[vmorrissette]

Basically, I am guessing that you put them on your index finger, and they make it easier to slide up and down the neck of the guitar to play barre chords... I might be completely wrong, and this is just a guess. So anyway, I was just wondering what style of music they are conventionally used for, and if using one would make it easier or harder to learn how to slide around on the guitar.

This post has been edited by vmorrissette: 21 January 2006 - 09:13 PM

[annoying_2001]

i'll let john get this one.

[matt_theripper]

In the meantime:

A slide can be worn on any finger that you choose, though the most common two are pinky and ring. Pinky seems to be more common for playing acoustic slide when there is chording going on as well. The ring finger is common amoung electric players. I use the ring finger for electric. There are exceptions as well, Billy Gibbons plays with it on his middle finger. Find out what works best for you.


Slide guitar is used in a variety of different style. Everyone from Duane Allman to Robert Johnson to Warren Haynes to Jerry Douglas to Ben Harper plays slide.

I'll let John handle the rest of it, as his explination will far exceed my own.

[dadfad]

Everybody covered it pretty well already. I prefer my pinky because like Matt said it frees three consecutive fingers above the slide which makes chording, etc easier. Especially for the more complex fingerstyle stuff. Most guys I know use their pinky. But some great slide players used other fingers as well. Fred McDowell who taught me my slide basics used his middle or ring (occassionally his index, like Son House) but his slide tunes were generally not too complex as far as the added finger-stuff (and Son's tunes weren't either). It seems, generally speaking, that guys who learned to play slide on an electric with a band more often started out using their ring (probably because they didn't have to worry about fingering chords for rhythm-lines, etc which another guitarist or bass-man covered) and guys who play mostly solo tunes use their pinky. Just a generality though, with lots of exceptions. Playing slide is great. It's a lot of fun, and there are lots of things you just can't play or express without using a slide. I'll add my usual link to other past slide-topics below, which have lots of advice, tips, tunes, etc in them from me and other guys.

Slide Links

Slide A



Slide B


Slide C


Slide D


Slide E


Slide F

Slide G

Slide H



(Open Tunings)

Slide I


Slide J

[Father Fonz]

metal or glass anyone?

(I thought I'd open up the topic)

[adds]

metal or glass anyone?

(I thought I'd open up the topic)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Metal for me. Ive got a brass one that was made for me buy a brassinstrument repair man. I wanted it to taper down which i couldnt find in the shop. Plus i dont have the biggest hands so this fits just great. Not that im any good at slide mind.

[dadfad]

Brass is my favorite too. But build up a little "collection" of slides. Brass, steel, copper, glass, ceramic, etc.... They all have their own sound. I have a box full of different slides.

[matt_theripper]

I use glass on electric and chrome on acoustic.

[velvetrevolver220]

I just got a porcelain slide.

[annoying_2001]

brass for the acoustic.
brass for the electric (ok, well i don't play my electric anymore, but if i did, it'd be brass)

it's a bummer though, i'd like to use the slide for my classical but it just doesn't sound the same....

[guitarfan19]

i use a brass slide on both my elecric and acoustic. and i wear it on my middle finger, but thats nostly because my ring and pinky fingers are too skinny.

[dadfad]

i use a brass slide on both my elecric and acoustic. and i wear it on my middle finger, but thats mostly because my ring and pinky fingers are too skinny.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Take piece of cork gasket-paper (or whatever) and cut a rectangle that fits exactly inside your slide when rolled up. It's "no-slip" and can be as tight or loose as you want it.

[guitarfan19]

i use a brass slide on both my elecric and acoustic. and i wear it on my middle finger, but thats mostly because my ring and pinky fingers are too skinny.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Take piece of cork gasket-paper (or whatever) and cut a rectangle that fits exactly inside your slide when rolled up. It's "no-slip" and can be as tight or loose as you want it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ok thanks for the suggestion dadfad. that should help alot because i have better control with my ring finger usually.

[Schneibster]

I play chrome, glass, and brass, both acoustic and electric; the chrome emphasizes the higher harmonics and usually works best with a little distortion (gently!!! heavy distortion with a chrome slide tends to blow you out of the room, YMMV), the glass gives a "smooth" tone with more bass than either metal slide, and the brass is kind of in the middle. When using strong distortion, I usually use glass and almost always use a compressor.

You'll find that setting the action too low can cause problems with "rattling" against the frets when you slide from one position to another; also, heavier strings work better, particularly on electrics. Good lubrication of the back of the neck is essential, to prevent your thumb sticking when you slide from one position to another.

If I'm using an alternative tuning, I generally tune open to a D, G, E, or B, and play with the slide on my middle or even index finger; I generally don't chord with anything but the slide in this "mode." I try not to use alternative tunings that are more than about three half-steps from the "normal" tuning. I have had some success using a tuning dropped a half-step; for some reason the strings being slightly looser gives sonically interesting results, and you can always put a capo on the first fret for the "normal" tuning, at the expense of losing one fret at the top of your neck.

If I'm using standard tuning, I generally put the slide on my pinky and use my first three fingers to chord; I also tend to concentrate on the DGB strings for the slide work, as they have the best tone to my ear, and form a chord with the slide as well. I tend to concentrate on the "open A" form barre chords, since making the "open E" form barre chords is impossible with the pinky restricted by the slide, but of course the "open E7" form barres are available if they are in key (or you are playing with key shifts). I play slide most in this mode, since retuning the axe eats up playing time

I have thought of making some sort of "articulated slide" that would free my pinky to some extent and allow the "open E" form barres, as well as chord variations on the "open A" form, suspended, sevenths, and so forth; Eddie Van Halen is rumored to have done something very like this with a heavy wedding ring, on single strings. I ain't rich and don't propose to scrape my precious wedding band up like that, but that's kind of the idea; I haven't come up with a really good idea for how to implement this, though; suggestions welcome.

[okiejohn]

Speakin' of slides, I've been gathering up old bottles and broken glass from the lake here near the house. The lake is down about six feet because of some unusually dry weather and I'm taking advantage of the low levels to do some cleaning up. I spect I've gathered about 30 gallons of bottles and broken glass in the last couple of days.

Today I found one of those old glass cold medicine bottles that Mr. Allman is supposed to have used for slide and right next to that was an iodine bottle, one with the glass applicator attached to the lid.

[MakoMako]

I don't own a slide myself, but I've gotten a few oppirtunities to play with one. I enjoyed messing around with tunes I already knew to play with the slide. Gave them a fun little tone.

But I think the oddest thing I've done to this day with my guitar, I took a phillips screw-driver, one with the plastic grip, and used that to play slide when I tapeed it to my finger. O_o