Dedicated Slide Guitar

So all you sliders out there I want to hear from you! I'm wondering what type of guitar you use to play slide and how you have it set up. It's my understanding the action is set a bit high to avoid hitting the frets and you should go up in string gauge.

Any info provided would be appreciated!

I am a relative novice on slide guitar, but I think the kind of slide you use (glass, brass, steel, etc.) determines how much the stings get pressed. A heavy brass slide might require a bit higher action and resonance (thicker gauge strings generally) than say a lightweight glass one. Also using an open tuning (like E, A, or G) might change the tension a wee bit. My favorite slide guitar was an old beat up Fender Dreadnought Acoustic with a bit of a damaged neck (therefore a bit higher action). I actually enjoyed playing that one with the body on my knees face up sometimes.

A bit of suggestion on the slide side.....learn the parts with your hands first then ease in the slide for light embellishment at first, then we you get get on target/in tune most of the time, then go hog wild on the slide embellishments (vibrato, longer slides). Nothing sounds worse than a out of tune slide part....check out "All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow....seems easy, but it takes a long time to play it cleanly.

I am jones-ing for a Pedal Steel, which puts a whole new color pallet on slide playing.

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I've freely admitted elsewhere on this forum that I'm not a great guitar player, and now I'll add that I'm terrible with a slide on my finger. But that doesn't stop me from trying! I've experminted with this a lot, and action definitely makes a difference.

My Gibson L-6S has an insanely low action and playing slide on that guitar is almost impossible.

My old Epiphone Broadway has a higher action and heavier gauge strings, and I can actually do OK playing a little slide on that guitar.

Adaptable's advice is good. Being a Skynyrd fan I've tried to play the slide parts from Freebird, and I learned it without the slide first, then went back and tried it with the slide. That is an effective way to figure it out.

By the way, Gary Rossington from Skynyrd plays Les Pauls 95% of the time and gets absolutely classic humbucker tones out of them (think "Gimme Back My Bullets"). But, at least in the early days, he brought out an SG whenever he played slide. I don't know if he used an alternate tuning, but I know he had a dedicated slide guitar, so chances are it was tuned and set up differently than his LP.

Perfect - thanks guys just what I was looking for. I'll experiment and get back to you with the results.

G

Kind of depends on how you play slide. Many players set up a guitar with heavier strings and slightly higher action.

On the other hand, some players, such as Duane Allman and some others, simply play slide on whatever they happen to be playing at the time. This requires a very light touch with a slide, and if you don't wear your slide on your pinky, you can't really play chords.

I vary my approach, depending on the situation and the song. If I am playing solo, I will usually have a guitar set up for slide at hand. I generally use a real bottleneck (Big Heart Slide Co) or a ceramic one (same maker). I also occasionally use a Robert Johnson brass model (BHSC) and even a knife blade sometimes.

The bottom line is that there are as many ways of playing slide as there are players who do it, and each one, each different materiel or instrument, produces a different tone, and for those who seek it, the journey does not ever end.....

Gary Rossington did indeed use an alternate tuning for "Free Bird". It's like, F# minor or something like that. There was an interview in one of the guitar mags in which he discussed it. The SG was always in that tuning, and only used for that one song. Apparently, he came up with the tuning by accident. He also said what he used for the slide, but I forget. It was something not usual, like a piece of conduit or a phone jack cover, or something like that. He also stated that the "Free Bird" part was pretty much accidental at the time.

Peace

Great comment -

I use a piece of copper pipe on my ring finger. It's not too thick and I love the tone that I get. A length of pipe is not expensive. I cut and keep a several pieces on hand. It's no big deal to lose one and the crowd loves it when you toss one out to them after a song.

I play a Strat. I use standard tuning and my action is medium to low.

Have you played slide using an alternate tuning (Open G)? If so, how does it compare, and why have you stayed with standard tuning?

I've learned that lot of slide players use open G. Most players have dedicated guitars for playing slide and/or alternate tunings, which I don't. I learned to play guitar and started with a slide in standard EADGBE tuning long before I realized I could use alternate tunings. I'm from a small town in the Adirondacks from the days before computers and cable TV. There wasn't a lot of info available when I was growing up learning to play. Back then it wasn't nice for a young blonde haired blue eyed white boy to play boogie woogie on the piano or blues on a guitar so you were careful what you asked about. You learned by mimmicking what you heard when you could hear it. Playing slide in standard tuning is supposedly more difficult or so I'm told, and I doubt I'll ever really master playing slide. Or guitar.

Hope that makes sense?