Hi @Muggen,
Honestly, I don’t think this is the problem. I don’t have significant calluses on either the pads or the tips of my fingers.
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Maybe I haven’t found the right angle or hand position. Or maybe I have to alter my touch to the strings or the pull motion somehow.
I think any of these factors could be the cause of your difficulties.
Remember that both postures I showed were idealised, static representations. In actual playing, you may have to adjust your form to accommodate your specific hand size and finger lengths.
Keep experimenting!
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Thanks, I will! 
So, there’s been a LOT of discussion since I last posted, and I only skimmed it so I may have missed a few things…
…but I don’t think it’s about calluses. I mean, you’re going to develop calluses wherever you play, that’s a given. For ME, at least, I’ve found I get a more articulate attack from my fingertips - subtle, but perceptible - than the pads of my fingers, which I’m guessing is because the pads are a lot fleshier and softer, whereas there’s just way less flesh between the tips and the underlying bone, and add calluses on top of that and the whole thing becomes firmer.
Though, I’m also a guy who’s spent a lot of time over the years trying to make his legato LESS legato, so I’m not the typical guitarist in that respect, either.
Idunno. You’ve struck me as a very thoughtful, analytical player around here, so I’d be curious for your input. 
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I wouldn’t pay too much attention to my post, it was more if an aside comment. I have considered removing my posts as on reflection, it interrupted the flow of the thread (and it wasn’t meant to offend), but it is probably too late 
I’m happy to agree.
If your goal is to get the nth degree smooth then I suppose I can’t argue. But I wouldn’t go as far as calling it superior, soundwise (but that comes down to personal preference). One point of yours that has got my attention is
Now that is interesting and something that I would spend some time on.
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Hi @Drew. I had callused fingers when I was younger, but I don’t have any discernible calluses now. I use light strings with low action and I have a light touch even given those parameters. I used to play a lot of acoustic guitar, but not much at all in the last 3 years or so.
I wouldn’t be certain, but I would suspect that the different hand position used to accommodate finger tips or finger pads results in significant mechanical differences in the movement chain, where the finger moves with maximum velocity, etc. Both postures certainly feel different.
I could imagine that the reinforcement by the finger bones is also important for effective energy transfer. If a hammer with the finger pad is like a slap or open palm strike, a hammer with a finger tip might be analogous to a hook punch with a closed fist. That analogy may or may not hold, and it may not be helpful if you’re not familiar with the mechanics of those techniques.
I think that’s cool, whatever gets you closer to the sound you want is what you should be doing!
Thank you.
Hi @PickingApprentice. Yes, I mean when the aim is to maximise smoothness in legato playing. Whatever sound you might prefer is a matter of taste.
As for the increased freedom for a greater variety of legato lines, this is because the “loading” sequence I described above, which is necessary for a pull-off is not necessary for a descending hammer. This loading is the primary difficulty in using pull-offs, and is the reason why so many players play the typical rolling patterns when playing legato lines, as the loading is automatic.
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See, that’s exactly why I asked, because that was a possible explanation I hadn’t really considered. Thanks - gotta spend some time thinking about it.
Either way, whatever is causing the differences, I can hear them, and for me fingertips appear to be the best way to get the sound I’m after. Cool how different approaches can accommodate different sounds, though.
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I briefly developed a few finger grooves after first trying crosspicking, but I filed them out and lightened my pressure and went back to normal.
Hahaha! 1:32 where he says “ We gonna start E minor, where else” and then plays a E major chord!
The all hammer-on technique is great but very difficult for me.
http://martyrslive.com/tribute-allan-holdsworth
I’m performing four tunes in this show! If you live near Chicago please come to Martyrs’ on Sunday, April 15 8pm
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Lots of great suggestions and observations. I favor the second for a couple of reasons. One, seeing violinists play made me investigate different hand positions. And two, a person quickly discovers that greater reach may be effected by curling each finger by a different amount, without much stretch required. Peace, Daniel
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This may best describe why I have never been a fan of Holdsworth’s music. I’ve never denied he was a great technician but regarding the the songs he wrote or even the solos he played, I’ve never found any feeling of excitement or any emotion at all for that matter. That’s often the complain you hear most about guitarists who are first and foremost known as being technicians and the quote above from @aliensporebomb goes a step further in explaining why I don’t care for his style of playing. good music has dynamics and different techniques help produce different dynamics on the guitar but not in Holdsworth’s case.
