I've had to stop playing the guitar for 3-4 days every time I get blisters, and when I pick it up again, my fingertips would be pretty damn solid, so I can play more easily, to some extent. However, if I stop playing for a week or so, my fingertips become soft again, and when I do play guitar once more, blisters form quite easily. This is impeding my progress because it's really painful to play when the flesh is all pink-ish and sensitive. Hence, I was wondering if blisters are part and parcel of guitar playing, or will there eventually come a time when your fingertips are so hard that you won't get them anymore?

tl;dr? Will there come a time when your fingertips are so hard that you won't get blisters anymore?

Just keep playing anyways. I've played guitar for 6 years so I don't get blisters anymore, and if I do, I don't wuss out. It'll just hurt for a while.

I don't play guitar I play drums but I'm sure the same thing applies to both. When playing drums the sticks rip apart your index fingers and the palm of your hand. I used to bleed and get blood blisters every time I played but I sucked it up and played anyway and now my skin has hardened and doesn't blister up any more. So just keep playing and your body will adjust.

do what I do. Just rip em off and keep playing.

i never get blisters except when playing mandolin. i don't know if my fingers will ever get tough enough for those razor sharp little strings. just keep playing and do your best to play regularly, every day. just do it a bit less if it hurts.

They become calluses, not blisters. You should NOT be getting blisters, although your skin should indeed be a bit rawer if you haven't played in a while. If that continues, get your hands checked out or something. I've been playing for a while and have calluses that I don't think are ever going away, but I never got blisters.

DO NOT rip them off as someone stated above... all you're doing then is exposing more raw flesh and you will go through the same thing over and over again.

There is no magic cure or answer for blisters... the only cure is playing your guitar regularly. If they get really bad give the playing a break for a day or two and let them set in. DO NOT pop them or rip them off.

As you stated in your OP you only get them when you don't play for a week or so and that's the issue. Until you have developed calluses you will continue to have blisters and the only way to develop calluses and keep them is constant playing... my advice is to play guitar everyday... even for only 20 minutes... this will harden your skin on your fingertips over time and keep you from getting blisters. There will eventually come a time when you will no longer get blisters... you're just not there yet.

As others have said, take a break from playing for a day or two if you get them. Ripping them off will only exacerbate things. I haven't been able to play bass without a pick for about a week now because I decided to rip off the one that I got on my right middle finger.

I used to get them during the first year I started playing bass, but they never hurt or bothered me, and I haven't seen them since ... I never understood why people complained about this so much. Oh and whatever you do, as others have said, DO NOT rip them off or you'll be back at square one.

Yep, had the same thing when I started playing bass. Especially on my right-hand middle finger. I got actual blisters on there, but only a few times. I don't really have any complaints left, although I shed a lot of dead skin from my finger tips every once in a while. It doesn't seem to influence their (lack of) sensitivity, though.

I have calluses now but when I first started out my fingers would get very sore. One thing I would do to keep playing would be to apply super glue to my finger tips, this would form a tough crust which would allow me to keep playing until my skin hardened up naturally. However this should not be done on broken skin.

yeah, it hurts at first but you do build up some nice calluses. In general they come in handy as well if you've got to do something mechanical. Give them a break if they do hurt, don't rip them off, don't let your hands get too wet. Calluses will form; be proud of them! You don't want wussy pianist hands anyway..

Showers suck. No matter what, the shower gets 'em every once in a while.

I've always had really soft skin on my fingers and have never developed any sort of callouses. I use really thick strings, too, with a lot of tension, as well as lately playing acoustic guitar and bass fingerstyle... So you'd think that I'd develop SOMETHING.

Oh well.

the reason i recommended ripping blisters off is because when you look into how many layers of skin the human fingers actually have, its probably a better idea to try and toughen the inner layers of skin more than the outer layers.

That's not how skin works. As the outer layer dies and falls off, the inner layers move up to replace it. Callouses aren't something you develop once and then maintain forever; you have to keep at it to keep them nice 'n' crusty.

Also...I'VE GOT BLISTAHS ON MY FINGAHS!

I play bass several hours every day, and I never get blisters or calluses on my fretting fingers, but when fingerpicking, I get some pretty repulsive blisters on my middle finger, and occasionally my index finger. I just keep playing. That's the only way to do it! Sure, it hurts and is very irritating, but can't be a wuss about it.

Besides, it's pretty much worth it.

What I did when I first started playing bass is I superglued the tips of my strumming fingers and then just kept going. Still hurts like a bitch but less.

That's the way to go, I do that on my thumb too, apparently so does Flea from RHCP he tore a hole in it.

I never got blisters from guitar playing, but from drums I get them every time I play for more than like 20 minutes. It's very annoying and sort of weird because I've played for like 10 years and it's only during the last couple of years I've had this problem, but I think it's got to do with my playstyle becoming more... wild and fast and hard-hitting sort of. Anyway, nowadays I also don't have the opportunity to play as often, which doesn't exactly help either, because as people have said, the best thing you can do to prevent it is just to play regularly.