Sweep-Picking.org

The answer, as you may have guessed, is exactly in between. Here’s a good way to gauge how much pressure to use. Fret an open chord, like a E Major. Then give it a nice sweet strum. You’ll notice that if you dig in real hard, it sounds harsh and unstable. And if you strum too lightly, it’s weak and whispery. A firm but medium to medium-light pressure gives you an even but solid sound. Same pick strength works with sweep picking. If you want, you can indeed go slightly lighter on sweep picking, but not too much … also be sure to flat-pick instead of angle-pick when sweeping for a more buttery/bubbly tone. By flat pick I mean pick parallel to strings instead of the usual 45 degrees.

As for alternate picking, same medium pressure works. Personally I use medium for alternate picking, strums, power chords, etc… medium-hard for thrash riffing on the lower notes, and medium-light for sweep picking.

Another thing that affects sweep picking pressure is whether you palm mute the notes a little, or let them ring openly before muting as you sweep to the next string. Obviously if palm muted you’ll have to pick a little harder.

And lastly, anyone who says they sweep pick really lightly is getting away with it only because their amp gain is turned up high and/or their pickups are really compressed sounding and/or strings have very low action — all these things you find on a typical shred setup.