What Kind Of Slide Do You Use?

[defcrew]

Yes, maybe mellower.
But the other thing about it is the thickness of the brass is almost 3/16" whereas the steel on the chrome slide is only around 1/16" thick.

The glass slide sounds too,soft for me, but it's good to have options for different sounds.

A lot of the Duane school of slide players also play with their fingers on the picking hand and mute with that palm as well as behind the slide. They also roll off the tone knobs a bit so you get a kind of rounder sound with your attack. I think the glass would further enhance that tonal quality. Mick Taylor, Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, etc., are metal guys and their sound is a bit more biting. Believe they all use picks. Love all of the them. I think Ry uses glass and fingers as well.

 

[MooCheng]

only 1, some chrome metal thing, sounds like someone peeing on a tin roof, never got the hang of slide
I have lots of tonebars for steel, chromed brass one has the warmest tone

 

[kevinpaul]

Glass. "Real Bottlenecking Co."

That oh so correct. I only used glass from 1970 on. I had an open end glass tube for ages, it worked perfect. I must have left it behind some place. I have a Blues Bottle now and it is just ok. The open end makes a difference, I do not why.

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

I have a basic Dunlop glass slide, a Dunlop bottle and a Rocky Mountain porcelain slide that I use regularly. The glass usually gets used with my acoustic, but only because I keep it in that case. The bottle and porcelain are in my ammo can that I keep my electric stuff in. I go back and forth between the two as I like, the same way I do with my LP and Strat.
I don't use open tunings. If I'm playing something mellow, I leave the Tone knob up. If it's "Shake Yo Booty" time, I'll roll off highs a little bit and kick on the FD2 with the boost and it's so fat and glorious that it makes my nips hard. Add a wah and you're on another level.
(A level where you realize that you can't play slide OR wah, but you can't stop now....)

 

[Dr.Distortion]

7/16 deep Craftsman socket...

 

[pickerrr]

Dunlop brass slide. I don't use it a lot. If the song calls for a slide part, I'll use it.

 

[James R]

I suck at slide. Really bad.
That doesn't stop me from trying though.
I have a brass one but I use a little glass bottle more often than the brass.

 

[colchar]

When you play slide guitar, or slide on the guitar or somethin'.

I am just learning slide so am far from experienced. I use a thick walled brass slide on my acoustic. The slide is too large to stop at my knuckle so I added some foam mounting tape inside (bottom section only) to make it fit better as Dunlop doesn't make a thick walled one in a smaller size. I think I am going to go with a glass slide on the Epi SG Standard I just bought for use as a slide guitar (cost me $99!). My current glass slide is rather thin walled so I am going to search out a thick walled one as I prefer the weight of thicker slides.

I cannot control a slide when using my pinky so I use my ring finger. I haven't tried anything in standard tuning yet and am using mainly Open D, with a couple of things I am learning being in Open E.

I am currently learning to play this (which I think is an incredible version of this song):

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKo80b-QfK0[/ame]

 

[colchar]

That's a great quote by Parnell. In Gregg's book he pretty much says Duane had serious intonation issues at first and was shocked at his progression when he came back from CA to join the band.

The story I have always heard him tell is that he gave Duane the medicine in the bottle when Duane was sick and he woke up the next day to find that Duane had learned to play slide.

 

[colchar]

7/16 deep Craftsman socket...

Don't those have lettering, etc. on them?

I have also read that a spark plug socket can make a good slide.

 

[GitFiddle]

I really like the Rev. Willy Mo-Jo-Slide. Hand blown glass in the USA. I used these almost exclusively at gigs, until one time we were set up on a tile floor and it fell and shattered. Ever since then I've been using a brass slide.

I still take the Mo-Jo-Slide with me and break it out sometimes if we are on a carpeted wooden stage.

I still have a Coricidin D bottle from our medicine chest in the 70s. Love that the most but don't take it out of the house.

Found one of these pinky slides a while back. Great slide...

I normally play with slide on my middle finger, but got the pinky slide just so I could do this song... great clip... what a fun song...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tFeVLNH5E"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tFeVLNH5E[/ame]

 

[colchar]

Mind if I ask another question related to playing slide?

I'm curious what string gauge people use for slide? I had been playing slide on my acoustic that is strung with 12-53 gauge strings. Yesterday I brought home the Epi SG that I picked up for slide playing and I had asked my tech to string it up with 11-48 gauge strings. When playing it though, I found the first three strings to be tougher to bend than I had expected. Since I will also use it for some normal playing I'd like to be able to bend on them a bit so I am considering going to a set on which the first three strings are lower gauge and was thinking of a skinny top/heavy bottom kind of set such as 10-52 or something similar. I am thinking that a normal set of 10s (10-46) might not be beefy enough on the bass strings which is why I am considering the hybrid gauge.

