Picking Angle Question

Hey Kris!

I was just watching your Speedpicking 101 Basics video and it stirred up a few questions I had about the picking angle:

1) I've started working on practicing picking at an angle like you recommended in the video, but occasionally when I'm picking on the High E or B string, I won't get a sound, but I can feel the pick contact the string. It seems as if the pick is sliding off the string and not producing any noise. Do you think I may be using too much of an angle? (The pick isn't perpendicular to the string by any means. hehe )

2) Is the picking angle that you use for speedpicking what you normally use for playing the guitar? Until I signed up here at GMC, I thought the pick was supposed to hit the string in a parallel motion, but apparently I was mistaken!

I've already seen a significant improvement in my short time as a member of GMC, so I can't thank you enough for all the time and effort you and the other instructors put into creating the lessons.

Thanks a bunch!

Tapping Question: Volume Difference On High E And B String

Hey guys,

This is my first post on GMC

I have this question that's been bugging me for awhile now and I'm sure that one smart fellows would be able to shed some light on the situation. I've been working a lot on doing hammer-on and pull-off exercises and also doing a fair amount of the beginner tapping exercises.

My problem is that it seems that no matter how hard I press down, I really can't get a good solid tone out of my High E string. However, it's not nearly as hard for me to get the loud and clear tone when doing the tapping on the B string. There's just a huge volume difference between the both the High E and B strings when doing tapping or just hammer-ons/pull-offs in general. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Here's my Gear Specs to help out:

Guitar: Ibanez RG270
Pickups: EMG 60/81 (Bridge pickup selected for tapping)
Strings: .009-.042 D'Addario EXL120's
Pedal: Zoom 606 Multi-Effects pedal
Amp: Line6 Spyder3 15W Practice Amp

I look forward to talking to all you GMC'ers out there. Thanks in advance for the help!