Gotta say, I’d been avoiding this thread after it sort of devolved into a bit of a mess early on, and it almost fell apart again a few days ago, but once we got this back on track as an actual thoughtful discussion on technique here, there’s been some great stuff. I’ll need to come back and re-read this in depth with a guitar when I get a chance.
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I’m no Anton, but I also find I get my best results with a pick that has “just a little bit” of flex. Ultex 1.0mm and 0.9mm seem to work best for me. Sometimes I experiment with 0.73mm, but I think for me that’s just a little too much flex. Fender celluloid heavy works pretty well for me too. Fender celluloid medium definitely too much flex. And at the other end, I find Ultex 1.2mm too stiff. Ultex 1.14mm is sort of borderline, but generally I find it a little too stiff too.
Edit: I happen to have a 1.0mm blue Tortex Jazz III XL on hand, and from my unscientific “gripping the pick by the shoulders with one hand and trying to bend the tip with the tip of my other index finger” test, I offer the following comparison:
A) 1.14mm Ultex sharp: Stiffest pick tested in this post.
B) 1.0mm blue Tortex Jazz III XL: Almost as stiff as the 1.14mm Ultex, but just a hair more flexible.
C) 1.0mm Ultex sharp: Noticeably more flexible than the 1.0mm blue Tortex Jazz III XL, but not by a huge amount.
D) 0.93mm Ultex sharp: Again, a noticeable increase in flex compared to the next stiffest pick (1.0mm Ultex sharp), but not a huge difference.
E) “Heavy” Fender Celluloid “standard 351 style shape”: Tiny bit more flexible than the 0.93mm Ultex sharp. Very close.
F) “Medium” Fender Celluloid “standard 351 style shape”: Way more flexible than “Heavy” Fender Celluloid.
I couldn’t find a 0.73mm Ultex Sharp, but by memory, I think it falls somewhere in between the Fender “Heavy” and Fender “Medium”. Probably closer to Fender “Medium”
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@Tom_Gilroy general mechanics question regarding Dart Thrower vs. Reverse Dart Thrower - I’m playing around with each technique and wondering if there’s an explanation why the former feels easier on descending runs and the latter on ascending?
It’s certainly possible I’m just performing the motions incorrectly but does that difference in feel make sense?
I couldn’t be sure without seeing it. Generally, dart-thrower would be USX and reverse dart-thrower would be DSX, it could be that something in your form leads you to preferring escaping strokes in the direction of the string changes.
To add to the discussion about pick stiffness preference that @carranoj25 @Andjoy @Frylock are having: I seem to artificially add “flop” to my normal pick (1.5mm tortex jazz III) by rotating my thumb away from the tip of the pick, really only hanging on to like a 1/3 of it. I wonder if Anton (and anyone else for that matter) has more surface area being gripped and just relies on the “flop” inherent to the pick he chooses.
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Cool screenshot. This is interesting. It seems like he mirrors PGilbert with his thumb and doesn’t have much bending in his thumb
Totally makes sense. Supinating my forearm that much also brings inherent tension. Maybe I can get it comfortable over time.
@Andjoy makes sense that he wants some pick “give” then, since he’s choking up on it a good amount.
Plus he mentioned his one video that he doesn’t like any pick flop, hence the reinforcement with his middle finger to keep the pick stable. I could see where too thick of a pick, with that setup, could make you feel like you’re fighting the string.
An in particular, those Tortex picks come out of the package unbeveled. By the time you get up to the white Tortex 1.5mm Jazz III XL, it’s almost comical how square the edges are.
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There was another topic about the time it takes to wear in a pick, and I logged 1000 minutes to see how much it took to get to my worn in 1.5mm tortex jazz III. I still have the pick here, I actually need to upload pics and update that topic lol.
I have an entire 12-pack of these and it takes forever to get them worn in. I’m pretty tempted to go down in thickness and see how I like them.
But he can also play with a very light pick touch, as you can see/hear in this vid.
He was only 12/13 years young and did not use his middle finger supporting his index.
The accuracy , speed and dynamics are already there though, so I don’t think the middle finger support is that important.
He was using a different pick back then, so maybe depending on which pick you use it is…?
Sweet Jesus! That guy was amazing at 13 - and he’s definitely gotten better. lol maybe I should just shell out the 390 bucks hahaha Caprice 16 was awesome!
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There are a few vids on YT where he was only 8 years and already played like this!
I’d wondered…I had seen some of his younger videos with lots of the scalar shredding. I was curious if he’d cracked the 1nps motion at such a young age. I don’t need to wonder any more 
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@guitarenthusiast Are you able to tell me a little about Anton’s setup? Is he fully pronated like Al di Meola? In his Arpeggios 1 video, he looks a little supinated honestly. Or is it a switch depending on what lines are being played
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Yes, that’s exactly it. It’s always nice when the answer is simple, right?
Going off the other thread I was tagged in yesterday just to keep things in one place and on-topic: You are free to put the guitar on your right or left leg, depending. There is an aesthetic component to it (e.g., Blues players in a dive-y club seated with classical position… Not the best idea.) There’s also a practical component: Ever try playing a Flying V in rock position?
With proper practice routines, hand positioning, and principles of movement, the brain will, over time, equalize your technique to be as identical as possible from position to position. The human brain is an amazing machine if you understand how to instruct it.
Practice in a variety of different positions: left/right legs when seated, standing, foot on ottoman or milk crate or John-Petrucci-Approved Steel Box of Doom™. If you feel drastic differences between these positions it is a dead-ringer that your technique is unstable.
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I’m curious about the use of the word “unstable.”
I can mostly glean the meaning from contexts, but is there a precise operating definition of the term in Anton’s teaching?