Outstanding presentation on flatpicks! One area I thought could be touched on at some point, is a discussion on bare fingerstyle guitar. To my knowledge, there are at least two different approaches:
• Bare fingers only
• Combination bare finger and nail
I credit B.Ben for getting me hooked on fingerstyle and now have well-developed calluses on my picking fingers. Initially, I was not completely satisfied with my sound with bare finger only and struggled with sound projection to achieve a clean string release. I guess I’ve been spoiled being a banjo-picker with the ‘bell-tone’ release of banjo fingerpicks. Over the next few weeks I studied different fingerstyle techniques and became a little fascinated at players that could fingerstyle with an outstanding tone such as Chet Atkins, etc. Those folks invariably use a finger-stroke with a combination of flesh & nail. This style (flesh & nail) I began to try to copy on my own by growing my picking-hand nails out a bit. I initially met with disastrous results as my nails wore quickly in one spot and lacked the tone I desired. My nails would often ‘crash’ on the string or stick and not swing through the stroke. I quickly became discouraged from ever achieving that clean ‘bell-tone’ fingerstyle release. I went back to the web to research and analyze further what I was doing wrong and what I found out, changed my life in fingerstyle picking for the better!
Long story short, I found that it is necessary to view your individual fingers & nails as virtual guitar-picks. Each finger passes through an orbit as it strikes and releases the string. What I was primarily doing wrong, was that I disregarded the shape of my nails not understanding that each nail has an initial contact-point followed by string travel on the nail followed by a release point. Just as flat-pickers use a pick-shape and angle against the string, so too must the finger-picker shape his/her nails to allow the proper angle of incidence with the guitar string during the finger-stroke. To remedy my problems, I quickly found examples of how a finger-stylist must shape their nails. It’s the shape of your nails, (as opposed to length) that make or break your sound. After I properly shaped my nails almost immediately I began to achieve a guitar-sound that just makes my guitar ring. What a delightful sound!
Attached is a photo of properly shaped fingernails. One general key, is that typically ones’ nails are trimmed with a slant towards the thumb. After doing so and holding your fingers in position on your guitar strings, you’ll see why. This geometric shape angles the nail to achieve a contact & release point as the string contacts the flesh of your fingertip, ramps up the nail and releases with a clean ‘bell-tone’. Since everyone has different shaped fingers, your nails will not doubt need to be customized for your own playing. Once the best nail-profile is achieved however, it must be retained while your nail grows (a necessary downside). After achieving the correct profile, I use fine-grit sandpaper (2,000-grit) to polish the contact points to allow the string to glide smoothly across the nail during the stroke. My fingers & nails have essentially become my picks. I can’t put my guitar down!
Happy Picking!
PS: So what if you have short, thin or lousy nails? All is not lost read on……….(don’t laugh) 
but it’s fairly well-known that Chet Atkins (and others) used Ping-Pong balls on occasion to back-up his nails to provide an ablative surface and to restore correct shape to a damaged nail. Ping-Pong balls are made of a plastic that ironically mimics the thickness and sound of natural nails. Initially, I tried his method to achieve the correct nail geometry for fingerstyle. In short, the key is to cut the Ping-Pong ball to fit UNDER your nail-tip in the curved shape of the quick of your nail. Get a good fit against the quick and super-glue it in place to the underside of your nail. Let dry a min or two, then file your nail to the correct shape. In addition to obtaining the correct nail shape for fingerstyle, it provides an ablative-surface to protect against wear and since it’s under the fingernail, it’s not too noticeable. I was skeptical, but it works splendidly. Good ol’ Chet Atkins. Who knew?
Can you take a vid?