Slide guitar concepts

[Mr Perch]

Is there anyone else there playing slide on a Tele? I'm self taught -- a lot of my vocabulary of licks came from copying Lowell George on the first Little Feat album. This led me to use a very simple altered tuning, where I would tune the E string down to D, giving me a G chord on the bottom 4 open strings. It gave me the option of a minor third between the B and high D strings, and a major third between the G and B strings.

However, since I only use one guitar, I don't like to be changing the tuning on my E string which I find makes it harder in general to keep in tune. Now I am playing slide on standard tuning -- I understand that Muddy Waters did that. I have found that I can get a minor third between the G and B strings by positioning the slide at at angle across the strings. Is anyone else out there conducting similar experiments?

[Cheesehead]

I play slide on my Tele and am a huge Muddy Waters fan. Except for his early stuff in open G, he played mostly in standard. I love playing Stones slide stuff off of Exile on Main Street and other Mick Taylor era albums on my Tele too. Keef plays in open G and Mick Taylor plays slide in standard. Mick has a good slide in standard tutorial on DVD. Bob Margolin has a great Muddy Waters slide guitar DVD too. He played with Muddy.

[jmiles]

You might find my comments on this thread interesting. I talk about "slants" etc..
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tab-tips-...-g-tuning.html

[Mr Perch]

Here's a related question. I do like tuning the E string down to get the G chord, but I find that when I tune it back up, it tends to drift and has to be re-tuned. Any tips on solving that problem?

[jmiles]

It's probably slightly hanging up at the nut. Just give a a bend, and retune.

[Mr Perch]

Thanks.

[RCinMempho]

Originally Posted by Mr Perch

Here's a related question. I do like tuning the E string down to get the G chord, but I find that when I tune it back up, it tends to drift and has to be re-tuned. Any tips on solving that problem?

First, always tune up to the note. If you overshoot, slack it back down and tune up. That will minimize binding in the nut.

Second, next time you change strings, rub some lead pencil in you nut slots or even better get some Big Bends Nut Sauce (or other lub). That will help too.

[Hiker]

Found a couple of good video tutorials on Utube.

[Mr Perch]

Originally Posted by RCinMempho

Second, next time you change strings, rub some lead pencil in you nut slots or even better get some Big Bends Nut Sauce (or other lub).

Can I use my teflon bike chain lube?

[jmiles]

"Can I use my teflon bike chain lube?"

Yes! If it's the "dry" Teflon lube. Steel players swear by it. I won't use anything else on my pedal steels, or the Hipshot guitar, for that matter. Using anything that stays wet is problematic, as the "wetness" will attract and hold dust and contaminants, Dust can become quite abrasive! You also don't want anything "wet" to seep into places you want kept dry. Oils and such can cause serious deterioration in wood. Do a search for comments by Silverface. He has been in the business for a long time, and knows his stuff!

[Mr Perch]

Originally Posted by jmiles

It's probably slightly hanging up at the nut. Just give a a bend, and retune.

It looks like this is all I need to do. My Squire CV50 Vintage Blonde seems to be remarkably trouble-free, stays in tune well, best $200 I ever spent. The tuners that came on it seem to have a generous gear ratio -- it takes a lot of turns to go down or up a whole step.

[jdaunt]

Warren Haynes plays slide in standard tuning also and also has a tutorial DVD (seems to be a theme with standard tuning slide players...). Anyway, I have a Tele that I keep in standard and an SG that I've been messing with in Open E lately. I play both regular and slide, getting used to the open tuning was weird at first after I learned slide in standard, but it's fun, especially when fretting and playing slide in the same song.

[Mr Perch]

I like the sound of what violin players call "double stops," two strings played together. With standard tuning, you have two options: a perfect fourth, or a major third (between the G and B strings.) You can slant the slide to make it a minor third, but it's hard to do that accurately on the fly -- tuning the E string down to D gives you a choice between major third and minor third (B to D) that you can hit fast and accurately.

[stevesz]

this might not be the help you're looking for, but I read a couple interviews where Lowell George used to tune his Strats up to an open A rather than an open G. So the Low E, A and high E strings are standard while your D, G and B strings go up a whole step. Lowell showed that to Bonnie Raitt and she does it too. You'll notice that her slide tone and Lowell's are more similar than say Lowell's and Ry Cooder's. I don't play a ton of slide but I still use a Sears socket wrench to remember Lowell by.

At least you won't be re-tuning your E strings.

Originally Posted by Mr Perch

Is there anyone else there playing slide on a Tele? I'm self taught -- a lot of my vocabulary of licks came from copying Lowell George on the first Little Feat album. This led me to use a very simple altered tuning, where I would tune the E string down to D, giving me a G chord on the bottom 4 open strings. It gave me the option of a minor third between the B and high D strings, and a major third between the G and B strings.

However, since I only use one guitar, I don't like to be changing the tuning on my E string which I find makes it harder in general to keep in tune. Now I am playing slide on standard tuning -- I understand that Muddy Waters did that. I have found that I can get a minor third between the G and B strings by positioning the slide at at angle across the strings. Is anyone else out there conducting similar experiments?

[Mr Perch]

Except for the low strings, that's the same set of intervals, just moved up a whole step. Since I only play slide on a few tunes, I would like to do as little re-tuning as necessary, so tuning the E string down makes more sense for me than tuning 3 middle strings up. YMMV. I could tell from Lowell's licks that he had a minor third on the top (I learned slide by copying the tunes on "Sailin' shoes.")

[krisls]

Check out Kirk Lorange, a really good slide player. Mostly in standard tuning. I know he has a DVD and there's some youtube clips and freebie stuff on his site too.

Kristina

[Mr Perch]

Originally Posted by krisls

Check out Kirk Lorange, a really good slide player. Mostly in standard tuning. I know he has a DVD and there's some youtube clips and freebie stuff on his site too.

Kristina

Very impressive.

[klasaine]

Duane played a lot of slide in standard and as mentioned Warren Haynes plays in standard frequently and also does some of Duane's parts in standard ... even the ones D did in an 'open' tuning.

Jeff Beck 'slides' in standard.
Earl Hooker (Bonnie's fave slider) was a 'standard' player.

In other words: you're in good company!

[Danjg]

I prefer standard tuning, and yes Warren Haynes has some good resources out there. I realized long ago that I'm not typically playing on the low E or A strings that much and the D-G-B is like playing in open G, you're right though that that minor 3rd is quite elusive but I do like the "slants" idea I'm going to have to work with that.

[Budda]

Here's a cool and easy idea in standard tuning:

You get a Major Triad on Strings D-G-B, while at the same Fret you can get the Relative Minor Triad on Strings G-B-E.

So, at the 5th. Fret:

---------5----
---5-----5----
---5-----5----
---5----------
--------------
--------------

Those are a C Triad (C/G actually), and an Am (Am/C) Triad, respectively.

This works at every Fret.