I used to use three finger on my RH...
its ok, pretty fast and nice for some things..
i prefer four finger technique now though.

On my LH i always use 4 fingers...

Hand positioning, i would say keep your thumb parallel to the neck...(LH)

I was having this same problem the other day. The best piece of advice I got was this:

"Borja Rojano Broz (802) wrote:

There's only one way:

Set the metronome as slow as you can, and start fingering 3213 2132 1321 but be as fast as you can muting the string with the finger which is gonna play next. Forget the little finger, and play the notes as short as you can.
This is the best and way to achieve speed, cause the fact of muting with the next finger prepaires you to play fast but you have time to think what you're doing. Then it'll come naturaly.
Do it as warming, ten minutes a day and in a month or two you'l start playing so fast that you won't believe,
and your notes will sound bum-bum-bum-bum-bum
instead of a confusing bumbumbumbumbumbumbum
Advice: do it with open string and
Look at your right hand"

This is helping me in leaps and bounds.

i get what you mean. Steve Bailey has an exercise for this to build dexterity and strength in you're 1, 2 and 3 finger. just move them 1 2 3 3 2 1 2 3 3 2 1 back and forth. then switch it up in different combos until you can utilize all combinations fluently.

Well, if you listen to old Iron Maiden songs, you can hear that the good man playing bass is using three fingers, too. It's the horselike rhythms that greatly make use of this technique (listen to 'the trooper' for example).
I mostly work like this for the horselike rhythms: 1 321 321 321 321 etc.
My teacher prefers 123 123 123 etc.

Dude, Steve Harris only uses two fingers when he plays. He said so in his Q&A section on the Iron Maiden official website.

David

Your right. I read that too. Imagine my surprise when I
found out that galloping tunes like "The Trooper" are played
with only two fingers. I tried it myself, but gave up quickly. I
find it much easier to use three fingers for the horse-lines.
:-)

Thor.

I might even be tempted to play "The Trooper" with a pick. One guy here once said he was having a really hard time playing it fingerstyle. By the way, it may sound blasphemous to play Maiden lines with a pick, but Jason Newsted played Cliff Burton's lines with a pick, and it worked for him.

David

I find it alot easier to play The Trooper fingerstyle. I can
play it with a pick, but I find it easier to keep the time when
playing it fingerstyle. The solos in particular are hard keep
time during with a pick, at least for me.

Thor.

I'm sorry, I never did any deep investigation into my suggestion. I was told by a very reliable person that mr. Harris was to use three fingers.
But it's a good exercise, though.

Furthermore, I once read that some bassplayers use their index and ring finger instead of the index and pointing finger because the lengths are more equal. I think it was Dave LaRue who had listened to some of his recordings and played it very slowly. He found out that he wasn't as tight as he thought he was and accused the unequal length of his fingers for this problem. He also would try and bend his hand to get a better result.

Generally, 3 fingers (321321) plus thumb (for plucking the E when convenient).

I use the above for things like "No Shelter" and any phrasing that makes sense with 3.

Otherwise, I tend to stick with 2 with the exception of grabbing ascending string crossings with the ring finger. If there are lots of crossings like that then the 3rd can be quite busy.

Also, 321 vs. 123... When I have a series of ascending or descending notes on the same string, I will often use 321 for descending notes and 123 for ascending notes, which gets both hands doing the same thing, I guess it feels better to me.

Since I mute the E and A with my thumb, the way I hold my hand in order to do that also allows the thumb to easily pluck the E when convenient.

The bottom line is, practice with 3 like crazy until it feels as natural as 1 and 2, then you will start using it naturally without thinking about it.

About hand positioning, make sure the fingers are pointing slightly to the bridge to avoid digging in, and move the hand around (towards or away from the bridge) to get the sound you want.

Practice "No Shelter" like a rabid weasel for about 3 months and it will click. (You will need the thumb to get the verse, btw)

is this no shelter by rage? you don't need three fingers for that, the thumb - maybe.

You need the thumb to pluck the low D and that high slide simultaneously.

As far as the 16th notes go, I like to do it with 3 fingers straight through, cycling through the pattern without resetting the fingers. The coordination involved makes it an amusing excerise.

With the string crossings involved doing it with two feels a bit awkward, but no, you don't 'need' three to do it. Seems easier to get it up to speed, though. That is certainly how Tim does it.

yeh, i prefer two anytime i play rage just b/c timmy's feel seems to go good w/ two.