on some long distance races, you can find beer on the supplying points. Of course, it's low alcohol beer).

For sweat, there is another solution (a tip from Madam Fbecir) : Alum stone (Alum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

Alum has some antiperspirant properties. But beware : alum exists in different form. Try to find an alum stone in a "organic" shop (I don't know if it's a good translation : in French, we say "magasin bio").
(my wife makes her own cosmetics with organic products).

Thus now, you have two choices : marathon or Alum stone ...
 
Sweat is not always related to not being skinny or not doing exercise. I have the same problem auxren has, I've rusted the polepieces of my JP's bridge pickup. The only way I've found to stop this from happening is to remove the rust using steel wool, and then apply some liquid lacquer over the polepieces (when I did this, I only applied two or three thin coats, because I wasn't sure if it would affect my tone somehow; however, I applied more or less ten coats when I did the next string change, and have never had any issues with rust since then). As to the bridge, I only have rusted the saddle screws of the 6th string's saddle, but there's nothing you can do (or at least that I've found) to prevent rust at the bridge. I also clean the guitar body, neck and strings when I'm done playing.
Hope it helps!
 
Rory Gallagher was famous for his acidic sweat : just look at his trusty '61 strat.
Some guys sweat more than some others : it depends on your capacity to adapt to high temperature.
But the composition of your sweat depends mainly on what you are eating and drinking. You are what you eat !
(if you eat something strong like Indian cuisine, after that your sweat will smell curry ...)
 
A rosen bag,a stone,running,different strings and a fan... on Monday I will randomly pick one of these and see how it goes
thank you once again
 
Yeah. I play with a small hand towel in my belt. Seriously.

I absolutely love RPS strings. Been using them for as long as I can remember. Just wipe the sweat off between songs, or during a break. Works for me. Not fashionable though, haha
 
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