A few years back, I got to see Jeff Beck live here in KC, and I was impressed by his fingerstyle approach. Of course, I was floored by what he did with it, but I hadn't ever been as conscious of the fingerstyle approach on electric as much as acoustic guitar before that night. And it seems like since then I have run into or at least noticed more guys going that way. How many of us here are into that?

I'm a fingerstyle electric guy. Been doing that since my guitar teacher got me into classical in the late 60s. I really don't know how to use a guitar pick at this point. The downside is that if I break a finger nail, I'm pretty well f***ed.
Beck is my main electric fingerpicking hero, but Mark Knopfler & Richard Thompson are other good examples.

Do you mean without a pick? If so, I'm in that group. I've never been able to use a pick, probably because I was a keys player starting at 9, and picked (ha ha) up guitar at 16.

I mix- sometimes I use a pick, sometimes I play fingerstyle, sometimes I use a pick in thumb & index + the other three ...

It depends on the song.

I'm mostly a picker but I use the pick with my little, middle and ring finger for hybrid style when I add some double stops, latin, Travis and jazz style chord picking. I play the same way when playing electric, steel string acoustic and nylon string acoustic. I keep my nails fairly short and play mostly with the pads so I don't worry about breaking nails. I do admire the guys that play with just the fingers on electrics and when playing slide guitar...

My second jazz teacher taught me "play single note lines with a flat pick and chords with your fingers."

When I play chord melody, I play PIMA for 95 percent of the tunes, there's a couple of tunes I play with a flat pick. I like the way you can select chord tones and play them as melodic enhancements using your fingers.

100% fingerstyle/pick-less/ridin' bareback electric player here. Love it; would never trade it for a pick. I can get FAR more- and better- tone(s), dynamics, artificial-harmonics feel, and phrasing-variation than I ever could with a pick.

I often use my i (index) and m (middle) finger-nails in a way similar to that of using a pick for single-note/string picking and strumming moves.

And the ability for muting, damping, and simultaneous picking of multiple strings is far greater than that of a pick. It also allows me much better control of dynamically responsive "Slow-Volume" swell-effects and "auto-wah" envelope-filter devices, "ducking delays", and any and all dynamically controlled attack/level-sensitive effects.

I still haven't been able to do pinch harmonics consistently without a pick.

Isn't what you're describing the same thing Chet Atkins had been doing for many a year?

I could never do that to any great degree. Kudos to those of you who can!
Whitefang

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsePsTEgiqU <---- I think you'll find that Chet always used a thumb pick, here he is toward the end of his life...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-c66SJPuUI <---- and here he is in 1954

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI9HGeQdFq4 <---- even when playing a classical acoustic nylon...his finger style always included a pick...

I just can't get used to those thumb picks, so I have to play hybrid...but I agree that Chet was all about playing finger style on electric guitars for most of his life...

I like having the pick always at the ready for leads and boogies etc., and when hitting 4 tone jazz chords using the pick and the remainging three fingers to hit all 4 notes simultaneously or a bass run while hitting 3 notes simutaneously. +1 on the teachers' advice...

+1. Well said/written, Caevan.

I should mention that I play electric blues with a flatpick.

For playing leads and cutting through a mix, IMO nothing beats a pick. But I`ve been doing more without it especially on acoustic. Wider variety of attack and phrasing.

Yes and no. Chet is awesome, but what Jeff Beck does is quite different overall. They both contributed GREATLY to the lexicon.

I try to dabble in a little of both.



Try THIS: lay the outer edge of skin alongside your picking-hand's thumbnail, that ridge there, on the string where you want to create a harmonic; and pick/pluck the string(s) with your i (index) and middle fingers. Quickly release your thumb from the string(s) just as you would normally with fretting-hand or "pinch" harmonic techniques.

I use my index finger nail as a surrogate plectrum, so it's really easy to nudge my thumb down a bit to hit the string with a tiny amount of flesh simultaneously with the index nail. This allows a lot of control over how much the fundamental is deadened.

Oh, yeah- I should have first outlined using the index or middle nail to downstroke with the flesh of the thumb on follow-through, similar to "pinch-harmonics" done with a pick...

Yeah, easier to describe with a video than verbally, but that's it. Also, position of the picking hand relative to the bridge determines which harmonics are emphasized. It's the classic Billy Gibbons sound.

Yhup!

Whenever I do that(which isn't often) I use index finger and pluck with my thumb. My right hand thumbnail is a bit longer than need be.
Whitefang

Hybrid here... I love both kinds of pickin'

i am primarily a pick user, but i can go without and often do. i can use my index finger as a pick to do the heavier rock stuff and thumb and fingers to do more chord and bass note stuff.

i usually have a pile of big stubbies and my metal tipped Dava pick in my pocket. pickless does seem more personal and free but there are things i prefer to use a pick for. as for finger players like Jeff Beck and Knoffler i dig the hell out of those guys.

yes, me too - best of both worlds - except when playing slide - then I go pickless.

Actually, much as I live to hear good acoustic fingerpickers, I don't play fingerstyle much on my acoustic, because of the nail question. But on electric, I do it a lot more.
I'd like to get a nylon string with my next big paycheck, and revisit some simple classical guitar pieces from college. Just to have some repertoire for playing solo; maybe learn some jazz chord melody pieces, or something by Chris Proctor.
If I decide to take a few classical guitar lessons, the first thing I'd ask would be how to take care of my right hand nails, since I just don't like fingerpicks; maybe I haven't found the right ones.

What is the nail question?

To Nail or not to Nail, that is the question.

I know two good acoustic players that have been having their fake nails done for decades, but I just can't do it...Funny thing is they won't let you use a pick on their guitars as you might scratch it. Their guitars are scratched up 100% more than any of mine where their little sharp nailed anchor pinky digs in...

My fingerpick style doesn`t really involve nails, if anything I think they would get in the way. Besides there`s no way my own nails would last through that. There are those brush-on nail strengtheners, don`t know if they help.

OK, this REALLY works:

Apply a tiny little dab of waterproof sport sunscreen that has colloidal silica onto each nail; rub in til it is absorbed and disappears.

Follow this with a similar but more generous application of deep intensive hair-repair type conditioner.

Do this several times a week, perhaps every day for a week or so, letting up after a while; continue to do so a couple times a week. Your nails will become thicker, stronger, more durable, and produce better TONE if you file and buff them properly.

It's just a matter of what you're used to. Plus, fingernails are great tools. They're really useful for opening kitchen cabinets which don't have door knobs, scraping old tape off stuff, nose picking, & I can personally attest that scratching your significant other's back with good guitar-picking fingernails will earn you a lot of loving.



I broke my middle fingernail a couple days before a gig last year. So I went to a local nail salon & had the lady build an acrylic false nail to match the others. Cost me $5 & got me through the gig. I never even knew it was there.

Troof!



I am sincerely glad that worked for you; personally, though, I cannot stand artificial nails, their being on the ends of my fingers feels horrible to me and I find the tone they yield to be lacking.