Slide Guitar: Help Needed

[Woodcutter]

I would like to learn how to play slide guitar tomorrow I'm going to try to pick up a slide but I have no Idea what to look for. Hears my questions.

Whats the deference between glass and metal slides particularly tone wise?

I understand there are different weights or thicknesses again what are the diferences?

What sting gauge would you recomend or does it not really matter?

What books would you recomemd for learning slide guitar?

Is there anything else I should know about slides before I buy one?

 

[Curly]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

I use a Dunlop 215, which is a medium sized heavy wall pyrex slide

I wear it on my pinky and slide in open G tuning: DGDGBD

you need to learn to damp behind the slide with your hand so your notes ring clean, and without unwanted overtones

I don't know a good book, but I'm sure you can find something simple to get started

 

[rhmcfarland]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

Heavier slides produce a bigger tone and better sustain.
Metal is bright.
Glass is smoother.
Porcelain is more rounded in tone.

The Rockslide is a great one to get. Its chrome plated brass, tapered at the top for more density, and has a crescent cut at the bottome for a better fit. Highly recommended. I prefer it for behind the slide technique. Do a google search and you'll find the website. EDIT: The website's on the next post...

The Dunlop Mudslide is good. The tone is somewhere between glass and metal. Overall, there's no absolute best. Whatever you like is cool, so have some fun checking them all out. Its nice that slides are relatively cheap, and I've got a bunch of them.

Some folks use 16-54 string gauges. I use a set of 10's with a 12 on top. Fenders have more string tension, and you can do that. Gibsons on the other hand have a shorter scale, and so they get squishy up around the 17th fret. Heavier strings on the Gibson.

I play slide in standard tuning. I don't want to have to change guitars in the middle of a set, and I don't want to have to "think in open E" because its like having to learn a new language.

There are some good instructional videos out there. Kirk Lorange, Arlen Roth, Warren Haynes and some others. I hope to be making an instructional dvd soon.

Check this out:
http://www.bottleneckguitar.com/forum/index.php

Right hand muting is critical for playing slide well. Get some simple phrases, then daisy chain them together for a longer passage. Be patient.

Some of my slide stuff:
www.soundclick.com/randotones
www.soundclick.com/randymcfarland

 

[rhmcfarland]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

BTW, here's some cool webistes that might help:

http://www.mphase.com/planetd2.htm
http://www.guitarseminars.com/
http://www.nationalguitars.com/index2_ie.html
http://www.bottleneckguitar.com/
http://www.bogdoc.com/mukti/slide.htm
http://www.bobbrozman.com/
http://www.sonnylandreth.com/sonnyframes.html
http://www.derektrucks.com/
http://www.fenderplayersclub.com/pdfs/artist_lessons/duane_allman.pdf good instructional stuff here
http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html
http://www.slidingzone.de/ has some tab stuff... pretty cool site

slides and so forth:
http://www.selftuning.com/index2.htm
http://www.marksguitarshop.com/trs/main.php worth the coin... buy one!
http://www.moonshineslides.com/ also very cool!
http://www.bigheartslide.com/
http://www.rockymountainslides.com/
http://www.diamondbottlenecks.com/p_ult.html I'll be getting an Ultimate soon
http://www.rbnc.net/slide.html used by Reverend Sunburst himself!
http://www.nd.edu/~ncarmich/
http://www.planetwaves.com/Pgeardetails.aspx?ID=4

Frankenstrat2 and Kirk over at the bottleneck website are good to learn from as well.
grace & peace,

Randy

 

[Woodcutter]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

Thanks you for all the info curly and rhmcfarland.

 

[Randy Combs]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

Also play over the fret, not between them. It is something that takes some time and feel. You can make cool noises also. Slow weeping slides up to notes are cool.

 

[rhmcfarland]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

Glad to help!

listen to some of the early blues guys:

Muddy Waters
Son House
Elmore James
Robert Johnson
Furry Lewis

Then get into the later stuff:

Johnny Winter
Duane Allman
Jeff Beck
Lowell George
Bonnie Raitt
Sonny Landreth
Warren & Derek
Sonny Landreth

Some of the late comers:

Keb Mo
Eric Sardinas

Its cool with slide that there really is no ONE WAY to do it.
Duane used a coricidin bottle on his ring finger.
Clapton uses the slide on his pinky.
Bonnie uses the slide on her middle finger.
Jeff Beck, Johnny Winter and Billy Gibbons use metal.
ITS ALL GOOD.
HAVE FUN!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

I use a Dunlop 215, which is a medium sized heavy wall pyrex slide

I wear it on my pinky and slide in open G tuning: DGDGBD

you need to learn to damp behind the slide with your hand so your notes ring clean, and without unwanted overtones

I don't know a good book, but I'm sure you can find something simple to get started

I own jillions of slides: glass, brass and steel of all sizes and weights. The only one I use now is the Coricidan bottle you gave me! I love it! Best slide, for me, that I've ever owned. Got any more? Lew

Lew

 

[ledzepp29]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

thanks rhmc, that was really helpful!
I've been getting into slide lately but I'm still not good at it at all. Its hard cause I'll try to learn a song for slide but it will be in a different tuning. I just need to get used to it and learn some simple phrases to play around with(which I don't have)

o ya I've been using a coricidin bottle too!

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

I own jillions of slides: glass, brass and steel of all sizes and weights. The only one I use now is the Coricidan bottle you gave me! I love it! Best slide, for me, that I've ever owned. Got any more? Lew

Lew

Was it Joe Walsh that started the coricidan bottle slide trick? I guess I need to visit the drug store

 

[flank]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

i know the Allmans have some relevance and significance with the coridican bottle slides

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

Duane used to take coridican and because he had tones of empty bottles laying around...he used them for slide...now lots of people use them for slide!

 

[rhmcfarland]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

BTW, if you're playing electric slide, check into getting a good compressor. I use the Homebrew CPR, and its great. Put it first in the fx chain, followed by a good overdrive/distortion/fuzz. The BSM OR works great with the CPR to produce a bright & silky tone, the Fulltone '69 is good for getting the Duane Allman squawk (dial the bias back to about 11 o'clock, and the contour up to near full), and the Lovepedal Eternity has a great tweed-esque tone.

 

[philthis]

Re: Slide Guitar: Help Needed

for electric guitar get the dunlop moonshine ceramic. its got a great bite and its thick and light weight so it wont push down on your light weight electric strings but rather-slide across them easily. For accoustic guitar I would use a thick brass slide becouse accoustic strings are already heavier and can support the weight of a heavier slide plus an accoustic is usually not amplified and there for if you want the slide to be laud enough it usually requires a brass slide.
also dont get a book, get a video and watch someone do it for a wile. go get a beginner so they will start you out from the beginning.
Slide is very cool, You can get some wicked tone from a compression pedal-ceramic thick moonshine slide-high gain amp. it will fill a room and its sounds so cool. Also on a clean setting a compression pedal-slide-and nice clean amp set on tremolo.
damn, now I wanna play so i gotta go-good luck
:beerchug: