Indeed! My issue is timing also - instead of straight, I make it swing! I don’t know why!
@Brandon8o the pedal tone lick right at the end? Honestly that section is the part I had the least trouble with getting up to speed 
I didn’t realize he was hybrid picking it for the longest time… I always played it straight alt picked and I could never get it up to speed. As soon as I started using the middle finger I was able to play it at tempo pretty much instantly; I use a lot of hybrid picking playing country stuff so that technique was a lot easier for me than the rest of the song. That second cascading lick in the lower pentatonic position was my nemesis for a long time because the fingerings were just weird to me.
Troy hasn’t done much on hybrid picking and I’ve seen him say that the technique is pretty straightforward so he didn’t see a need to analyze it like the rest of the flatpicking stuff, but I’ve seen a number of questions about it on the forum here - I can throw together a few licks including the Cliffs one in a little lesson and post it! You can basically hybrid pick anything by replacing any upstroke with a pluck from the middle finger and I honestly get more mileage out of hybrid than anything else since it circumvents the whole issue of switching strings really well. The infamous Paul Gilbert lick is super easy to play using hybrid and you can get a really nice snap on the high string to accent it.
It’s a lot easier (in my opinion) to hybrid pick with the hand in a DSX/UWPS position so your middle finger can move more freely since it’s kind of being pressed into the pickguard with the wrist floating in the typical USX posture, so maybe that could be part of where the difficulties are coming from?
And @PickingApprentice don’t laugh but I’m pretty sure this was on my 75w Line 6 Spider cranked on the green Insane setting with the tape echo and reverb all the way up LOL. That thing was my main amp for like 10 years and the factory presets are quite a meme but I think I got some good tones out of it. I’ve since gotten rid of it and kinda regret it 
the one I had came with a built in looper and everything, I gigged with it quite a few times as well and always got tone compliments 
I have a Boss Katana now and I’ve made a few Eric Johnson patches that sound pretty similar (probably a little bit better lol), I can email them to you if you have one!
Awesome!
I have to admit, one of the best tones I ever got at home was through a pod XT, going straight into a Goodmans stereo! It was only one patch that sounded good! I miss that damn thing! … well, sort of!
1 Like
What is Usx ? And what Eric johnson song are they referring to?
USX:
That and other useful info are here
The song is Cliffs Of Dover
