SLIDE GUITAR SET-UP

To play slide, you must first have your guitar set up properly for the best tone and playability.  I play on my 1930 National steel-bodied Style O resonator guitar.  These are great sounding old guitars, especially for slide and delta blues.  Many blues, jazz, hillbilly, and Hawaiian guitarists played Nationals, and before the electric guitar caught on, were the loudest, shiniest, funkiest guitars available.

You can set up any steel-string acoustic guitar for slide.  The nut of the guitar must be slightly higher (around the thickness of a matchbook cover), so the strings are higher over the fretboard than for regular guitar playing.  You should still be able to fret the strings as well as slide comfortably without clonking the frets with the slide.  A qualified guitar repair person should be able to set you up right.

Note:  BE CAREFUL choosing a repair person.  Try to get a couple of (or lots of) recommendations from respected players before taking your dear guitar into the shop.

SLIDING STRINGS

For the best slide tone for your guitar, heavier gauged strings are generally better.  I use these gauges, in Phosphor Bronze:

Low to High:  .056    .045    .035    .026    .019(plain)    .017(plain)

CAUTION:  Many acoustic guitars are not made for heavy string tension.  Be careful not to put strings on your guitar that are heavier than the recommended gauges.

IMPORTANT:  Don’t tune your guitar too high!  It could pull your guitar apart!  Tune no higher than a D or G-tuning, and if you notice the bridge area raising, use lighter gauge strings.

OPEN TUNINGS FOR SLIDE PLAYING

Although there are dozens of variations, I use these two traditional open chord tunings for slide:
 

  • Open-D,  Vestapol or Louisiana Tuning.  Low to High:  DADF#AD
  • Open G,  Spanish or Hawaiian Tuning.    Low to High:  DGDGBD

    • FINGERPICKS OR NAKED FINGERS?I use a large plastic thumbpick on the right hand thumb, and two metal fingerpicks for the index and middle fingers, but for me, especially on the steel guitar, picks help make a sharper, louder tone and help save your fingers.

    GET A GOOD SLIDE

    There are many kinds of slides to choose from; everybody has a different preference.  Some use a metal tube or pipe (Son House used a piece of copper tubing), or a spark-plug socket.  These have a brasher, more metallic tone, but have the advantage of being shatterproof (and multi-purpose).

    Some of the old-time slide guitarists used a knife.  Cedell Davis uses a better knife.  Legend has it that Blind Willie Johnson used a straight razor for a slide.  Makes for a sharper tone, but sounds mighty dangerous!

    My preference is a glass slide, made from a wine bottle.  Glass has a weepier, richer sound than metal.  You can make your own or buy commercially made slides in the music stores, and remember the thicker the glass, the thicker your tone will be.  The glass in many wine bottles (the kind with corks, not screw-on tops) is nice, thick, and smooth, and makes for the best sound.

    PUT IT ON YOUR PINKIE!

    Putting your slide on your left hand pinkie finger leaves your other left hand fingers free to fret notes and make chords without the slide, and also to damp the strings behind the slide.  Some guitarists like Son House and Bonnie Raitt use the slide on the ring or middle finger, but generally, having the slide on your pinkie is the best bet.

    SLIDE PLAYGROUND

    Unlike fretting the strings, playing with the bottleneck involves setting the slide directly above a fret, with light pressure on the string with the slide when plucked.  Try it on the high D (first) string in Open-D tuning, with the slide angled slightly away from the neck, so you are only resting the slide on the high string.  Then, pluck the string with your right hand index finger, and slide up the neck slowly from the third fret to the fourth fret.  Ahhh!!  Vibrate the slide slightly (left & right) along the string at the end of the phrase to give it that vibrato like a gospel singer.  That’s it!

    The difference between playing slide and regular guitar is like the difference between a violin and a ukulele.  Think of the slide as a woman’s voice.  Some of the notes will be bent or “blue” notes that are 1/4 to 1/2 way above the fret.  The ability to bend and vibrate these vocal-sounding notes is what makes slide guitar so haunting.