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Hey Pete, first just address me as Mac, that is what family and friends call me. Whatever floats your boat is the way for you to finger strings. If it works for you it is perfect.
When finger picking or using Hybrid picking I Do finger differently than when using a pick. When making the G chord I us my thumb on the bass E 3rd fret and it hangs over the Bass E enough to lightly touch the A string so it doesn’t ring out. I picked this up from some finger picking books and From Tony as he doesn’t always use the A string in his G chords.
My ring finger is on B/3 and the pinky is on E/3. For texture on the G chord i do release the ring finger and play the B string open and sometimes the the ring finger is up on D/3 for dominant 7th or D/4 for major 7th. When Transitioning to the D chord my ring finger is my anchor finger and does not move during the chord move to D. The middle finger is moved to E/2 and the index finger goes to G/2. Most of the time The thumb has moved down 1 fret, closer to the nut, to F# and becomes the bass note for the D chord.
It’s very easy to slide the ring finger down 1 fret to B/2 and for me, to move the middle finger to D/2 and the index to G/2 or leave the G string open for a A7. I practice so much that the 1st position chords are pretty natural to my hands and fingers now. If I stop picking every day it is weird how fast the muscle memory goes away, but it does return fairly quickly.
