Re: Dunlop Mudslide
I couldn't get on with a brass slide. Sounded just too harsh and metallic for me, like I was playing a metal guitar (and not the Heavy type). I have a pinky-sized glass slide (Dunlop) but it feels too thin - like fine glassware you can't clink in a toast without it shattering.
My favorite was an old green glass Excedrin bottle. It was thick, and had a transparent tone (no pun intended). It didn't sound like a hollow metal tube or a glass-on-steel tone - maybe because the end was closed? Anyway, it was only about 2" long, so you couldn't get full coverage for chords with more than 3 notes, unless the lowest was an open string, but for In My Time Of Dying, it was excellent.
It was also about 1-1/2" wide, so I had to wear it on my ring finger and hold it upright with my middle and pinky, and mute behind with the edge of my index finger. I dug it out of the ground in a friend's back yard, where it had been for who-knows-how-long back in '87. It had been run over and stepped on for years, and was packed with dirt, but had no cracks or chips.
10 years later it fell off the table and landed on the metal leg of my guitar stand and shattered. Broke my heart.
Since everyone was using plastic bottles by then, I couldn't find a replacement from Excedrin or Tylenol or anyone, except a Vitamin supplement, but they didn't have anything in a bottle that small. I ended up with the smallest thing I could find - a bottle of Vitamin C tablets that was about 3" long and 2" in diameter. It was bulky, so I had to wear it on my middle finger, but I could still hold it with my index and ring fingers, and it had a nice full sound, and was thick like the Excedrin bottle, though I think its size gave it a "glass-on-steel" overtone, which I really didn't care for, but had to live with. In My Time of Dying took some EQing to get right.
A couple of years ago I got a few Dunlop glass/pyrex "Blues Bottle" slides to try out, and found one that I liked well enough to retire the big glass bottle. I use the model 275. It's more narrow than the Excedrin bottle was, and a little longer, but it has the right thickness for me. Still has a "glassy" tone to it, though. Maybe it was the green glass that did it.
Found a picture online:
The one in the foreground looks like the one I had.
In a pinch, a Bic lighter will work, as will an inline mic adapter (XLR-1/4") with an aluminum housing, but it's not very user-friendly. Takes a 3-finger grip, and even then you have to be mindful of the switch (if it has one), the seam, and getting too close to the end of the sleeve.
EDIT:
If I didn't know better, I'd swear this was it also:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-ANT...hash=item5442d493c7:m:mqkMCqhV0AUoFQv-SPyjMhQ
