Varigrip Hand Exerciser

I settled for this particular model on the basis of other reviews and its brand. To date, I have not been disappointed, it’s doing what I want it to do and I am already feeling the benefits. It is easy to use and easy to adjust the spring tensions for individual fingers. Initially I found the fourth finger key too strong, but by altering the strength on the other fingers, within days found significant improvement on the fourth finger which already transferred into my woodwind, keyboard and string playing. Taking off the grey moulding to cover the keys is really simple and doing the exercise to maintain string callouses is simple and again, effective. This is a robust, compact and simple device, stores and transports easily. Some may quibble at its cost but I think it easily justifies itself, is easy to use and produces results quickly. A basic but really useful tool for the musician- I’m very pleased I bought this, to borrow another well known phrase: “ it does what it says on the tin” ( although this one comes plastic sealed to a card:D). Some may think five stars rather generous, but it does and is continuing to do all I expected of it so how could I give it less? After all, I’d happily buy it again if I need to.

It looks and feels well made. It performs quite well in a number of configurations, and it all depends on what you expect from it. I was a bit disappointed that the tension was as strong as it is at it's weakest setting - this makes it difficult to use as a practise aid for finger co-ordination - for example for finger picking guitar or trumpet etc. Weaker springs would have made this much easier, and tension could be increased if desired. I bought the varigrip mainly to exercise my fingers at the onset of arthritis, and I'm not sure that it will actually help. This is mainly because it is difficult to use the grip to bend specific finger joints enough, and I now also have my doubts about strength exercises actually easing the symptoms of arthritis anyway. No doubt the grip will improve the strength of fingers, hand and wrist, if that's what you want.

I have to admit I do like this, in fact I love it. I think it's brilliant. It's well built, and it's clear D'Addario have put some real thought into it's practicality and how it'll benefit your guitar playing. This isn't a corporate fad designed to milk money out of novice guitar players who might think they need every single guitar accessory on the face of this planet. (The experienced ones I know who have been playing for over a decade also found this useful in their own way and considered getting one themselves.) The packaging it comes in (a card with the exerciser affixed to it) has a list on the back of all the different exercises you could essentially incorporate, ranging from building finger calluses to strengthening muscles and training them for bar chords. I started using this every day, playing around with it and giving the muscles a good flexing which I began to reap the benefits of. I could hold chords for longer and the fingers felt more agile when finger-picking. The callus builder (located underneath the grey strip seen in the picture) I was initially skeptical of, since it's "string simulator" is three lines that somewhat represent the thinner strings, but they're more raised groves in the plastic body as opposed to real guitar strings which I feel would have been better, or metal at the least. Nevertheless, they do show promise, and the fingertips feel toughened. The ability to change the tension on each finger press (via turning the small dials for each) allows me to slowly improve the strength in the little fingers while stepping it up for the main three which are much stronger (of course, as they said too, favouring certain fingers isn't ideal.) It fits into the pocket nicely and works great as a warm up before an intense session, or in your spare time when you know there's something you need to work on. It's versatile, strong and definitely serves me well. Highly recommended, espcially for a tenner.

Will definitely help with individual finger strength and overall hand strength. I really like the added callus board although I feel it could be deeper to replicate playing on steel strings. However I guess that would leave your fingers sore and result in the inability to practice on an actual guitar. Overall it’s a good training aid and recommend it, especially for beginners.

Just got back into Guitar playing after a few years Hiatus. Wanted to strengthen my fretting hand so thought I’d give this a go. It’s Mega! Very versatile. You can literally do so many different strengthening exercises with it. I’ve had it a couple of weeks and use it for short bursts throughout the day. I can definitely feel an improvement. Also you can do finger exercise drills that mimic playing guitar either going through scales or putting chords on. It’s got adjustable resistance too so you can make it work harder for you. All round I thinks it’s a great piece of kit comfortable to use and great value for money.

I bought this to increase the strength in my fingers for playing the guitar as I was getting pain in my index finger joints when trying to learn bar chords and I also didn't have much strength in my little finger. I've been using this for a few weeks now and have found it to really help. I would prefer if the index finger could be harder as I find it a little easy to depress, even on its hardest setting. The little finger however could do with being made easier as it is hard to depress it fully even on its lightest setting. I'm not sure how beneficial the mock guitar strings will be for me as I play regularly so I can't really comment too much on their effectiveness, however if ever there is a point that I am unable to play for a while then I will definitely try this out. I've lost my finger callouses a couple of times in the past so know how painful it is to build them back up again and if this can prevent that then it's definitely worth a try!

