Hi All
Got some bad news yesterday that I need a shoulder operation and I wont be playing for at least 2 months, possibly longer. I was wondering if anyone here had a nifty way to keep finger callouses during a long break away from playing?
I have thought about attaching some strings to a block of wood and fingering the strings every day.
Any ideas?
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You can buy them ready made for a few quid. They’re meant for beginners to practice chord shapes. Without the movement of actually playing I don’t know how effective it would be at retaining callouses, but it’s probably better than nothing.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much though. Heal up and then rebuild your callouses afterwards. It doesn’t take long if you play regularly.
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Yeah, you could look at one of these. I have one like it that I bought when I was first starting. I found it completely useless and never use it, but it might help in your situation just to keep the calluses tough.
https://www.amazon.com/GOSONO-Acoustic-Practice-Fingerboard-Portable/dp/B07F7GHFC8/ref=dp_fod_3?pd_rd_w=dmyYB&content-id=amzn1.sym.d4cdfb0a-d4b4-4f0b-8c51-55838af3328a&pf_rd_p=d4cdfb0a-d4b4-4f0b-8c51-55838af3328a&pf_rd_r=XJHTGGWQYRAJV5JB17YV&pd_rd_wg=1ktE5&pd_rd_r=ad0eb8cc-dd74-4e0e-bf04-c8f0a5345f10&pd_rd_i=B07F7GHFC8&psc=1
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I wouldn’t say this will stop the loss but, it will help reduce the rate at which they soften up and more. Like muscle strength of you hand. Watch the little video, I use this on my non practice days.
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Hello Dean, I can’t offer you any advice. Just wanted to say, that I wish you all the best for the surgery, and a quick recovery, so that you can be back in the saddle soon.
All the best 
.
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Hi Dean,
Your calluses will be back sooner than you expect and you will probably have to start quietly after your operation and then your calluses will build up again and by the time you are headbanging/rocking/ easy bluesing again, your protective layer of calluses will be stuck on again,…
But much more important ,…good luck and I wish you a speedy recovery 
Greetings,Rogier
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Thanks Tons for the ideas and well wishes! I will look into these. Muscle strength is an important aspect. Im sure everything will work out fine and Ill be better after its all said and done. I have a fobia about hospitals. Thats probably the wordt of it. Thanks so much again for your helpful suggestions.
Dean, I don’t have a receipt for the callouses, but had the problem after summer holidays (only 14 days). A lot of swimming softened my calluses completely. Took me a while to build them up again, but it happend much faster than in the very beginning.
I hope, everything goes well with surgery and doesn’t take too long. As you will start playing slowly after that, I think your callouses will have time to build up again. Good luck!
That’s weird ,everyone I know loves having surgery 
… it’s completely normal to worry and it’s good to be busy with your calluses ,that also gives you some distraction and so it feels like it will be over sooner than you expect now,hopefully …sharing with others helps,…good luck again ask for more if necessery and let us know how it went,…
Greetings,…
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I hope you op goes well for you Dean and that it sorts your issue out. Just think how keen you’re going to be after 2 months of not playing. 