Anyone play much slide in standard tuning?

Fishboy7

I find it much harder than in open E or G.  Probably because you can't fall back on so many of those cliché licks, and open string stuff. 

Am I right in thinking Jason Isbell and JD Simo use standard tuning?  You don't see them switching guitars anyway. 

munckee

Im no slide player but I can’t be bothered to tune to open d which I learned slide in so I just make it up in standard. 

Sounds like crap obviously.

JohnS37

Yeah, I’m a bit like munckee, keep it simple.  Also, have you tried using a dessert spoon instead of a bottleneck?  You can place it wherever you like, eg on pairs of strings, and you don’t get all the unwanted extra notes.
Jus sayin . .

digitalkettle

For the little that I do, it's mostly in standard...you just need to level-up your muting game!

Cirrus

I like playing slide, far from a virtuoso, but I usually play in standard or a semitone down, and only deviate from that if I want to play something that just isn't possible unless I change the tuning.

Basically, I think in terms of melodies and then start thinking about where I can play those melodies and have adjacent strings that give me something useful at the same fret - so primarily that's basically the E, B & G strings to get a minor triad, and the B, G and D strings to get a major triad. But the former can also give you a major 7th, and the latter can also give you a minor 7th. Then there's the way you can jump up 5 or 7 frets and turn the same shape into an inversion or find some other surprise, haunting interval.

Oh, and I like not muting the strings behind the slide, and using a very heavy metal slide. Both things give you more sustain.

slacker

Yes, muting behind the slide is the key. D/E and G/A tunings have their own foibles and cliches. The trick to playing in open is to play the D G B strings as G tuning and the top two (pitch) strings as E tuning. You can play single string runs but muting is the key.

For a simple but rewarding solo look at Handle with care by the Wilburys. 1st solo g string 2nd e string.

Roland

There’s no way I’m going to carry a separate guitar just to play slide. In a covers band slide often only occurs in a section of a song, and I don’t like changing guitars mid song. So I use @slacker’s approach. A short slide helps. I did try using a wide wedding ring, but it kept clattering on the fret ends.

Winny_Pooh

I use standard so that I can play "regular" alongside it. IIRC Aries Posen some (baritone) in standard as does Warren Haynes
I mainly play single note lines and double stops and leave a lap slide for open tuning. 

stickyfiddle

My old originals band had one song I used slide on. Always in standard.  More Nick McCabe/Verve than Cooder/Trucks, mind you - lots of swells glissandos rather than bluesy

Fishboy7

Yeah, it definitely requires better muting, and sticking to E, B or D,G,B strings helps.  

My Sweet Lord is a good example 

digitalkettle

Fishboy7 said:

Yeah, it definitely requires better muting, and sticking to E, B or D,G,B strings helps.  

My Sweet Lord is a good example 

Remember that every adjacent pair of strings is a mini power chord (except for the G/B strings where it's a major 3rd). Once you get adept, you can try fretting behind the slide...then all kinds of things become possible (pretty damn tricky though ).