Great speed picking from the thumb joint
Does anybody speak japanese in the forum?
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Cool thing with this second video is that you can have youtube autotranslate the Japanese subtitles to English (or German, or whatever) and the translation at least in English is pretty intelligible. One word âkuneâ isnât translated, but you can probably try to infer meaning from context, and a quick google suggests itâs something similar to âtwistâ.
One tidbit from this second interview, and maybe others have another interpretation, but it seems heâs saying that heâs âsqueezingâ from the base of the thumb to straighten it, and when he relaxes the base of the thumb, other forces (maybe flexing force applied by the index finger and flexion at the thumbâs interphalangeal joint (which wiki says is actuated by the flexor pollicis longus)?) are returning it to a ârelaxedâ bent position. This would conflict with an intuitive idea we might get from watching him that the straightening of the thumb is actuated by direct extension of the thumbâs interphalangeal joint (which wiki says is done by the extensor pollicis longus). That is, he maybe has sort of an âisometricâ thing going on in the thumb similar to âspasticâ elbow picking, where flexing of the interphalangeal joint of the thumb being opposed by the way the muscles at the base of the thumb squeeze the thumb against the tip of the index finger, causing the thumb to straighten. I think heâs talking about alternately squeezing and relaxing the muscles at the base of the thumb (which I suspect a lot of us do to a minor degree as part of various picking motions), and that, combined with some timing of flexion and relaxation (but not active âextensionâ) at the thumb interphalangeal joint, is what makes his thumb motion work.
Also noteworthy that in some of his fast demo stuff in this clip, the amount of thumb movement is less drastic than most âthumb demoâ bits in the previous clip (which Iâve seen before, but didnât untangle a whole lot from, even though he does a recap in English at the end). Iâd probably need to watch this second clip a few more times and do some experimenting on my own to further sort out my thoughts on this.
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Good post fry
But is hard to understand for me even in English
He seems to be playing with one of those sikpiks if Iâm not wrong
Right unfortunately they donât exist anymore 
For the motion this seems to be a blended motion to me. The basic motion seems still forearm rotation to me at least at the higher speeds. But the thumb has its role there too.
My guessâd be that that the joint keeps relaxed whichâd result in a wider range in the motion (like a whip).
Theoratically that should allow higher speeds, cause the initial rotation can be smaller whule you still can get over the string.
Iâm asking myself if thereâs any benefit to escape.
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Dunlop sells the speed picks,wich have also a twisted tip,they are available in standard &jazz shapes,and right&lefty orientation,but i think they twist the tip reversed
I mean that for right handed players the ideal ones are the lefty IMHO
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I was trying to find out why you canât get them anymore and discovered the guy who made them, Frank Whetstine, had passed away. How sad 
Yes truly sad.
@TheCount told the same story (thatâs why I know they donât exist anymore) .
@milehighshred used them for his guiness thing and told me they (he) was very supportive.
Definately a loss
@Loren: Thanks for pointing that out, think Iâm gonna give them a try.
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I would like to clarify that for the first Guinness thing I did not use a Sik Pik. Frank contacted me after he saw it and gave me a bunch to use. I did use a Sik Pik for the 2nd ârecordâ though.
However, letâs all remember that the Guinness thing means absolutely NOTHING because I never did what Guinness said I did.
Frank absolutely was a great guy. I kind of feel like a dick for not using Sik Piks anymore. That being said, I still have a BUNCH of them, and if anyone is interested in making an offer on whatâs left send me a private message.
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In the first video, at 6.35, heâs doing something Iâve never seen before. He is, in effect, making a down stroke and then upstroke with the same movement, followed by a downstroke then upstroke with the reverse âmovementâ.
My prejudice against any of these thumb/finger flexing/extending techniques is that I canât imagine doing them with any power e.g. for acoustic guitar, without the sideways forces on the moving joints causing arthritis, long term. There also seems to be less rhythmical consistency.
Hey man, nice to see you 
Sorry didnât want spread fake news.
All that Guiness stuff was before my time (seems Iâm lucky there 
).
Just remembered that you mentioned him as suportive and nice guy in that context.
I hust ordered a set of that Dunlops that are mentioned above.
If thatâs rubbish I might be interested in one single pick, Iâm really curious how they feel but i donât wanna get used to them if they are not in the stores anymore.
Probably a good idea to just find something else then. I currently go between Gravity and V-Picks. I like the 6mm Gravity Picks (just make sure you get grip holes in them) and Pyscho V-Picks. The thickness and sharp bevel of both picks does what the Sik Pik did with the twist, but I feel Iâm more accurate now using Gravity or V-Picks.
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