A question about slide

[steviekool]

Hey all,

A little embarrasing, but I have been playing for almost 20 years, and never even touched a slide. I am looking to venture into this, and am looking for a little advice...

Does it matter what type of slide to use, or whats the difference between like a glass slide, or a metal slide, or is there any other type? Also, does one damge the frets faster than the other? These must be slide 101 questions, but I dont know, but where better to ask then here!!

Thanks in advance for any answers!

[Help!I'maRock!]

different materials will feel different and give you different sounds. i like porcelain because my finger doesn't get so sweaty. go try a few at the store. it's really the only way to find what will work for you.

[pater familias]

No effect on frets, because the strings don't touch them when playing slide.

The differences between slide materials basically boil down to whether you prefer the tone of metal vs glass and somewhat the feel on your hand. Slides are cheap so you can try several to find what you like best.

Common to use heavier strings and higher action set up for slide. It's apparent simplicity is very deceptive...much like the guitar itself.

[steviekool]

No effect on frets, because the strings don't touch them when playing slide.

The differences between slide materials basically boil down to whether you prefer the tone of metal vs glass and somewhat the feel on your hand. Slides are cheap so you can try several to find what you like best.

Common to use heavier strings and higher action set up for slide. It's apparent simplicity is very deceptive...much like the guitar itself.

Thanks for the reply, I will check out a couple of different ones, but lets just say for arguments sake, if i wanted to play some blues to like some rock ala skynyrd slide, would that be the glass route or a metal route?

As far as setups go, I may need to set something up, as my guitars are primarily set up with low, fast action.

Thanks again!!

[Stratobuc]

Stevie, I would suggest a glass slide for what you describe. Definitely jack that action up, and go to a thicker gauge string if possible.

[steviekool]

Stevie, I would suggest a glass slide for what you describe. Definitely jack that action up, and go to a thicker gauge string if possible.

Thanks. So if my guitars are now set up with 9's and low action, basically dont even bother, correct?

[Stratobuc]

Thanks. So if my guitars are now set up with 9's and low action, basically dont even bother, correct?

Its going to be tough to keep the slide off the frets with that setup. It really makes a huge difference to set a guitar up specifically for slide. I put 11's on my tele and slightly raise the action, but I like mine higher than most anyway. Best luck.

[Wuchak]

Check out the Latch Lake Acoustic Glide brass slide. I tried all of the slides from Guitar Center: glass bottleneck, Joe Perry Porcelain, Dunlop brass, Dunlop chrome, Medicine bottle, the clear thin glass one. The Latch Lake, for me, was the best sounding and most comfortable by far. Plus the step up in quality of it was amazing. The Dunlop Harris looks like it but it's not even close. The Latch Lake is made like a piece of fine jewelery. It was designed in conjunction with Leo Kotke after he couldn't get anymore of his favorite wine bottles. They spent years just coming up with the right mix of metals for the slide. My next favorite after that the JetSlide. Actually I think I might recommend starting with the JetSlide. It's more versatile since it's easy to move in and out of play and it's much easier than a regular slide to get a great sound with quickly. The more I use mine the more I like it.

With slides the weight and thickness is critical. A thin slide gives a thin tone. It can be a nice musical tone but it will not have the depth you can get from a heavier slide.

http://www.jetslide.com/index.shtml

http://www.latchlakemusic.com/brassslide2.html

Higher than normal action with heavy strings (.11's will do) and open tunings are your friend when it comes to slide. So is putting down the picks and using your fingers (with or without fingerpicks)

[DrumBob]

Thanks. So if my guitars are now set up with 9's and low action, basically dont even bother, correct?

Basically, yes. 9's are like rubber bands to me anyway. The heavier the string, the better tone for slide. If you have a dedicated slide guitar, change the strings to 10's at least, if not 11's, and raise the action.

