My hand and wrist looks like Troy shows in his videos, but his tremolo picking sounds quite a bit more even than mine. My downstrokes are the loudest. My upstrokes still are quieter and don’t sound as good as my downstrokes. It’s hard to understand why. I wish I could make them even so both my downstrokes and upstrokes sound pretty close to each other.
I think it just takes a bit of time my friend, to get used to the motions and get some consistency.
Keep playing a bit every day and it will improve I’m positive.
Although a lot of the techniques and discoveries on CtC seem like magic, for people like Troy who have been playing and picking fast for decades, probably practicing for hours every week year after year, it might be easy for them to adapt to different motions and develop techniques and get results quickly, but for most people it takes some time to develop.
The more time you spend playing the better you will get, it’s as simple as that, but knowing the right techniques and picking motions to use gives you a head start.
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I’ve been practicing my picking exercise on the B string today and I still have problems making the pick go through the string smoothly on both the downstroke and the upstroke. I’m trying all sorts of hand positions and the like and if I could only make the pick go through the string smoothly especially on the upstroke I would have it down.
I have had some success changing my grip on the pick. Not using a trigger style grip but holding the pick more between the side of the finger and the finger pad. And then putting the bone which is on the far right side of the hand up ahead of the bridge.
It’s quite frustrating and depressing.
@357mag I think your persistence in trying to get this lick better is awesome! When I hit these type of issues that you are hitting - I basically slow the whole thing right down. I focus on playing the lick with pure precision. Sometime I even play the lick at very slow speeds to deliberately ensure I get every note correctly. I really focus on getting the notes right - not the speed. To me getting to notes right is number 1. Then I gradually increase speed.
I find there are times to focus on speed and times to focus on precision. And when I hit the issues you are facing I find it is a time for precision focus.
Hope this helps! 
Just a suggestion but have you tried reversing the pick strokes so you start on an upstroke instead of a down stroke ? Do you still get the same problem then ?
This next suggestion might sound strange but try and play the lick without thinking too much about pick strokes at all. Just go for it, watch your left hand and ignore the right. Sounds a bit mad but sometimes focusing too much on one detail can cause tension and be detrimental.
Yes same problem. And putting the side of my hand on the bridge saddles and picking from the wrist like Troy and so many others seem to do does not seem to work for me.
Ok have you tried using an elbow motion instead of wrist ?
Or using a forearm rotation of the wrist like Eddie Van Halen does in his Eruption video ?
I tried the Van Halen approach to tremolo picking with not too much success. I am unsure of how to play with the elbow. Do you just keep your wrist stiff and your forearm still and try to move from the elbow?
Yes that’s right. It’s not something I can do easily but everyones different.
I don’t really understand this idea of playing guitar with your elbow. I don’t see how it can be done.
I think plenty of people do use it and get good results like @gabrielthorn.
Just a thought as well have you checked out @Pepepicks66 ‘para-diddles’ exercise ?
Could be useful in this situation to try a few different D D U U things and build up some good control on the upstrokes.
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I watched his paradiddles video. It gets kinda confusing as he gets further into it. I can’t keep the strokes straight. If he could have put a dividing line in there. Like the first one is D D U? Then put a dividing line separating the next one which is D U U from the first one.
I’m mainly picking using my elbow. My wrist is not stiff, and I also use my forearm on upstroke string changes. I’m not sure if this paradiddles thing is something I’d use in the beginning.
I think if you read it like
D D U U repeat
Or
D U U D U D D U repeat
It makes sense.
I am doing the simpler ones every day and it does seem to help my control.
Of course there will always be a difference in sound between the downstroke and upstroke.
@gabrielthorn So you rotate you forearm to change the picking angle for the upstrokes ?
@357mag Might be worth taking a look at gabriels videos on his thread to see how the elbow thing looks if you’re interested in reproducing it at all:
Yes, that’s how I get around string changes on upstrokes, especially on descending lines. On ascending runs, I swipe a lot 
I also don’t think I’m a good example of picking technique.
There are tons of videos on that thread. The ones I saw looked like the guy was using mostly wrist and forearm, not the elbow. I did see one that may have been the elbow. Seems like a weird way of picking using your elbow. If I could get the feel of it. Seems to me I would have to keep my wrist and forearm still and concentrate on moving the forearm and hand using the elbow back and forth.
Yeah but where does one end and the other begin? That’s why you need division lines. D D U? Or D D U U? You got to listen to what he says in the video cause there are no separating lines in the text that was posted here.
@357mag if you click on the actual thread, it will have each paradiddle on a different line. Here’s the list:
D D U
D U U
D D U U
D U D D U D U U
D D U D U U D U
D U U D U D D U