I've been diligently practicing clawhammer, and though I'm very comfortable playing with bare fingers, my nails are just wearing away badly.
So I've reluctantly concluded that wearing a fingerpick is the way I'm going to have to go. It feels like I'm going to be able to get used to it pretty quickly, just from an ease of playing standpoint, but now the picked strings completely drown out the fifth finger thumb notes.
Is it just a matter of learning to play with a much softer touch on the pick and perhaps a stronger pluck with the thumb? I'm comfortable with both a plastic pick and a metal one, but the plastic one has a softer tone and isn't as overwhelmingly loud as the metal. I've seen folks playing great sounding clawhammer with both though, and the fifth string notes seem to ring nicely.
Anyone who's had to deal with this and might have a helpful tip or two would be appreciated...