When I became interested in fingerpicked styles, I continued to play with the flatpick, and added the middle and ring fingers.

At one point, I considered putting the pick down and playing with my thumb and index and middle fingers, the way the great majority of fingerpickers do.

But I found this very difficult -- I would have had to basically relearn every song. So I continued playing with a flatpick and middle and ring fingers.

I now believe that playing this way presents certain disadvantages over thumb, index and middle. Specifically, since the gap between index and middle fingers is smaller than the gap between thumb and index finger, it is harder to span the width of the strings. (I have fairly small hands too, which probably exacerbates the problem).

I am interested in hearing from anyone else who has faced these decisions.

I am also looking to learn what blues greats played this way. (As I understand, Lonnie Johnson and Willie Brown did).

I started out flatpicking as well. Now, depending on the song, I may play with a flatpick, I may use thumb and fingerpicks on index and middle fingers, or I may go naked and just use my fingers. I pride myself on using all these different approaches but I tend to be locked into using one approach within a given song. There certainly are times I wish I could be flatpicking within a tune in which I'm playing with thumb and fingerpicks. I've learned to basically flatpick with thumb and index fingerpick but its not quite the same is it?

I've tried it, a bit, but I face a learning curve to get it up to speed. The "distance" thing you mention is an issue, as well as the fact that one's ring finger is usually quite a bit less dextrous than the index finger. All of this can be overcome with diligence and practice, I'm sure.

There's also the issue of tone: if you hybrid-pick, you're either using bare fingers (middle/ring) or acrylic-enhanced nails (I suspect your Nashville pickers are doing this). Putting fingerpicks on those fingers would not be practical.

Baltimore, you might look around for a pick called Herco. It's a thumbpick, but it's shaped like a flatpick with a curve of plastic that goes around your thumb. I use the Herco heavy, which is around a medium as far as flatpicks go.

I'm far from mastering it, but I like the sound I get playing with flatpick and fingers -- I can get a very rocked out sound on the old blues tunes.

Regarding what the blues greats played with: I posted a query on another site a while back. I was told that Son House didn't use fingerpicks (which I guess could be confirmed by watching available video footage). I also was told that Rev. Gary Davis did play with them, he said to protect his fingers. In Calt and Wardlow's book on Patton, they claim he didn't play with any picks, thumb of finger. Curiously, a source said he did so 'to protect (his) strings'. APart from the two that I mentioned (Willie Brown and Lonnie Johnson) I have never heard of any playing with a flatpick.

I associate finger picks with a more modern sound -- on my more primitive sounding pieces, I play without fingerpicks.

I believe I read he used a flatpick in Calt and Wardlow's book "King of the Delta Blues -- the Life and Music of Charley Patton".

They discuss Patton's recordings in detail, some of which had Brown playing second guitar. One of these is "Dry Well Blues", on which Brown's supposedly flat-picked, one-step guitar is much louder than Patton's lead lines.

To contributing to the delinquency of A minor. (Actually, it's A blues, not exactly the same thing).

Seriously, I think I know the part of 'Future Blues' you're talking about that's difficult to play with just a flatpick: the 'dragging down' part, where he pops the bottom strings while alternating strums on the top 2 or 3.

I play this with a flatpick, and do the strums with my bare middle finger.

A: C# or Bb

He played with a pick and ALL of his fingers - grew his pinky nail long to get high notes and etc. A search on "Danny Gatton" gets lots of cool info.

I'm a blues player, but I learned how to do it early on because it was more convenient than trying to "cup" the pick for finger picked passages in songs that required both. (I kept dropping the pick when I tried to just cup it).