[parns2112]

hey stevie,

maybe take one your guitars and dedicate it to a more slide-friendly setup, higher action (but not too high that you can't play it w/o slide) and thicker gague strings -- perhaps 11s...buy a few slides a experiment...glass is my favorite, love the bottle shape glass slides...

also, muting is important, especially if playing in standard tuning...perhaps start out using the slide on your ring finger and remember to use your left hand fingers that are behind the slide to mute the strings behind the slide to keep out unwanted noise...

most importantly, lose your pick! i recommend Warren Haynes' book for first time slide players

[steviekool]

Thanks for all the great advice peoples, I greatly appreciate it. I think Im going to set up one of my Nashes with a higher action and throw some 11's on there, and get to experimenting :)

[EL 34 X2]

There are several beginning "slide 101" videos on Youtube. I'd suggest checking a few of those out to get things started. Actually watching how someone goes about it will answer many of your questions, and be more helpful than paragraphs of explaination at this point.

[guitarfish]

When I got a slide for the first time, I played on one of my guitars pretty heavily for a few days, without raising the action. Later on I realized I was pressing the strings into the frets with the slide, and the B & treble E strings actually made indents in the frets! I was pretty mad at myself for this, but fortunately I was able to polish the marks out of the frets.

[KennyWTelejazz]

slide sure is fun ....
if you don't feel like messing w your electric guitars & dialing them in just to see ...
a beater acoustic w a little shim under the bone in the bridge is also a good way to experiment

[GCDEF]

One other thing about glass vs. metal slides, is glass breaks. Drop a glass slide on a hard stage floor it's probably not going to survive, so have some spares handy.

[lemonman]

I agree it will certainly be easier to learn slide with heavier strings and higher action, but remember Billy G plays slide on 7s!

[buddaman71]

Just a tip: I play lots of slide and love it. For songs that are ALL slide, I have an old Cort that I keep specifically for slide with a higher action, and I string it with D'addario HALF Round strings. It sounds super fat and smooth without all the string glitch. My fave slides are the Mudslides made of ceramic. Very smooth like glass, but more durable and don't slide off your singers when sweaty on stage.

[Stratobuc]

I agree it will certainly be easier to learn slide with heavier strings and higher action, but remember Billy G plays slide on 7s!


It will sound better as well.

[ABKB]

Slide can be played in standard tuning, it can be played with low action (if you are VERY careful) and it can be played with light strings. But, it's just easier to have heavier strings with higher action and to choose a tuning. Like everything, takes practice is all. Also, different slide materials will give you different sounds. I use glass/ceramic/ and brass, just depends on what I want to hear. If I want smooth, I go for glass, a little "rougher", ceramic, and if I want to make a real loud kind of noise, brass. YMMV.

[mad dog]

It matters very much what you use to play slide, but at this point, you don't know enough to assess how different slides feel and sound. So get a few, start experimenting. It's far more important in the early stages to work on how your left hand and slide contact the strings, how relaxed your hand is, how it feels to use vibrato or not. Mechanics.

Later on you'll have a better idea of what suits you for the actual slide. And +1 on .11s and slightly higher action. Very hard as a newbie not to press down on the strings even a little bit ... you don't want to be dinging up a nice guitar learning that.
MD

[hippiebob]

I play slide on my SG with .9s. It requires a delicate touch, and I'm sure that's something a lot of people aren't looking for. I'd recommend thicker strings.

[steviekool]

Thanks again all for all the advice. I feel stpid I been playing for a long time, but feel like a total newb when it comes to this slide thing. I watched a couple of youtube videos on it, and gained a little info.

So if I am correct, you basicaly just lightly touch over the string, and dont push down at all on the frets, correct? So in theory, if you had a low action, but a very light touch, it can work?

[mikefair]

Right. You're just touching the string with enough pressure to make it ring out. You never press it into the frets. I play slide with pretty low, not super low, action and 10s. Make sure you can nail the note and can play chords in tune. Lots of vibrato helps.

I tried and tried for the longest time and couldn't get a good tone playing slide. I found a Dunlop that I really like. It fits on the ring finger, it's fairly thick glass (or pyrex) and it only goes to the first knuckle.

[mannish]

Get a deep well socket for acoustic - plain heavy ole glass for electric...

