One thing I noticed about Jed's playing - he anchors with his 3rd (ring) finger and picks with his little finger. I think anchoring with the 3rd allows him to get more height, so he can come at the strings from a straighter angle. I tried it, and I don't have much control of my pinkie!

Anchoring with my pinkie bothers me, though. The outside of my hand gets really sore, really fast, because I have to press pretty hard in order to just feel the guitar. Anchoring also limits the motion of the other fingers, which may be good for learning how to not have one's fingers flying around like a spider on a griddle. What feels best is to not anchor at all, or to rest my hand on the bridge, but that can mute the sound a bit and will mute strings if I'm not very careful. I seem to get more and better sound out of the strings when my hand's not anchored. Just now, reading what Rick wrote, I figured out why - it's the angle. If I were to really snap a bass string with my thumb, I'd probably need some sort of leverage. No reason why I have to keep my hand in the same position all the time.

I thought I'd have problems with losing my place and hitting the wrong strings, but I hit just as many - if not more - wrong strings when my hand's anchored. Oh well, I'm just a newbie with a long way to go, and will enjoy hearing what other folks have to say.

I got the impression one buzz factor is picking in a more upward direction as opposed to sideways. Am I right or wrong, or does it not make that much of a difference?