As a guitarist I'm a bit cranky about things that might affect my ability to play and, helping an elderly friend with her gardening I used many 2-stroke power tools for a while until my hands began to ache and feel a bit seized up. When those danger signs came along I stopped using the equipment and broke out the elbow grease, but still needed to rehabilitate my hands from the RSI-inducing traumas of power tools. This has proven perfect to do just this. Physiotherapy is all about very subtle movements that bring back the use of hands, and any other limbs for that matter, and the D'Addario hand exerciser has really helped me to bring back the deterity that I need to continue with my guitars. It can be used in either hand, with the grey cushioned part against your palm and your fingers on the pressure pads in either orientation, a bit like ambidextrous trumpet keys. Exercising is something you can do while waiting for something else to happen, such as a kettle boiling or a WAV file to be rendered in your DAW! Just pick it up, spend a minute on each hand every day, and you should keep hand function going for a long time. It takes me all my strength to press some of the keys, but that;s not really what it's about so much as flexure of the joints and a building up of musculature that does so much to protect joints and even reverse the symptoms of arthritis (as happened several years ago with one of my knees - I managed to get back to walking miles from barely being able to walk at all). Used little and often, this is a great aid to hand function and deterity. This is one gadget that really needed an extra 6th star for the rating.

This a very useful and strength building tool for guitarists who can't always practice conventionally. The only thing I found slightly annoying was the way the pinky button makes a clicking noise every time it is released not sure whether this is a design fault or just on the unit I bought. This said, I have noticed a marked difference in muscular strength in both hands since using it, but as with regular practice don't over do it or you could strain muscles or ligaments. The tool is small enough to fit in a pocket so you could exercising your fingers while out walking or sitting on a bus etc. I would recommend this tool. Probably great four other muso's too such as trumpet/ cello players etc

Excellent exerciseur de doigts pour musicien. La résistance est réglable pour chaque doigt indépendamment, ce qui est très pratique pour cibler les doigts les plus faibles. Construction robuste, confortable à utiliser. Idéal pour guitaristes, pianistes, saxophonistes et tous les instrumentistes qui souhaitent renforcer leur technique et leur endurance. Je l'utilise régulièrement et les résultats sont là.

Buen producto si quieres foratalecer tus dedos o recuperarte de lesiones tipicas de los guitarristas. Tienes unas ruedas para ajustar la tension en cada dedo y puedes quitar el protector de goma si quieres hacer callo en los dedos, aunque te recomiendo que los hagas a base de tocar. Producto con la calidad de Daddario que nunca defrauda

Excelente construção e realmente funciona para seu propósito,mas recomendo para quem já treina a um tempo,prq mesmo a tensão mais leve pode ser um pouco demais para quem está começando.

Good quality. My son really likes it

頸椎の手術を行い握力の低下と指の動きが悪くなったためリハビリ用として購入しました。 昔、トレーニング用として安いものを買って使っていたことがあるのですが今回はちょっといいモノを買うことにしました。 安っぽくなく動きもスムーズで不快な音もなくとてもいいと思います。 強さを調節するネジ（ダイヤル）があるのもいいです。 その時の調子に合わせて強弱を変えられますし指ごとにも変えられます。 しかし小指は強度最弱でも最初はなかなかつらかったです。 強度の調整に関しては使い込んでスプリングがヘタってきた時にも有効かもしれないなと思っています。 グレーの部分は取り外しができ、反対のピストン側に装着することも可能です。はずした側は平らになっておりギターの弦のような模様が入っています。おそらくこれを押さえることでギターの弦を抑えるのと同様の効果を期待して指先を強化するのだと思います。実際押さえると結構痛いです。 病院は待合室で長い時間待つことが多いのでいい時間つぶしになります。 大きなものでも重いものでもないのでバッグに入れて持ち歩きやすいことからいつでもどこでも使えるのはいいところだと思います。 でもねー、ちょっと回復するとすぐにやるのを忘れてしまうんですよねー。 というかサボるんですよね。 思い出しながらがんばって続けます。