[Wuchak]

If you don't want to change your setup you can slip a piece of heavy gauge wire behind the first fret to raise the action. This is what Gary Rossington used to do for Freebird. If you watch him in the videos on YT you can see it there and he pulls it out after the slide part is done to go back to his normal setup.

[eryque]

Two things that haven't been mentioned yet:

Try different fingers for your slide. I play slide best with the ring finger, but learned to do it with my pinky so I had 3 fingers available for chords. Bonnie Raitt uses her middle finger.

Get a slide that fits your finger. I find that when the slide is snug, I play more fluidly because I'm not using other fingers to hold the slide in place. I actually use a felt shim in a slide so that it's snug on my pinky.

Try different weights. In general, heavy=thicker tone and more sustain, but I can't control a heavy slide as well as I'd like. Better to play well with a tone you like a little less than to play crappy with good tone :-)

Try different lengths. Some people like slides that stretch across all the strings, some people like them shorter. The make some with curved outer profiles that match the radius of your strings. I like shorter straight ones.

[KennyWTelejazz]

a couple of things for the OP
experiment w the 2 basic tunings a lot of folks use while playing slide
open D & open G
Vesta pool tuning is called open D , Spanish guitar tuning is called open G
open G ...low to high
D, G, D, G, B D,

open D low to high
D, A ,D, F#, A ,D

tune them up a whole step will get you open A & open E
slide w a capo for changing keys .....works good also
a shout out to Johnny Winters ....love the way he plays slide w a capo

a quick down & dirty for slide work on the fly in real time is to play in standard tuning & tune your high e to d for the slide part ...
then tune her back up to e
that gives you all the harmonica style high notes ( cross harp style)

regardless of what type of action , & slide you play
your gonna get a lesson in slide playing humility until you learn proper intonation w the slide & how to dampen the strings correctly from both the picking hand & slide/ fretting hand
hhhmmm,
it seems that I'm the only guy saying that it's pretty easy to get chops on slide fast by learning how to play slide on a beater acoustic ...
that's were the whole genre started to begin with ....
for a little reference & perspective on where slide came from
all one has to do is just take a listen back to the history of the blues greats & slide playing
it was acoustic first
many players gave slide a larger set of sonic nuts by playing slide on the electric guitar , yet all the typical idiomatic tendencies of the genre sound fantastic on acoustic & on the dobro
my first slide guitar I got was picked out of the garbage when I lived on 211th street , nothing more than a beater acoustic
I learned that if it ain't happening on a beater throw away acoustic w high action
it ain't gonna be happening on a 58 Les Paul or a 50's Strat
don't take my word for it ....
find out for yourself cause a little self honesty can go a long way

COMPRENDE

[stevieboy]

I think there are almost as many approaches to playing slide as there are slide players. String gauge, action, tunings, what kind of slide, what finger you put it on, flat pick, thumb pick, no pick. Actually, though I don't claim to be a slide wizard, I vary all of those things.

I would simply suggest you go buy a couple of slides, one metal one glass. Start with you guitars the way they are, but I do think you'll find that the nines with low action are a little too light. If you put on elevens, you might well find that's all you need to do, the heavier strings will bow your neck a bit more and they are heavier strings. I would also start with standard tuning, so you can get used to the slide without having to learn a new tuning at the same time. The high E and B strings work together, and the D G and B strings are a natural major triad shape. If you switch to the most common open tunings, you'll find that there will be a place where that shape exists--in G (DGDGBD) it's the same three strings, in D (or E, the same a hole step higher) it's on the 5th 4th and 3rd string. G B and E strings make a sixth or ninth chord, etc.

Damping behind and in front of the slide is very important to slide playing--probably the first thing to do is get a feel for that. Once you learn, you don't have to always do it, but for a beginner you'll think it sounds awful if you don't get that basic thing going. A good instructional DVD will help a lot.

[gkoelling]

Here's 19 pages and over 250 posts on slide.

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=408792

This place is full of knowledgeable people willing to share.