Over the years, I suspect I've tried every fingerpick ever made. For me there are drawbacks to every single kind.
Eight years ago I began going to the nail salon, like the flamenco guys (and gals!) do, and getting my nails strengthened with acrylic -- NOT the kind you Superglue on (in my experience, those are awful!), rather these are brushed-on.
It costs me all of $13.00 every three weeks to get the first three fingers on my right hand done and takes about a half hour. They feel like your real nails, but are far, far stronger -- they wear like iron. I've done three-week tours, sometimes playing as many as three shows a day. They never wear out.
You think you'll break 'em all the time? On average I break one nail a year.
You think they'll pop off? Never -- so long as you get them filled-in every three weeks or so, depending on how quickly your nails grow.
Pluses: you can't lose them, there's no pain involved in using them, there's no "adjustment" period, as with fingerpicks, where you have to learn how to use and get comfortable with them. As with your real nails, you only need to occasionally file / shape them as your nails grow out.
Minuses: none.
I can only say that I wished I'd discovered this route 35 years ago. It's made a huge, huge difference in my playing.
The second best solution are the Fred Kelly fingerpicks pictured at the top of this thread. It didn't take me long to get used to them. They're comfortable, they stay on, they don't twist while you're playing, they don't pinch, they don't get tangled up in each other, and once you've got the right sizes picked out for your fingers, they don't require adjustment.
The third best for me (what I used before the FKs) were the metal (not plastic) Alaska-Piks. But, like all metal fingerpicks, they pinch, they require adjustment, and they take some getting used to.
Glenn//.
