Slide Guitar

M

mikeh

New member
I need help in understanding slide.

What I do understand is that heavier stings (10's or better???) seem to work best. I understand that a glass slide is better for electric and a steel slide is better for accoustic.

What I don't understand is the best way to set-up the axe. Candidly, beyond basic intonation I don't have a good understanding of setting up a guitar. I've seen slide players with cotton or cloth under the bridge - but I don't know if this is to raise the action, mute the tone or what???

Although I realize there is no single "right axe" for slide - who prefers what, and why?? I'm considering useing a cheap Chavel (Strat copy) or a cheap Yamaha Pacifica - I have read that often a cheap guitar can provide a unique slide tone. The problem is that both of these guitars have fairly high frets - which I suspect will increase the potential of fret noise - so do I raise the action??? If so, how???

So what tid-bits of wisdom can you offer a poor confused drummer who is trying to expand his limited guitar knowledge.

Also, are there any recording do's and don'ts you can offer - I normally record direct to Layla/Cakewalk via a POD or J-Station.

Thanks in advance for any info you may have.
 
raise the action on the guitar. tune you guitar to open E, G, or D, depending on what style of slide you want to play. put the slide on either your middle finger, your ring finger or your pinky and mute with the finger(s) that are in front of the slide. when your playing slide the slide has to be directly over the fret to be on the note (not inbetween the frets like you do when you are chording or playing lead guitar)...develope a vibrado technique....get lots of allman brothers cd's (fillmore east is good). practice...practice....practice

hope that helps

oh, and a gibson SG is a good guitar for slide
 
Good tips jimistone!

I actually prefer a brass slide for acoustic, but couldn't find one thin enough for my taste so I had to do some mods to one. I like glass for electric and wear it on my pinky so I can chord or play reg. lead runs with the slide on. This also works for slipping in minors if your tuned to a major chord. Just fret the note behind the slide. Takes some practice to nail it.

As for tone, I like to roll off my tone on the guitar a bit for a nice, round warm tone. It also reduces the noise of the slide on the strings. A little chorus & delay never hurts either.;)

As for my favorite slide player, that would be Rod Price formerly of Foghat.
 
Good advice from all. I'd add that if you're just starting out, you should make an effert to ware the slide on your little finger. You really do have a lot more options that way. But, I could never do it.

Your action should be high, but not so high that it's hard to finger the chords.

I do think that cheap guitars sound better for playing slide. Hounddog Tayler played a guitar from Sears! I'd say hit the pawn shops and look at the cheapest guitars they have.

Glass slides work very well on electric. I like to use one with a thick wall. It's heavy and I don't have to press down as much to use it.

When I play in standered tuning, I like to use a metal slide that is only about an inch long.

As for strings, I like to use 11s.
 
If you have a guitar you can dedicate strictly to playing slide, you will have a much easier time.
Along with all tips already mentioned, I'd say really experiemnt with tunings. Whereas most electric guitarists consider EADGBE all they need, with slide it's a whole new ball-game. There are many different open tunings, each with it's own unique sound and possibilities.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
I prefer glass on my acoustic and metal on my electric.

I have a raised nut on my acoustic and play it dobro/laptop style tuned to either DADF#AD (Same as open E, only lower) or standard dobro tuning GBDGBD.

For my electric, I don't do anything special other than practice. I may pick up another electric just for slide, but I don't currently play enough slide to justify it. I use the slide on my ring finger.

Check out Sonny Landrith for some kick ass revolutionary slide technique. Well, revolutionary may be a bit strong... how about innovative... yeah.. innovative.
 
Interesting thread. I picked up a Squire strat at a garage sale just to set up for slide, but am having a bitch of a time finding a hex wrench small enough to adjust the action at the bridge. Anyone know what size that is?

Bob
 
I use a sparkplug socket with the cork insert removed.The extra mass gives me a better tone than lighter glass commercial slides.
And although I originally learned "spanish" tuning or open G (D-G-D-G-B-D) I now prefer standard (E-A-D-G-B-E).
 
Mr cheney is spot on with the dedicated guitar bit ,
You definitely need to raise the action on an electric ,it would be a bit tedious swapping the action every time you felt like having a strum.
I use brass slides on my 12 and 6 string acoustic guitars they have a lot more sustain .
Open G and D are pretty popular setups too.
And you have to use your pinky folks ya just gotta..
 
Recently, I bought a little slide that's about 1 inch long. Muddy Waters used to play with one like it. I have found it to be very useful when playing slide in standered tuning.
 
You are correct--generally, heavier strings provide more surface area for the slide to grab onto…the “cotton or cloth under the bridge” is probably there to dampen certain vibrations that might lead to too much feedback or some non-musical vibrations/rattles, who knows?
…I use a 64’ sg, 10s or 11s, with very low action…I could never get used to the feel of the traditional style—finger inside the slide…I somehow find it more comfortable to use one of the wide sides of a bic-lighter—which has a flatter curve compared to a regular slide…this flatter curve allows for more string contact—which enhances string responsiveness, thus allowing the player to minimize his movements while playing—which, it’s been said, is a key to playing fast…a bic is so light and easy to handle that big frets don’t even get in the way…and, if you have fairly hot pick-ups, you barely have to work lighter to bring out some incredible slide sounds…I would say that the overall approach is much lighter compared to using a traditional piece of glass, brass, etc…it also works well on acoustic…
 
Thanks for all your responses! I've been trying some different combinations of strings/guitars/actions/tunings/slides, etc. I'm spending more (time and money) than I expected on strings and slides, a video on slide playing, etc. - but hopefully when all is said and done I'll have the slide sound I'm looking for.

