Over the past 2-3 weeks, I've pretty much restricted myself to playing fingerstyle acoustic only. There are a number of reasons for that, none of which I wish to elaborate on. However, the past, say, 5 days, I've started to notice a bit of crepitus in the fingers on my right hand. Whenever I close my hand, the two articulations closest to the fingernail (most distal, if you will) produce a rather loud, very clearly audible snap. My fingers aren't stiff, and no deterioration/improvement of the condition occurs throughout the day, which sort of rules out osteoarthritis as well as rheumatoid arthritis. It's not the standard "cracking your knuckles" symptom either, as there is no refractory period - the joints will pop everytime I form a first. My thumb is unaffected.

It has me stumped - which is not surprising, as I'm more into neurology than orthopaedics. I talked to two orthopaedic friends of mine, however, and neither of them had any idea what it could be. One of them suggested early-onset osteoarthritis, which I think is complete and utter rubbish. As I said, my fingers aren't stiff, nor are they painful - besides, it seems very unlikely that my picking hand would be affected but not my fretting hand. No signs of inflammation are visible, so I'm reluctant to start myself on a high-dose NSAID course.

So. Bit of an open question here: how many of you have similar symptoms in one (or both) of your hands? I'm guessing that some of you, shall we say, "more experienced" pickers (remember, there's no such thing as old - only vintage) have some degree of wear and tear in your hands, right? Does it affect your playing in anyway - e.g. having to use finger- and thumbpicks, or having to switch to flatpicking?

I have no idea...ALL my knuckles and joint pop, including my back and neck. Every joint in my toes and fingers as well as my hips. I think my knees are the only joints in my whole body that I don't ever feel a need to "pop" them.

I'm also prone to osteo arthritis. Unfortunately, my ankles are shot and I recently went to the doctor for my neck issues.

Osteo arthritis doesn't not cause joints to pop

I'm going to assume that the double negation is a typing error here... but I've seen some extreme osteoarthritis cases with terrible crepitus. You're right in saying that the affected joints don't "pop" (as your knuckles do when you crack them), but extreme crepitus often sounds like a number of consecutive pops as well.

Has it affected your playing in any way?

I guess my neck experiences extreme crepitus (whatever that is). but no, it has not affected my playing, but after so many years of playing, I don't go thru the over-fretting issues others have.

I'm an MD - over-fretting issues is what I get paid for . Hint understood though, cheers for your answer.

I'm no MD and nor can I really help with what your problem might be. Have you had any previous injuries to your fingers, maybe a hairline fracture or a break or something similar.
On a personal note I have arthritis that I've seen on xray through my wrist on my picking hand, this is as a result of a broken carpal bone when I was a teenager and constantly aggravating the injury through laying bricks for a living.
Now I fingerpick a lot but I don't ever experience cracking sounds, at times my wrist and hand will ache while I play due to my hand being held in a clasped position for a length of time and I find the need to stretch my hand out as it were to release a bit of the pressure but its never really hindered my playing.

No hairline fractures or anything like that, though I'm sure that my hands must have some minor structural damage (I boxed for a few years). Then again, I know that some of the old fingerstyle ragtime/country-blues players didn't exactly live a comfortable life, taking proper care of their hands either... and at least one person on this site (adds) plays fingerstyle despite having boxed for 20-something years. Maybe I'm over-thinking what is in effect a minor issue, heh. Guess I've been spending too much time with the textbooks again... I'm just constantly paranoid of losing the ability to fingerpick.

One positive out of it is that you'll be able to use the crepitus as a clicktrack, sort of like a built in metrenome.