Originally Posted by: maggiorIt may be boring, but a great way is to practice scales ascending and decending in 3rds and 4ths. Just use the major scale in any position and use alternate picking. This will demand fingering precision, picking precision, and picking efficiency. Start slow to get the mechanics down, then ramp up the speed with a metrenome.

I think this is really spot on. Speed & precision have been issues for me as well. However, I basically put in a lot of time practicing exactly what Maggior describes, both seven note scales and pentatonic. I practiced slowly, slow enough that I rarely hit a bad note, and always to a metronome. Fortunately, I found it kind of relaxing so I wasn't bored to tears. After a lot of practice, (and again I can't emphasize enough how important it was to play correctly, focusing on just precision) I noticeably improved both my speed and accuracy playing scales. There was also an interesting side effect in that I recorded a little solo & riff I came up with to go along with a bass & drum pattern on my beat-box, and I noticed that my playing sounded very crisp. I was really happy with it, and I have no doubt it was due to the focused scale practice.

I'd recommend that you ramp up the tempo slowly... as in, a week or so at one tempo, then bump it up at bit and so on... and be prepared to back it down if you're finding it still too fast.