'extension' nut for slide

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Are these things any good? Don't they mess up the intonation of the instrument?

I have an old Barnes and Mullin 'country king' which I want to use as a dedicated guitar for slide. I suspect i'd be better off getting a new nut fitted to raise the action permanently (and have the luthier set the instrument up with the new nut fitted) but I'm just curious about these extension things.

While we're on the subject of slide guitar I've also been trying to increase sustain. I've found a thick brass slide and heavy guage strings work best. I guess the higher action will help also. Any more tips?

Thanks

 

[goldtopchas]

I watched the guy from Skynerd' ( sorry I don't know which one) one night on TV. , he had an allen wrench under his strings for the beginning of "Freebird" then just flicked it out when it got to the fast part. I thought that was a pretty nifty trick. I guess you can just tune without the wrench, then after it's in, adjust your playing position with the slide for intonation.
Pop it out, and you're in tune again. Assuming your strings are well lubed at the nut and bridge so they will return to the correct tension.


Here's an interesting slide factoid.... George Harrison didn't raise his action or have a guitar "set-up" to play slide. Clapton was amazed when he saw this.
George didn't know that guys did that to play slide.

 

[Light]

Are these things any good? Don't they mess up the intonation of the instrument?

Well, slides don't stretch the string as you play (at least, not perceptibly), so they don't have the intonation problems of a normal guitar, if all you are doing is playing slide.

But yes, a tall nut will negatively effect the intonation of fretted notes, though most noticeably in the first position or two. If it is going to be a permanent install, the yeah, just have a new nut made.

Here's an interesting slide factoid.... George Harrison didn't raise his action or have a guitar "set-up" to play slide. Clapton was amazed when he saw this.
George didn't know that guys did that to play slide.

That's not that uncommon. Leo Kottke carries two guitars with him, a six string and a twelve string. He uses them both with a slide and without, and though they are setup a little higher than some people would like, they are far from being setup for slide. Other players just keep their guitars set up for slide, and deal with it. We did some work for Bonnie Raitt's Strat some years back (a refret, if I remember right), and all the strings on her guitar were at like 4/32. My fingers hurt just to think about playing that. But of course, she is primarily a slide player, and at least at the time she only carried one electric and one acoustic on the road.


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