Does anyone use a gauge like that for slide, or a gauge in which the first three strings are lighter? If so, how do you find them in comparison to heavier gauges?

 

[Ace1432]

im a big fan of playing slide. got kinda serious about it around 2011-ish. im a big fan of playing open g stuff, and im able to get some sweet chainsaw blues tone from my rig.
first off, im a HUGE, HUGE fan of the rockslide. i cannot sing enough gospel for them and their products.
i have a little slide collection built up:
my very first slide was a chrome dunlop slide. nothing too spectacular to note. it slides on the strings nice and smooth.
my second slide was a brass dunlop slide, and as you can see in my pic, ive worn her out pretty good, lol. i liked brass better than the chrome slide because it produced a warmer tone, not so 'jangly' on the highs.
my third and fourth slides were glass dunlops and both fell and broke on me. i did like the clear, smooth tone of the glass, so i purchased a blues bottle slide and i fell in love. i loved the way it fit and the way the glass flows over the strings makes playing really easy and fun. i will say though, that i prefer the sound of glass on acoustic guitars and metal on electric guitars.
after getting my glass slides and rounding out my collection, i stumbled on the rock slide products.i was looking for a really unique brass slide because i was getting heavy into playing bluesy slide stuff and had an idea of a 'perfect' slide having used every material and basic design available. bought a brass and glass slide from them and got a special deal on a gold plated rockslide.
my final slide is a fatty aluminum bastard ive named "the chuck". the piece of aluminum was given to me by my favorite supervisor after he was retiring from the company. he was a mopar hotrod guy, like myself, and i think he was milling the piece of aluminum for a shifter knob. it was already the perfect shape and size for a sweet guitar slide, so i milled out the inside so it fit my pinky nice and snug, and viola. the thing is FAT and HUGE. it produces really good tone, but the thing can become quite unweildy after a few songs.

EDIT: @COLCHAR, my main slide tele i play ernie ball .12-.56 "not even slinky" strings. i plays lots of open g, drop d, open d, open c all that good stuff.

all other guitars, ernie ball .10-.46 "regular slinky" are standard for me.

 

[Chilli]

Glass at home, metal if its a party.

 

[So What]

But, by all means, take your rings off!

.

 

[GitFiddle]

But, by all means, take your rings off!

.

I like my brass slide tinking against my wedding ring. It adds the tonez...

 

[NeptuneBlue]

Glass all the way. I figured out that I can use the plastic bottles from prescription pills - the orange transparent ones - as a case for carrying it around, as it fits snug and acts as a shock absorber.

Mind if I ask another question related to playing slide?

I'm curious what string gauge people use for slide? I had been playing slide on my acoustic that is strung with 12-53 gauge strings. Yesterday I brought home the Epi SG that I picked up for slide playing and I had asked my tech to string it up with 11-48 gauge strings. When playing it though, I found the first three strings to be tougher to bend than I had expected. Since I will also use it for some normal playing I'd like to be able to bend on them a bit so I am considering going to a set on which the first three strings are lower gauge and was thinking of a skinny top/heavy bottom kind of set such as 10-52 or something similar. I am thinking that a normal set of 10s (10-46) might not be beefy enough on the bass strings which is why I am considering the hybrid gauge.

Does anyone use a gauge like that for slide, or a gauge in which the first three strings are lighter? If so, how do you find them in comparison to heavier gauges?

I just use the normal 10s or 11s, to be honest. I don't have a dedicated slide guitar, though, as I don't use slide much as I've gotten into music that doesn't make any use of it

 

[Mr Insane]

To Answer Colchar's question. I just use my regular strings and set up, 10-56 gauge strings.

Now if I had guitar dedicated for slide, I'd use heavier gauge and a higher action. But I don't have any gigs requiring that.
______________________________________________________________________

The one time I did have a show requiring slide, I invested a lot of time learning the melody, tweaked with my delay, and tone to get it right.

The night of the gig, my favorite porcelain slide, a Joe Perry Boneyard, fell of the stand and broke on the floor! I didn't have a backup! The song just wasn't the same.

Bought a replacement Boneyard, just wasn't the same. Didn't fit my fingers. That one broke too somehow. The next replacement fit right, but it has a crack that worries me. So I'll get a backup for that...

 

[colchar]

I found a Rock Slide that fits well earlier today and also found a thick walled Dunlop glass slide (a bit shorter than their normal ones) that I liked so those will be my next slide purchases.

Has anyone tried to slide that fits like a ring and can be flipped around to allow you to play normally? I am talking about this one:

The AXYS reversible guitar slide

There are also others that seem even easier to flip around than that one from Schubb.

 

[hecube]

Mostly glass but I have a bison bone slide that plays like butter.

Here's the collection: