perfect, got it, thank you for the tab!
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I was watching this interview with Brad today and right at the 10:00 mark he plays the intro to Nervous Breakdown and we get a great camera angle of the picking:
Looks to me like he’s doing it like this:
m D m U D m U D m U D m
-3 p 0 ----0 -------------------------------------
---------6----3 p 0 ---0--------------------------
---------------------5----3 p 0 ---0--------------
---------------------------------5----3 p 0 ---0--
---------------------------------------------0----
--------------------------------------------------
Kinda weird as I’d never think to play it like that, but I’ve watched it several times ultra slow and played along and my pick strokes are matching what I see him doing. The first four notes are sort of an anomaly and even have an upward sweep (EDIT: there is no upward sweep, as per the insight below from Riffdiculous), but the main pattern appears to be “Up (pull off) Down middle”. Why he didn’t do that first four notes…either he wasn’t even thinking about it during this interview, or maybe he really wants the first note to pop.
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I think that’s sort of a “mirage”. If you count the middle finger plucks there, it’s 5 in total - the 4th note is plucked, too.
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I think you’re right. So you reckon the first 4 notes are “m (pull off) Down m” ? Then after that “Up (pull off) Down m” ?
Yep, I’d say that’s right. It’s just the first note that doesn’t conform to the pattern - could even just be a fluke.
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This isn’t the first time you’ve helped correct some boo boos in my tabs. I should hire you as my transcription editor. Pay increase is 50% after the first 6 months. The down side is the pay in general is $0 so even such a hefty raise nets you nothing.
Well spotted though! It’s so clear now that I look at it again.
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My pleasure! A second set of eyes (and ears, I should add haha) usually does some good.
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I definitely see what you guys are seeing in the video (great video btw, watch the whole thing):
But D U m feels good to me. Downpick the pulloff to get that accent, come back upstroke to catch the third note, middle finger to ring the fourth open note. Feels right.
Never in a million years would I have thought (or heard) him starting the phrase with his middle finger. But…it makes some sense in context of something he says earlier. Which addresses this question…
“think in terms of always like the sound of things on a guitar snapping…”
Snapping seems to be his term for pop… see 10:16 here…
The upstrokes seem out of place…unless you start the phrase with the middle finger. Then it carries through.
Although…now I’m gonna have to (re) learn it that way…
…thanks for that. /s
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Have been rethinking this:
I think he really places it as
m 3p0
D 6
m 0
And then repeats the picking patern: m D m
It would make sense. You grab every pull off with the middle finger, getting that plucky sound that you want. The picked (D) note is just a bass note, which is much less audible than the pull off.
My takeaway from this thread is, just like there is more than one way to skin a cat, there are multiple ways of pickin a chicken. As long as the method can go his speed, the options and possibilities don’t matter as much 
Sure, you can play anything anyway you want.
But this thread may have morphed into the more interesting question, what is the artist doing, and what was his intent?
In this case, I think BP really wants to emphasize that pull off, hence he’s plucking it hard off the bridge with his middle finger. Likewise with the last note in the 4 note sequence. The third base note is hardly heard, down picked, you can almost even throw it out. Seems like its filler there to give the m finger a break.
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