Best radius for slide

[Leigh]

Hi all,
I have recently discovered the world of bottle necks and would like to have a guitar thats set up for just slide.

What are peoples preferences on the neck radius for playing slide. Does it make much difference to play?

Thanks,
Leigh

 

[MondoGuitar]

Me too, great question. Would just like to add one:

My bottleneck doesn't seem to fret the lowest string cleanly no matter what, and I think my slide and guitar are fine -- any tips?

Thanks.

 

[Tele-writer]

It all depends on what style(s) you desire to best highlight in your playing. A neck with flatter radius will to a degree lessen your ability to limit the harmonics and/or other tones from string(s) that you didn't choose to spank/pluck/pick. If you want to achieve what Derek Trucks/Duane Allman/Johnny Winter have, choose a flatter radius (maybe 12.5 or so). For Bonnie Raitt/Lowell George/Sonny Landreth, choose something towards a 9.5 or even a 7.5 radius. A key consideration is string guage and setup height. Just about any guitar can be made to speak pretty well in a wide range of techniques. Don't forget to play around with adjusting pickup heights to suit the tonality you are looking for. Bottom line.. be fearless with your experimentation. Nothing you do can't be undone, unless a 5 pound hammer and some dynamite is accidentally involved!

 

[Dennis Layne]

Many factors involved -- string height, string arc, straight or concave slide, light or heavy LH pressure, single note or multi-note fretting, etc, etc. Kinda like boxers or briefs.

 

[Leigh]

Lots to think about then! Derek Trucks is a sound I'd like to aim for but not exclusively.
Just to get a clearer idea:
So when playing, what would be the advantages and disadvantages to a 12.5 and a 9.5 or 7.5? I'm all for being fearless but would like to get that bit right from the start if possible.
I'm quite heavy handed on the left hand and I heard heavier gauge strings are better for slide, but is there a specific height that works best for slide and finger work together?

Not suyre what you mean by string arc.

 

[guitarman823]

The flatter the better if it's just for slide, so a 12" is great. And set your string height at the 12th so it's even more level. I play slide in standard on a 9.5 with med-low action. All depends on what you're looking for.

 

[Mike Simpson]

When you play slide you are not using the frets or the fretboard so any radius can be set up for slide by adjusting the bridge to as flat as you want it, raising the action and adding 11's or 12's strings. I prefer 91/2 or 12 radius.

 

[Durtdog]

I guess I'm the oddball, I prefer 7 1/4 radius, but I set all the strings level, not curved to follow the fretboard. Thus, the outer strings are a little higher, and ring out a little more. Also seems easier to play single notes on strings E, B and G with this setup.

 

[Dennis Layne]

String arc = do the strings lay in a flat plane, or are the middle strings slighly higher -- following the contours of the fingerboard & frets?

If the strings are prefectly flat, I find it very difficult to play single-note passages without a bunch of extraneous noise, especially on 2nd and 3rd string. Reality check: I have a very old round-neck Dobro with a flat fingerboard and flat string radius that gives me the same headaches with single-note passages.

On the other hand, if there is too much arc, it's hard to get a clean 6-string chord that's in tune. I've never measured, but I'm probably using a 12-15" string radius with a 7.25" fingerboard radius -- approximately splitting the difference between 7.25" and flat.

 

[Doug 54]

Flatter
12 or more

 

[Dennis Layne]

Note to Mondo guitar: pinkie slides with concave sides or a "trumpet" shape are very handy for reaching over to the 5th and 6th string -- wear the big end away from your hand -- SlideRite makes a good brass one. I think I've seen similar ones made by Harris, Dunlop -- somebody also makes a glass or ceramic model --

 

[Leigh]

Ironweed, thats so obvious after reading that. Brain not working earlier!

Thanks everyone for all your thoughts, I had not even thought of just changing the bridge heights!

 

[charlie chitlin]

I would thing that a radius would be a good thing...like bowing a violin...the ability for the bow (slide, in this case) to hit 1 or 2 strings without hitting the others.
That being said...I'm so used to a flat radius that I get very thrown off if I attempt slide on my strat or tele.
I'm used to all those strings supporting the slide so it doesn't clunk against the frets.
One day I'll set up my Strat with really heavy strings and try to get hip to the radius.

 

[Dennis Layne]

Charlie C -- there is an old acoustic "trick" that some sliders use, including John Hammond -- that is to use a heavier gage 1st string only -- for medium gage acoustic strings replace 0.013" E string with a 0.014" or 0.015" -- that acts like a guide or support to keep you from over-mashing the rest of the strings -- don't know, but it would proably work on a Tele, too.

 

[PeteMac]

Leigh, this is all good advice - and as you can see there are many different approaches.
Use what you have at hand to get started. You could adjust the saddles on your present guit to be a little flatter. You could try heavier guage strings (many go with 13's.)
If you're just starting out with slide, the biggest learning curve will be your left hand technique - getting the pressure just right. But it will come surprisingly quickly if you keep at it.
When you've been at it a while, and have more of an idea of where you want to head with it, start modding to suit.
I've not been playing slide for long, but am already getting very satisfying results - using guitars with 7.25, 9.5 and 12 inch radii necks and all with 11-49 strings. It's just whatever you get used to using.

Good luck.

 

[Geo]

Radius of finger board doesn't matter for the slide.

 

[PennyCentury]

How about the current crop of fretless guitars at Rondo Music?

 

[Leigh]

Thanks Pete, I have a spare guitar not doing much I can play around with the bridge on before doing anything else. It also needs new strings so I'll start with getting some 13's and see how I get on with that.

 

[MondoGuitar]

Ironweed, thanks! Will try one out on Monday.

 

[Hoopermazing]

You know, the Gen-U-Wine Bottleneck Slides (and other of that ilk) have a radius. I'm thinking about getting one.