...if I understand what you mean by using a thumb pick for an up and down stroke, Mr. Fielding: Marty Schuman did it on autoharp with plastic thumb picks that have a thin, pointy picking end...I use them occasionally myself...I'm beginning to think I should play it like a dobro and use five finger picks like I do on autoharp with a plastic pointy thumb pick or mizrabs....no on yet seems to be willing to share their tuning...

...anyway, I have always thought of truth as dialectical....harpgirl