Guitar for Slide

I don't know... I dig the idea of an absolute piece of garbage guitar somehow having a kind of magical property only when played with a slide. I'd embrace it.

 

I like the darker sounding short scale guitars for slide, too. they just sound less shrill

 

Let your ears and the ears of your audience be your guide.

 

Nice man, I'm actually in the planning stages of a build that I want to tune to open G and use for slide.
It will definitely hook you.

 

i think lipstick pickups are the shiznitt for slide

 

I like P90 and Tele pickups for slide. But it comes down to which guitar inspires you to play slide. I can play slide on any of my guitars and I know the fretboard well enough to not need alternative tuning. Good luck!

 

My guitar for slide is a washburn hb 15. It has a neck humbucker thats perfect - smooth and sweet that reacts wonderfully to overdrive and a splash of reverb.
So what tunes are you learning?
Also, if youre happy to take a tip, try sliding with the pinky and use the other 3 fingers for fingering scales. Its good to try it now while youre developing muscle memory, I wish i had learned it way sooner.
Best of luck with it - slide is cool. You start playing slide at a party, everyone shuts up to listen.

 

I play a lot of slide & have a few guitars set up with .011s, high action, E tuning. This was my fave for a long time and may yet be again:

 

It's surprising that someone named DADGAD doesn't need an alternate tuning.

 

I guess it depends on the definition of alternate, right?!?


To me, standard tuning is extremely alternate. I play every gig in open E or Eb.

 

Melobar to the rescue!







OK, this is getting a little out of hand...

 

While I don’t do the “high action and heavier strings” thing for slide, I do agree that the cruddiest of guitars and pickups have some magical properties when used for slide...

I often crack out my daughter’s discarded Squier Mini-Strat for the odd filthy, nasty slide line—especially when recording. Lousy, noisy ceramic single coils, weird short neck, iffy bridge...sounds like heaven!

 

SG for me. I currently have a Gibson '61 reissue that is setup for slide, but before that I had a 2004 Epiphone SG and I can honestly say that there was very little difference - especially if you're using it for slide.

 

For what it is worth, I play slide on almost every guitar in my quiver but there are a few that are biased towards that style of play.

All of the resonators are strung with mediums and tuned to open G or D. I like a heavier first string, usually a 14.

All of my other six string acoustics are strung with lights and tuned to open G, D or C. C is pushing things on the low strings, I actually have one guitar that is set up with heavier strings on the bottom for C.

My 12 strings are strung according to scale and tuning, but they feel the touch of the old bottle neck too.

My two electric guitars are strung with 10's and when I want to play slide I tune up to A or E.

All of my guitars have nice reasonably low action, I mix a lot of fretted notes in with the slide stuff (I play mostly blues and John Fahey/Leo Kottke stuff). I prefer wide flat fretboards which is a definite bonus for slide. I prefer heavy wine bottle necks or ceramic slides, I see no reason to use a curved one.

 

this oughta work

 

How do you get minor chords?

 

Almost any guitar or pickup is good for slide. Lots of sustain? Great.
Plinky sound? Lots of character.
High output? Good for overdrive.
Low output? Sounds cooler with a dirty amp.
Totally clean? Sounds wonderful.
Chimey highs? Great.
Muddy or midrangey? Very vocal sounding.
Throw a soundhole pickup on a Disney Princess guitar and it will sound awesome. Doesn't matter if it's plastic or plywood, it's still more sophisticated than a cigar box guitar, and they sound great.
There are a small few guitars I don't personally prefer for slide, usually good ones. Saying a guitar is a good slide guitar is about the worst insult I can think of for a guitar.

 

You can do minor chords on the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 12th frets by barring the (what would be) the EAD strings with the middle finger, fretting the note below the bar on the g string, and letting the top B and E ring out.
you can do it other ways on the 4th and 11th fret, and it can sound fine. Other frets sound discordant.. so a song in Gm for example, could sound awful without capoing.
In open E with no capo I can easily do songs in E, A, B, Am, Bm, C#m. Other than those keys, I usually capo and can do any key and keep the open sound. Some songs like “Give me one reason” by Tracy Chapman (key of F#) I play in open E .. but it’s entirely major chords.

I’m playing this song in Am in open E tuning.