Slide basics

Stuckfast

I've been playing a lot in altered tunings lately so I thought I'd have a go at learning to play slide guitar. I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it, but my question is whether it's worth setting up a guitar specially for slide, or whether that just encourages bad habits and lazy playing. If it is worth doing, and assuming I want to be able to fret notes as well as just use the slide, what sort of setup should I be looking at?

mgaw

i would say yes, especially when starting out, as you get better the action doesnt need to be much higher than most think to work for slide....i would say medium action, and have the strings all the same height rather than following the radius of the fretboard

missmisstreater

Another video response noone really asked for! I hope it hits the spot though

Lewy

missmisstreater said:

Another video response noone really asked for! I hope it hits the spot though

Excellent points made here. Nice one.

missmisstreater

The point I didn't make here is that for the most part I play slide in standard tuning because I want to be able to play slide when it suits. I'll be playing and just pick up a slide. For that reason I need to be able to do it with medium action and standard tuning.

with that being said... Having another guitar for it set up differently is cool. I think of it as a different instrument, like a lap steel. It inspires me to do different things.

Teetonetal

I'm also learning slide , I picked up a truefire course, which I found useful. Although I don't like using slide on 4th finger and I still use hybrid picking... but the concepts of muting are valid and sonme basic sounds are good to get your ear in.

https://truefire.com/focus-on-guitar-lessons/standard-tuning-slide/c752

 I've really not altered my guitar at all, I need a technique that I can use on my main electric as I just want to add a couple of slide parts to some of the bands songs. Gradually getting there.  So I use 10's with a medium/low action. I think 11's would help.

things things have really helped:

Getting a slide that fits really well
finding out which material I like the sound of
using a compressor - just smooths it out
Not using gain to start with so you can hear the handling noise well
Listening to Bros Landreth

menamestom

Personally I think it depends on how your guitar is set up to start with.  11's with a medium action would be okay, 9's with a low action you would struggle.  I can just about get away with 10's and a medium/low action, but I like a good tele with 12's and a high action.  I was playing some standard tuning slide on my not-set-up-for-slide Midtown last night and it was passible with a light touch, but only for soft playing, not a tough enough set up for hard blues playing.

Stuckfast

Wow -- thanks Levi, that is most helpful!

I see what you mean about a high action allowing you to dig in a bit more. That seems to be more of an issue on acoustic where it's hard to get enough volume on a guitar with low action. Well, it is for me, anyway.

monofin

@Teetonetal that trufire course looks good. May take the plunge myself

Teetonetal

@Moonfin there is also a Guitar Labs course for slide on the truefire site - Looks a bit more indepth. Sign up for a membership trial and you can have a look at them for free https://truefire.com/blues-guitar-lessons/electric-slide/c208

missmisstreater

Stuckfast said:

Wow -- thanks Levi, that is most helpful!

I see what you mean about a high action allowing you to dig in a bit more. That seems to be more of an issue on acoustic where it's hard to get enough volume on a guitar with low action. Well, it is for me, anyway.

More than welcome mate, thought it was a shame noone had really replied!

The more I try and imitate Trucks, the more I've realized that (unsurprisingly) his dynamic range comes from how hard he's hitting those strings along with riding the volume knob at all times.

I always played quite light because that's all I could get away with on the medium/low action - but that just resulted in my playing sounding weak.

Another tip for you (pinched from Guthrie) is to hike your strings up when you want to play slide. A fast way of doing that on a gig is to throw something under the strings at the 1st fret - like cigarette rolling papers (which is an issue for a non smoker like me!)

DLM

@missmisstreater Hullo Levi, good to see you over here.

Guthrie has also spoken about using folded-up train tickets to increase his action. In a very old interview, Steve Morse once said he used a matchstick.

I doubt this info will affect Rizla sales much.

missmisstreater

Yeah, if I need to do that trick I'll pull out some receipts from my wallet