bought a real glass slide

I've always been playing with an off-the-shelf-from-the-local-music-store plastic/pyrex slide. Yesterday I ordered a real glass one. A bit more expensive, but you can specify the size, glass, etc. Can't wait to try it out. :!:

I've always been playing with an off-the-shelf-from-the-local-music-store plastic/pyrex slide. Yesterday I ordered a real glass one. A bit more expensive, but you can specify the size, glass, etc. Can't wait to try it out. :!:

Where did you order it from?

Wayne

I have used metal and glass slides. The downside to glass slides is they break but the upsides far outweigh the downsides. To me the glass slide has a more course surface than the metal and will actually help vibrate the string when you slide with it and it helps sustaining notes when vibratoing (don't know if thats a real word!) the note. I'm not certain I've ever used a plastic one before. I didn't even know they made plastic slides. Maybe I was using one and didn't even know it.

Where did you order it from?

Wayne

http://www.mrbsguitarslides.com

My old glass one broke pretty easily, but I have another one now and I think it sounds great. Also a fan of brass.

Glass slides are nice, especially on electric. I have a couple of old Coricidin bottles that I picked up at an estate sale for $.25 each that I use as slides.
I keep a brass slide and a heavy chrome steel slide around too. They all have their purpose. The heavy chrome slide nails lap steel type tones a bit better, but it's harder to keep off the frets.

I've always been playing with an off-the-shelf-from-the-local-music-store plastic/pyrex slide. Yesterday I ordered a real glass one. A bit more expensive, but you can specify the size, glass, etc. Can't wait to try it out. :!:

Pyrex is glass.

Pyrex is glass.

Of course :!:

I guess I was more referring to getting a hand made from a bottle slide as compared to a production made slide.

For slide on guitar, I never could get anything going until I read about the Coricidan bottles that Duane Allman used. That was the key for me. The Dunlop Medium size, regular wall bottle is almost exactly the same bottle. I keep a couple of the originals that I have had since '73-'74, but the Dunlops fill the bill as well.
For lap, I use a Shubb-Pearse SSP-1 with the upturned lip. For my 8-string Gibson Consolette, I like a bigger, heavier bar.

Lap steel notwithstanding (I use a 3/4 size bullet bar exclusively for live, occasionally use a Shubb-Pearse dobro-style bar for recording) - the only slide I get on with for acoustic and electric guitar is a Dunlop 212 glass slide worn on the pinky. I've tried tons of boutiques, Coricidins, porcelain, brass, stainless steel, etc. This is a rare occasion for me in that my first choice is a generic, readily available, very affordable item. Glass is unquestionably more forgiving for a guy with questionable technique such as myself. Couldn't imagine not carrying a 212 to a gig.

I too like the 212. And in the last year, the Joe Perry (Ceramic? Porcelain?) Slide that is essentially the same size.
I like the thickness, and the length of those 2.

The JP seems a little "meatier" and warm to me. Whereas the 212 is smooooooth. Smooth as glass? :)

One thing I will say, is that although Pyrex is glass, it's not necessarily the same glass. Different bottles, bottle necks, etc. are made in different factories, with different methods. Some older glass bottles have a coarser, grainier texture. And this definately affects the sound.
So, there is a whole world of "Glass" Slides to discover. Not to mention old pipes, Ceramics, Metals, etc.

Tim, I'd check out the short JP Slide. It's a nice contrast to the 212.

You name it and I've probably got it..It depends on the guitar that I'm using and the type of music I'm playing,but most of the time it's a coricidan bottle.Many times I use my Bic lighter..Wrote a song just for the Bic,"Bic lighter blues",fun thing...

I went from chromed steel and brass to pyrex for convenience/availability/consistency.

However, something was never quite right and then I discovered ceramic slides. Now I mostly use Mudslide, Moonshine, and Sir Ramic slides, occasionally wine bottle glass.

Nonetheless, there are other varieties in my collection, especially concave ones for more chord work, but I haven't found a ceramic one like this yet, settling for pyrex and brass for this purpose.

The tone is hard to describe, but ceramic slides just do it for me.

For lapsteel I still use the standard Shubb SP2...too bad it doesn't come in ceramic.

Mike Bruce

Tim, I'd check out the short JP Slide. It's a nice contrast to the 212.


Thanks Jeff, I'll keep an eye out for it.

One thing I will say, is that although Pyrex is glass, it's not necessarily the same glass. Different bottles, bottle necks, etc. are made in different factories, with different methods. Some older glass bottles have a coarser, grainier texture. And this definately affects the sound.
So, there is a whole world of "Glass" Slides to discover. Not to mention old pipes, Ceramics, Metals, etc.

Tim, I'd check out the short JP Slide. It's a nice contrast to the 212.

Yeah, even Pyrex isn't necessarily the same glass- apparently the formula has changed over the years, and is different in the US from Europe, and from the Corning days.

My approach is to drink a lot of wine and save bottles that have particularly interesting necks, then a file to score the neck, add a little bit of carefully applied hammer, and I have a slide that matches my talent.

Yeah, I have made quite a few too. Mateus used to be "The" wine bottle for this use. However, you had to get a gal. or maybe a 1/2 gal. bottle of the swill to get a good, long, straight neck.
So, you either poured it out, or you invited "Friends" over to drink it. (Yecch!)


After scoring the neck, tie a thread around the neck, right in the score mark. Now put the bottle in the freezer, and leave it there for a couple of hours.
When you take it out of the freezer, light the thread on fire. After it burns off, you wrap the neck with a towel, and smack it on the edge of a counter top.

Usually, you'll get a pretty clean break, and only have minimal sanding to do, to keep it from ever having a jagged edge.