Proper playing and scratch protection?

Good day =)

I am upgrading to a Pono ATD soon, and have noticed that my lanikai has a lot of scratches where the neck meets the soundboard (where I strum).

Either this is normal or I'm not playing properly...when I watch Aldrine play on vids it looks like his fingertips are just touching the strings and not the soundboard at all.

So two questions:

Do you have any tips or exercises for keeping my nails off the delicate soundboard?

Would you recommend products such as the nylon no adhesive strumsafe customizable scratch-guards? (www.strumsafe.com)

Thanks very much!

For most of us, scratches happen. There's a good Uke Minute that addresses them:

http://ukuleleunderground.com/2009/06/uke-minutes-49-how-to-remove-scratches-aka-pimp-your-uke/

Also, please do a review of the Pono when you get it.

Aldrine puts a cell phone like plastic protection on his ukes. But scratches happen if you play your uke.

You can try to strum between the 10th -12th fret....he he

Thanks vanflynn for the link. I'm still very new to the uke, but I'll take some pics and post what I think of the Pono =)

I guess I'll just have a little bit of new car syndrome...want to keep it pristine until it gets it's first scratch and then not worry so much.

If its a non glossy finish I don't care about scratches, if it is a glossy finish, I make a template out of paper then cut iPad screen protector and apply it, its easily removed, and almost invisible. I used that too to put over Jake's signature.

I posted about the protectors here