I became accustomed to fingerpicks years and years ago, when I was playing on the street (unamplified ~ that's how we all did it back in the Dark Ages) for long hours. If I were starting all over again now, I can't be sure that I might not make different choices, but the equjipment and technique I've used for years absolutely "works for me" at this point in time. I learned early on to use the same picks not only to play delicately, plucking one string at a time in a very clean manner, but also to wail load and hard, strumming across multiple strings with the thumb and/or with either or both of two fingers.

I've never had the thumbpick get hung up on a string, but I have only-too-often snagged a fingerpick and had it fly off my fingertip. It's bad enough when it falls to the ground/sidewalk/floor, but worse when it goes straight inside the guitar via the soundhole.

I invest a lot of time and effort into shaping the fingerpicks to grip my fingertips, and to hit the strings at the optimal angle. Of course, this is possible only with metal fingerpicks. The plastic ones have to be used as-is, as though one size could possibly fit all ~ I don't understand how and why people use 'em, let alone prefer 'em. Oh well, to each his own.

I use two fingerpicks. One of them (the one I wear on the middle finger) is at least 35-40 years old; I've re-bent it over the years as my fingertip has become more misshapen by arthritis. It's mate got lost years ago, and I've gone though a few index-finger picks over the years. National no longer makes them quite the same way ~ the shape stamped out of the flat metal, before it is bent, is a little different ~ and I can't seem to make the newer models (of any brand) to fit quite as tightly and surely as my one remaining 1970s model.

I've come to play barefingered more and more often lately, but strictly in private. I'm somewhat unsure about performing without my picks, because with them I can produce not only a louder sound, but also a broader spectrum of different tones.

Barefingered picking can be more free and flexible, and I find it helps me be a little more creative when working up new arrangements. Also, as noted earlier, barefingered picking allows you to downstroke with the nails and well as to pluck upwardly with the fingers. However, for some reason I can't explain, I always find it fairly easy to take any riff/arrangement/etc. that I've developed while playing without picks and to "translate" it to with-picks technique, wherein all the finger strokes are upstrokes.

I never liked the idea of a metal thumbpick, perhaps irrationally, and probably out the same feeling that makes many other folks cringe at the prospect of using any kind of pick. I decided early on to use a plastic thumbpick and metal fingerpicks, mostly just from observing that most players (including banjo and pedal-steel players) seemed to prefer this combination. As noted above, the adjustable nature of metal fingerpicks is something I find to be essential. My preference for plastic in the thumbpick is probably largely a matter of habit, but I also find that for me (and for my somewhat bottom-heavy Martin guitar), the balance of volume between bass and treble strings seems best with plastic thumb- and metal finger- picks