Rick,

Are you familiar with the music of John Fahey? I can copy his licks fairly accurately on his faster tunes, which are the ones I'm interested in - where he gets that thumb doing the rhythm thing - only I can't play them as fast as he does - I'm not worried; I assume that will come with time...what I am wondering though, is how he gets so much volume out of his fingers. Does he use fingerpicks? Or thumbpick and fingernails, or what? And how does he get all that volume when he sounds like he's picking so close to the bridge? If he uses fingerpicks, then I'm up the creek....I've tried Alaska picks, etc....no luck. I don't like anything around my finger; I like using my nails, but they keep breaking...especially when I try to copy Fahey and go for the volume...seems like I've come full circle in this dissociated ramble, but unlike T.S. Eliot, I have not returned to the place I started from and known it for the first time....TIA, Neil.