Jerry Garcia told Guitar Player while the piano wasn't an option with only nine fingers, the lack of a middle finger is "not a handicap for the guitar," or even for the pedal steel. He said, "It never bothers me, never ever."
Garcia told Rolling Stone in 1991 when the accident happened the family was about 30 miles out of town in the mountains, so during the drive to the hospital in Santa Cruz his hand was wrapped in a towel. It wasn't until weeks later when the last bandage was finally removed that he realized he'd lost his finger.
He said, "And I remember it didn't hurt or anything. It was just a sort of buzzing sensation. I don't associate any pain with it. For me, the traumatic part of it was after the doctor amputated it, I had this big cast and bandages on it. And they gradually got smaller and smaller, until I was down to like one little bandage. And I thought for sure my finger was under there. I just knew it was. And that was the worst part, when the bandage came off. 'Oh, my God, my finger's gone.' But after that, it was okay, because as a kid, if you have a few little things that make you different, it's a good score. So I got a lot of mileage out of having a missing finger when I was a kid."
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