I'm sure I won't record slide often enough to justify all the effort - but I'm learning something as I go along (it's the not destination -it's the journey!!!).

At this point it looks like I'll be useing a Charvel Strat copy (that I previously used as a guitar synth, with a GK-2A - I'm gonna put the GK-2A on a cheap Fender Mexican Stat). The electronics arn't much to speak of - but it seems to work fairly well with 11's and fairly high action. I trying different open tunings - but it's a pain learning completely new chord positions (I've barely gotten my (9th chords down in standard tuning).

Now I remember why I chose drums to start with!!!!
 
For acoustic slide I found a really heavy brass thick walled slide (chrome) that doesn't bounce around on the string. I think it was a Dunlop. That and slightly heavier strings (Thomastik-Infeld bronze mediums are overweight - high E is .013) made a good combination. I think I'm going back to DR bronze, though, cause these strings are just too painful if I'm not playing slide. Another reason for a dedicated guitar...
 
Slide Tips...

First choose the tuning you'll begin to learn with. Your best bet is either Open G which is a happier more major sounding tuning or Open D for a darker more foreboding tonality. The combination of these two tunings can be moved up or down with a capo for just about any key you want. But don't worry about that just yet.

Ok, now you've chosen a tuning, how about the guitar setup? Get yourself a cheap guitar if you're just experimenting, get yourself a good guitar if you want better tonal response and you're considering playing slide a lot. Action isn't all that important, but electronics and tuning stability is the same as regular guitar. If you have a guitar that has to be retuned after every song or that has weak pickups, it's going to sound just as crappy if you're playing slide on it as it would if you were playing it in regular tuning.

Choose a guitar with a relatively flat radius on the neck (12" or more). Don't get a reissue 50's strat or tele with a
really curved 9" radius fret board. I'll explain why further down.
Setup tips:

1. Go HEAVY on strings. Don't bother with anything lighter than .13's unless you're willing to put up with bottoming out, fret knocking, and string buzzing. You have to factor in that you're typically tuning the strings lower than standard pitch in most open tunings, so anything lighter will become even more sloppy and make you sound even worse. Don't worry about fretting the notes with your fingers since most slide tunes (blues anyway) in open tunings only requires you to fret single notes in the first 4 to 5 frets.

2. Have your nut recut to fit the heavier strings so they won't stick or seat into the grooves. And have it cut WITHOUT any radius. The strings should be flat when you set a straight edge on them at the nut. I'll explain why in the following tips.

2. Raise your action high enough to easily play with even a heavy slide (like a deepwell socket), without bottoming out. But NOT so high that you can't fret single strings with your fingers. (If you want the strings so high that you can't fret them, then you should just go straight to lap steel and forget slide guitar anyway).

3. Now flatten the radius at your bridge just like you did for the nut. You still adjust the intonation, but you just don't make the strings follow the curve of the neck. Again, a straight edge should set flat across the strings at this point.
Now... What's the big deal with flattening the strings...?

Flattening the radius of the strings allows you to lay the slide across all 6 strings with minimum pressure and you'll get a clear ringing tone across all 6 without any buzzing. If you leave the strings radiused, you have to press down harder in the middle just to bring those strings down to the level of the outside E strings. If you under compensate, the outside strings buzz, if you over compensate, you end up mashing the outside strings into the frets and deadening them altogether.

It's not that you can't learn to finese the slide to work on a radiused set of strings. But why waste your time having to make all those microadjustments to the slide pressure when you can make it work nearly perfectly everytime just by adjusting your strings?

*BTW, I didn't make that one up, that's a trick I stole from Ry Cooder. He does this on all his slide guitars. And he was the person I learned just about everything I know about slide from.

Now, just grab your self some tabs and start playing around. I would highly suggest listening to "Music by Ry Cooder" which is a double CD of his most famous blues sound tracks. The songs aren't terribly complex, but no one does soulful simplistic blues better than Ry Cooder. Then once you start getting the hang of it, you can move on to more complex slide playing tunes from people like muddy waters or robert johnson. And then just when you thought you were really getting good, you can try playing Duane Allman tunes, who plays much of his slide work in "Standard Tuning"!

Hope that helps!

THE CROSSROADS Guitarist BBS
http://www.the-crossroads.org
 
I'm a big fan of learning from video tapes. There are some very good ones for slide guitar. If your just starting out, you might taks a look at the ones by Keith Wyatt. He's done two of them and both are good to start out on. The eletric slide tape is mostly about standard tuning, while the accoustic tape is about playing in open G and open D.

Once you've learned that stuff it's time to move into the real nitty gritty. Arlen Roth has also done some slide tapes and these will keep you busy fir years to come! IMHO Arlen Roth is the best slide guitar alive today and he tells you everything on his tapes.
 
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