[David Kampmann]

Hello All, my first post here, and what a classic topic it is -

For resonator guitars, fingerpicks are IT - in my humble opinion. I felt like an idiot when I took 'em up, i could hardly play anything.

The sound is worth the startup difficulties if you ask me, my instruments came alive when I started to play with picks. Initially, I used four picks, thumbpick and three metal fingrpicks.

Found out by and by that the ring finger fingerpick wasn't really seeing that much action, and, in fact, was more or less in the way or adding to the general feeling of confusion: Which finger to employ at what time. Now, I use index and middle - and thumb, like most guys do.

Mind you, I love playing my Nationals barefingered to, real quiet and pretty, but for tonal variety and sheer torque, nothing beats having those claws on.

Takes some time to get used to them, but they will become second nature eventually, just like that thumb going back and forth - if you fingerpickers know what i mean.