Slide Guitar

I wore "Engineer boots" with my tux to the prom--- hey they were black..... lol
rebels is as rebels does ;)
 
Whoa!!! Yòu guys have been reading my mail! This past week I have been considering buying a glass or ceramic slide. I have a great electric guitar for slide, sounds authentic but I suck!

I need a new project and learning some slide might be just what I need. Cheap thrills!
 
I love slide guitar... and I have attempted to learn how to do it
over the past forty years or so. I've never been able to use a slide
in standard tuning. My faves are open D: DADF#AD
or open D7: DADF#CD
or open E: EBEAbBE
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I first used a glass slide, because I thought that was authentic.
Then I dropped mine and it broke. So I bought a brass one.
It sounded like the brassy bells of hades. But I played it for a while.
Brassy slide work actually works.

I've tried ceramic ones and lost them (or had them purloined...)
Now I'm back to glass. I've found that real glass bottlenecks sound
the best. Czech these out:

http://www.sprucetreemusic.com/instruments/accessories/diamond-bottlenecks/

You can get 'em online, but it's best to stop into Spruce Tree Music in Madison Wi
and try the slides on, and pick the one that fits the finger you prefer.

For me, it's the fourth finger or pinky. I like to use my others to make two finger
chords, which sound great in the open tunings I prefer. I also use my first finger to
damp down the rattle. This works well. I bought one of those Diamond bottle necks
when I was passing through Madison on a tour, and loved the sound so much more
than any other slide, that I bought another one online later. There's something about
a real bottleneck that just sounds better than a Dunlop glass slide, or a piece of plumbing
pipe, or what.
slide 4@100.jpg
I've tried all the oddball slides anyone ever recommended... Copper pipe, brass tube...
Dunlop thin glass... Steel 11/16 socket... ceramic 'signature" slide... Coriciden Bottle...
but the Diamond bottleneck sounds so much better, I got rid of all the others as
unnecessary distractions.

Open tuning sounds full and punchy... two finger chords are easy to manage with a heavy piece of
green glass on your fourth finger, and I enjoy the tone and the sustain (when using exaggerated vibrato
as I've seen Bonnie Raitt do) ...the sustain kicks arse IMHO. There it is...
 
I haven't played any in a while, but I used to play quite a bit. I would keep my Firebird and a Les Paul or SG set up with a higher action, and tuned to open E. My Dobro and lapsteel are also tuned to open E. The Consolette would be tuned to an E7/9 with the highest string tuned to F#.

I like the slide on my ring finger. That would enable me to play minor chords by fretting the G# string behing the slide. I could also play diminished and 6th chords by fretting with my pinky.

For the electrics, I use a glass Coricidin bottle. For the Dobro, I have a piece of steel tubing that I turned and bored on a lathe until it was comfortable. For the lap and table steels, I use a Stevens Steel bar. It is the most comfortable for that type of playing.


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I have started my slide journey.

Question: what tuning do you use? Most instructional videos use an open tuning. Do you all do that? Do you have a preference, or does it "depend"? What does it depend upon?

Thanks
 
I used open E. For Allman Brothers stuff, that's what Duane had used, and the style playing that I was into. Warren and Derek Trucks both use standard tuning, even when in the Allman Brothers. Joe Walsh prefers open E because Duane had taught him to play slide. I'm pretty sure Elmore James also used open E.

If you use open E with a slightly higher action, you can press down on the G (G#) string behind the slide to make a minor chord. There are also other little chords tricks like slanting the slide you can do. You can also easily play 6th and diminished chords in open E. It's also easier for playing '50s style rock and roll walking up and down the A (now B) string just by barring the fret with your index finger and walking with your pinky.

If you're more into Zeppelinesque style stuff, I believe that Page used open G and then a variation of D that most of the English folkies used. Quite a bit of country or acoustic blues was done in open G.

If you're into Lowell George, Bonnie Raitt, or Ry Cooder stuff, then they all used open A. Maple necks are best for that one. You'll really crank up on it. Both Lowell and Bonnie use hard tail Strats for their open A stuff.
 
SG John said:
I used open E. For Allman Brothers stuff, that's what Duane had used, and the style playing that I was into. Warren and Derek Trucks both use standard tuning, even when in the Allman Brothers. Joe Walsh prefers open E because Duane had taught him to play slide. I'm pretty sure Elmore James also used open E.

If you use open E with a slightly higher action, you can press down on the G (G#) string behind the slide to make a minor chord. There are also other little chords tricks like slanting the slide you can do. You can also easily play 6th and diminished chords in open E. It's also easier for playing '50s style rock and roll walking up and down the A (now B) string just by barring the fret with your index finger and walking with your pinky.

If you're more into Zeppelinesque style stuff, I believe that Page used open G and then a variation of D that most of the English folkies used. Quite a bit of country or acoustic blues was done in open G.

If you're into Lowell George, Bonnie Raitt, or Ry Cooder stuff, then they all used open A. Maple necks are best for that one. You'll really crank up on it. Both Lowell and Bonnie use hard tail Strats for their open A stuff.
Click to expand...
Thank you for all that info. To me, open E seems like it would be the easiest starting point since we are all used to barr chords. This fella uses open D to good effect.

 
DonP said:
You can play slide in standard tuning, even with a low action. Does take a bit of practice, though

Click to expand...
Rose Tattoo's slide guitarist Pete Wells used standard tuning pretty much exclusively. (Edit; he did slightly detune the G string to get that "discordant" effect).
You'll quickly realise that open D & open E have the same chord structure. With open D you lower strings to achieve the open chord while with open E you raise strings to achieve the open chord, so the two tunings are "played" the same way. Open G & open A have the same relationship.
With slide, you can use whatever tuning suits you purpose. Example, when playing ZZ Top's "Tush," I simply lower the A string to a G & leave the rest standard. I'm not 100% sure on the tuning that the Rev Billy G used for this song, but the aforementioned mentioned tuning works well for me. Cheers

Edit: Another example of someone using whatever tuning suits their needs is Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd) in Free Bird. The slide is played in standard tuning but he lowered the B string to a G to get that whining effect. He also doesn't use a guitar set up for slide. He would wack a screwdriver between the fretboard & strings down near the nut to raise the action on his SG, however this was chewing up his fretboard so he changed to a piece of heavy wire. If you look at footage you can see the wire stuck across down near the nut. Cheers
 
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RVA said:
Thank you for all that info. To me, open E seems like it would be the easiest starting point since we are all used to barr chords. This fella uses open D to good effect.
Click to expand...


After watching the video, I realized I forgot a very important reason why I like playing the way I do. I usually would mute the strings with the index finger of my left hand behind the slide. It would "deaden" all the strings so that you would only hear the string you pick. If playing finger style, this would not be as important because you would be doing it a bit like the guy in the video. If playing with a flat pick, then things get different.

Experiment with muting. It's very important for slide guide guitar. It makes the difference between sounding good and not.

This is an old track I recorded for a project. It wasn't the one I hoped to have on my page, but it shows how you can easily jump around between fingers and slide in open E. I played this on my Dobro with a pick.

Too Much Alcohol
 
Oh, I did have the electric version I was looking for. We decided at the last minute that my Strat sounded better tuned down 1/2 step for the rhythm parts, so the Firebird is tuned to open Eb.

Phoenix Blues
 
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