Any slide players out there?

[jpfeifer]

Hi Guys,

I've been getting interested in learning some slide lately after listening to Derek Trucks (great player if you haven't heard him before). I was reading one of my old GP issues the other day about slide playing and picked up some tips.

I bought myself a Jim Dunlop glass slide and started messing around with it. The article in GP reccomended tossing out the pick and using your fingers instead, which is what most of the really good slide players do. This allows you to dampen the un-played strings better which is one of the key things you have to get a handle on to make your slide playing sound clean. They also reccomended starting off in standard tuning first.

I tried these things and have started to get the hang of it somewhat. I'm really enjoying it. The hardest part about it is getting a feel for how hard to press down the slide to get a decent tone. Glass slides seem to sound alot better than the metal one that I had tried before. The glass slides have a much warmer tone to my ears.

Anyway, I've been enjoying adding a new thing to my music with the slide and I wondered if there were any other slide players out there. If I get good enough with it I may try to write a new tune and record something with it. I need more practice before I do that!

-- Jim

[Earful]

Hi,
I am the nu kid on the block, read your post, and was reminiescing about my days as a Fender steel player when I was young. Learned Hawaiian style back then, and needed a pick. I will be getting into slides once I relearn how to play my Strat....

[Tone2TheBone]

I dabble in slide. I use the brass slide on my acoustic with various open tunings. I do my Coricidin bottle on my electrics in normal tunings.

[helliott***]

I play a fair amount of slide. Can't get the volume I need from fingers only so use a weird combo of fingers and pick.

[Jimi75]

To me this was always a "you are a slide player" or a "you aren't a slide player". To get the best results out of slide playing one should play with dedication.

I think I am like most of us somebidy who has a lide at home, uses it sometimes, maybe twice a year and that's it. You are happy when you return to normal playing :-)

[Tone2TheBone]

I enjoy the times I play slide. Eric doesn't always play slide and he looks pretty happy when he does. I think that if you have the inclination to do it you should. Of course you do have to practice just like with learning anything else but it's another fun way of expressing yourself and it sounds dang cool when you're riffing some slide on Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp....

[warren0728]

i dabble in slide too....i really like the sound and usually play in open g....i have a cheap electro-reso guitar with a humbucker at the neck and a piezo for the cone...

[jpfeifer]

I always liked the kind of thing that George Harrison would do with slide. He would play harmonized lines (usually on a Strat) with two different slide parts, etc. He would use these slide parts to add little melody lines into a song but not really for doing full guitar solos so much. I really like this sound on the songs like "My Sweet Lord" or "Give Me Love".

I also really like the way Bonnie Rait plays slide. She doesn't overplay, just adding a little here and there to fill in the gaps when she isn't singing. She also plays very much in the pocket and leaves a lot of space between her phrases with a really nice tone.

Another thing that seems to be common with slide players is to use a compressor on your guitar input before the amp to help fatten up the sound and give it a little more sustain.

-- Jim

[tot_Ou_tard]

Jim, I've got a coupl'a slides. They're incredibly fun to play. I've presently got so much basic guitar to learn, that I've put the slides away...for now! But I am hungry to get good enough to bring them back out.

[duhvoodooman***]

Any thread on slide guitar is incomplete without two words:

Duane Allman

[warren0728]

Any thread on slide guitar is incomplete without two words:

Duane Allman

absolutely....another fine guitarist who left us too early....

ww

[Robert****]

I play a bit of slide too. Using no pick is best, but can be hard too.

Derek Trucks is in my view one of the best things to happen to guitar playing in recent years.

[Leonidas]

I've played slide off and on since i picked up guitar, but recently I have been playing a lot of slide. I use a coricidin bottle and no pick. I tended to give up quickly on slide earlier in my playing, but lately I have kept with it and it is becoming very rewarding. Like everyone else said, it takes practice but its worth it.

Looking at slide players.. my favorites are Duane Allman (Live at Fillmore East.. WOW!) and Derek Trucks who is a total inspiration. I really think Derek Trucks is the best slide player out there... which of course is totally subjective

[Spudman***]

Brett Garsed is another great slide player many might not have heard of. He has been playing guitar for Australia's #1 act John Farnham and before that Nelson. Remember them? Very talented player.
http://www.brettgarsed.com/audio/audio.php

[jpfeifer]

Hi Guys,

I found this grouping of video lessons on GuitarPlayer TV covering some slide techniques. These are excellent examples! However, the guy doesn't explain what tuning he is using because you aren't seeing the whole set of instructional videos from this group, just a subset (I think that this is a promotional thing for TrueFire's video lessons)

Go to the following link: http://www.guitarplayertv.com/
One the left menu click on Guitar Lessons > TrueFire Lessons > Slide Shop

From what I can decypher, these examples are using an open D tuning:
from low to high:
D
A
D
F#
A
E

You can get this tuning by droping your low E by whole step, drop your G string by 1/2 step, drop your high B and E strings by a whole step. It sounds just like an open E tuning only you're down by 1 step, and you don't have to raise the pitch of any strings to get this tunning. (less likely to break strings in the process of retunning)

Check it out.

-- Jim

[ShortBuSX]

If any of yall want an easy slide tune to learn...Led Zeppelin's In My Time Of Dying is super easy, and everybody who hears it just loves it!

http://www.guitaretab.com/l/led-zeppelin/10223.html