The quote states that Holdsworth’s ultimate goal was to have picking, hammered and lifted notes to have the same volume and attack. Being someone who appreciates the dynamics that good music has to offer, I can’t think of having a worse “ultimate goal” (at least not at the moment) than wanting to taking away the dynamic range as well a staking away the variety that different techniques have to offer (unless played in Holdsworth fashion). Why do you suppose a man would want to take away the dynamic range that those different techniques are capable of producing by spending thousands of hours striving to learn how to make them all sound indistinguishable from each other?
I find that the variety in sound, including dynamic range, that these different techniques are capable of providing, as well as the technique of pull-offs which was not mentioned, help greatly in giving emotional impact to a man’s guitar playing. I think the quote from aliensporebomb helps illustrate why I find so little emotion conveyed in Allan Holdsworth’s guitar playing.
I tried to like him; I really did. I even bought the record “Metal Fatigue” and while I found his solos to be impressive from a technical point of view they did very little to make me feel any emotion. That being said, the solos were still the highlight of the album for me because at least I could appreciate the dedication it mist have taken to develop that technique, even though it’s not a technique that suits my musical taste. I can’t find anything complimentary to say about the vocals on the album so I won’t say anything at all about them other than to say I honestly wondered what could have possibly made him think “Here’s a good vocalist I’d like to have sing on my album”!
As I stated in an earlier post several days ago when I made some comments about what guitarists wanting to achieve the ultimate in staccato sound might do, my goals was to make people laugh… It was an attempt at comedy. Unfortunately comedy posted on the internet is sometimes mistaken for something that was meant seriously. So, for the record, I’ll repeat that that was merely an attempt at comedy which, without tone of voice and facial expressions which would accompany it if I had been saying it in person instead of typing it on the internet, some of the people here misunderstood my intent.
As far as I’m concerned, different people having different musical tastes helps make the world interesting. While Allan Holdsworth’s music doesn’t suit my taste, I certainly don’t mean to discourage anyone who does like his style of music from enjoying it or even learning how to play guitar in that style. To each his own!
Except that’s incorrect - his music is largely very dynamic. Listen to something like 54 Duncan Terrace or Above and Below and compare to something like Ruhkuhkah. Very dynamic.
He’s not always using legato and when he does it is largely to execute lines to produce a musical idea, not to have something all at the same volume. His use of this was to avoid variation in attack in the notes - so you couldn’t tell picked from hammered. Obviously it could result in a similar volume level but it didn’t always.
I get it. Allan is a jazz player and jazz isn’t for everyone. But to say he doesn’t employ dynamics comes across as disingenous. Take a look at he acoustic playing on the UK record or perhaps the acoustic playing on the Velvet Darkness record - there’s quite a bit of variation).
As far as guitarist who is “ultimate in staccato” well check out Al Dimeola. He’s famous for what he calls his “mutola” effect which stemmed from him not wanting to offend his parents during early practice efforts and he evolved it to be a part of his style, rapid scale runs of muted notes. He’s a jazz fusion player too so he may not be to your taste. Another guy known for rapid scalar runs while picking is John McLaughlin.
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OK, but that description of his ultimate goal being to make his picking, hammer ons and lift offs indistinguishable from each other seemed like it might have been the reason I didn’t like his music besides his vocalist. Like I said, I tried to like him; I bought Metal Fatigue in the 80s but haven’t played it in many years.
DiMeola is someone I like a lot. I went to see him play once and own quite a few of his albums. I’ve seen John McLaughlin 5 times. My favorite time was him on acoustic guitar and Jonas Hellebore on bass. They played jazz standards and traded off incredible solos all night. I also saw the original reunion of Mahavishnu Orchestra in what was 1986 I think. That was excellent too but I liked him on acoustic best.
I think interviews with Allan suggest this was a technical goal he was aiming for, rather than a musical goal. In many interviews, Allan stresses that he feels dynamics were very important to him, and that this informed his gear choices.
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For me, I read this as wanting to have the ABILITY to have hammered, pulled, or picked notes be dynamically even, so that dynamics become a matter of choice and not of technique.
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Listen from about 2:34. Pure emotion, every single note!
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My left hand is the only one that works properly now. I practice clean so I can hear the notes pop.
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True words. I have been playing for over 50 now and I can’t believe the extreme scrutiny that goes into playing now. Pretty sad that the joy gets knocked out of it. Again no criticism, just observation.