John, I tried using the National thumb pick the way you suggested. It made the bass notes come in louder and fuller but it was awkward for me to get a musical sound on the up brush particularly when using accompaniment flat picking country style. It was forceful on the down picking though.

One little trick I've used to hold on to a small thick pick is to take a piece of masking tape, fold the sticky side in on itself and wrap it around the pick with the sticky side out at the place where you grip it. It stays on the finger pretty much and forms a rough edge to grip the pick with.

I've been attempting to revamp a style whereby I keep my right wrist distended like a tenor banjo player and sweep at a 45 degree angle from the top of the wrist using a sideways motion involving the wrist and the forearm. I try not to plant but will sometimes reach out with my pinky for a reference by just touching the fingerboard.

I've been looking at the Tuck Andress article with much interest since I'm trying to learn a blues style guitar from BB King dvd's on my Gibson ES 345 electric.
It looks like an older version of Lucille but not up-to-date with the rooster tone knob for different sounds. It was stereo but now wired for mono but the pickups have the Lucille sound.

Frank