Have you posted results of the table-tap tests?
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Sorry, this is a forum dedicated to picking so you can see how Tommo and I made that assumption. But have you done them? Even if it’s primarily a legato problem the hands do work together; if you have trouble with 150 bpm that could be an issue.
Yep, I have. Sorry I didn’t specify - those results I posted above are mine.
Those results are faster than mine and I can play 200 BPM+ lines, you should be fine. Upload some video though, trust me it’s best. You don’t have to post publicly but without video IMO you’ll be spinning your wheels.
If only my raw picking hand speed translated to my fretting hand, I’d be golden! (Those results are definitely misleading though - the table tap tests show I technically have good speed but I’ve only managed to figure out one motion that works reliably on a guitar - DSX - which ironically is the motion most associated with my lowest table tap test speeds!)
I uploaded videos a while back in this thread: Critique/advice on what feels like fine motor limitations I’m not concerned about posting publicly - heck, if you watch it, you’ll see that it’s practically a series of public humiliation takes 
I also did a technique critique and while it was helpful in certain ways, I think the fretting/sync issues I’m experiencing are a bit outside the scope of this forum’s focus (as you mentioned, we’re mostly focused on picking here).
I’m currently working with Tom Gilroy and also trying my weird system so perhaps those will help.
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Hot damn! Those are fast! WOW! Good job, man!
Oh you think that’s fast? Wait 'til you see my 100bpm legato runs!
Why I gotta be born so lopsided? 
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Honestly it doesn’t matter until you decide what you want to play.
True, most people come here to discuss picking issues, because those are the main difficulties that 99% of players face.
However, our research and teaching is definitely expanding into all areas of guitar playing including (but not limited to) fretting motions and synchronization between the two hands 
I should also point out that one of the main concepts we teach and talk about, “chunking”, is very relevant to both the picking and fretting hand.
In this case Gumgo’s tapping tests were really fast, so even though that’s RH it likely rules out a lack of motor skills.
This is the first time in decades that I’ve actually practiced and the relationship between left and right hands fascinates me; at first my thought was “my left hand is fine, I’ll just work on the picking,” but here’s an interesting scenario: I could never play Yngwie sixes well, primarily because of the string change (I was using DSX so that was doomed in the past.)
My left hand was indeed ahead of the right so it seemed to make sense to just focus on picking. However, my left hand was not at 100%. So I focused on that and as the left hand got better, it freed up focus for the right hand.
Another great example is Randy Rhoads’ repeating pentatonic triplets from Mr. Crowley (at 2:25.) I could never do them that fast, but why? My left hand would lock up even though I could trill faster than that. Well, the string changes are brutal and stole the focus focus from what I thought I was working on.
I really like the tight focus of this forum on picking, but a side-focus on left hand with the same evidence-based approach would be most welcome!
Yeah, this is also a big challenge for me. Even for patterns that feel okay on each hand alone, putting them together unlocks another level of confusion. My brain can only think about one hand at a time, and I never really seem to be able to establish a level of muscle memory which doesn’t require some level of focus. For example, one thing that often throws me off is actually hammer one/pull offs in a run of otherwise alternate picked notes: despite being “easier” for the picking hand, it requires skipping a note and interrupting the alternate picking pattern, which shifts my focus to my picking hand, and suddenly fretting hand gets lost.
I agree it’s weirdly difficult to put one legato note in a picked phrase, when I realized some great players do that I was like “What?!”
I’m guessing but I suspect you’ve got muscles working against each other and if you can isolate them, cut them out of the equation, things will progress much faster.
I’m in an unusual circumstance, many years ago I just . . . stopped practicing. When you get to a certain level you can coast pretty much forever, I’d even stop playing at all sometimes for months or years and it would be back in a couple of weeks, or at least 80%.
Practicing again, with the CtC mentality, is quite something; I’m noticing things I never noticed before.
The other day I had a breakthrough and just went full-tilt, playing this lick as fast as I possibly could, just for fun. Next day my tricep, of all things, was killing me.
Tricep isn’t used for picking, I’d just been flexing it unconsciously; I’ll bet something like that is holding you back. Having said that I defer to Tom Gilroy on all matters legato!
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I’m guessing my issue is a combination of technique deficiency such as excess tension, inefficient use of opposing muscles, etc. (which I fully believe can be improved with proper practice) and a mental block of some sort which prevents me from efficiency encoding what I practice into consistently-recallable muscle memory. Perhaps some sort of mild learning disability? It’s hard to say. I’d love to believe that I’m just going about it all wrong, and I do my best to remain optimistic (though not always successfully) that both technique and proper approach to practice of said technique are learnable.
Troy has mentioned that his approach to practice has essentially been “keep trying and make little tweaks until you stumble onto something that works” (I apologize if I have interpreted his words wrong and I don’t mean to misrepresent him or anyone else). He has certainly managed to reach an extremely high level of skill and consistency. It sounds so simple but I haven’t managed to get very far with that approach (or any other really).
I really wonder what this form of practice looks like in, uh, practice. I’d love to see a video of somebody learning a hard lick or technique from scratch and I imagine that it would provide insight into (a) what I’m doing wrong (e.g. I’m chunking wrong or something) and (b) fundamental differences in motor learning ability (e.g. person X can repeat something 50 times and then it “clicks” whereas that does not happen for me). I posted a thread asking about this but it didn’t get much traction.
I can tell you it takes me about a week for some new gypsy jazz phrases to set in to the hands to start allowing me to flow with it in more of a finesse fashion. Then I can start really feeling the speed start building on it. I think we are all different, and some phrases will stick others won’t no matter how hard you try.
I should probably be a bit more specific to as I was reading further up, and yes there is a distinct path that happens when I learn a new lick as well. The picking hand is the one that gets the most focus day 1, day 2 or 3 is when the fretting hand gets the most attention, then it will start coming together with more of a subconsciousness happening with less focus on either hand.
You just have to make absolutely certain you are making the correct strokes and motions during the infancy of learning a new phrase.
This is why I try to push learning the rest stroke as it will help with getting a feel for the rhythmical command of the phrases, as well as when the picking needs to happen. Because during a pull off or a hammer on after a down stroke, you keep resting the pick until you are done legato’ing before doing an upstroke to escape the string or remain on the same string.
Whether one ends up using it or not it can be a great tool in your aresenal for learning new phrases. The initial newly resting the pick comprehension picking phase of a new lick clearly can bake in the picking motor mechanics for me lightyears better than any other techniques I was using in my past. The consistency is unreal, and it sort of freaks me out how well it works. In fact I was telling Scottulus that it can help me fake feel so well that I could fool anyone in believing I could play a solo pretty cleanly, accurately, but it wouldn’t be improvised. 
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Nah, I think you might be just being way too hard on yourself. Tension? Maybe. That was a big one for me (Still is!).
This is me, but some of the biggest leaps forward in my playing (LH and RH) have almost always been when I could take some very small - umm lets call it a “rudiment” or a “chunk” - and get very warm and fuzzy with it. You know, get so that one could assimilate and personalize the chunk and maybe make your own small bits of music out of that. A looper pedal is a really fantastic way to practice that, as is a daw. No it won’t sound like EVH, but hey maybe it’s OK to start out sounding a bit rough so you can find a thing you can do that jives!
Good luck, man! I wish I could help more!
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Thanks once again for the detailed explanation! This really does help give me a sense of direction. So when you’re starting out with a new phrase, it sounds like you start slow enough to make sure each fret placement and pick stroke is correct, this being the “burn in the pattern” phase. Do you ever work on the picking and fretting hand separately?
What does this feel like for you, and how can you tell you’re ready to start speeding up?
I always try to fret something, I might take a same picking pattern into another scale/mode/arpeggio. When the first initial phase happens my brain tries to maintain highest priority on the picking hand. However of course you still have to fret. Often times I can mess this up, but I feel the more phrases you learn the more the left hand can kind of coast. Picking for me is the most complex so I put it at the highest priority. There will be times I flub up the fingerings, and then that is when I have to either rework it back up, or re engineer something better. That will likely happen day 2 or 3.
This happens when I no longer have to think about the individual rest strokes I am making, or the fingerings. Everything will start to feel as it is a subconscious feeling throughout the entire phrase since the faster you go there will be no time to critically analyze what you are doing.
This is also why you must play the entire phrase with some kind of rhythmical flow I think 50% speed is about slow enough that you can still hear what it is you are trying to convey. As you learn it and play it slow it must still convey the exact message so your brain can comprehend the tonal quality of it.
If you want I can show you over video chat sometime with a phrase that I don’t know. So you can see how the process works for me.
You know there could also be steps before these as well if you have to transcribe it. That could take you some time as well if you are trying to play it one for one. Or you may have to rework the lick into your own picking tendencies.
I’d be very interested to see your process and would be happy to pay a lesson fee for your time.
Completely disregard my comment above! I’m getting caught back up here on the site and on the Starting With Speed part of the testing motions section, I see the picture of Shawn Lane 