• From: Dixieland,USA
  • Registered: 2010-04-11
  • Posts: 147

Topic: Slide Guitar Info

I'm wanting to start doing some sliding in different tuning's. But what guitar ???????? Joe's River and Burning Hell and a host of others have lit the fire again.

My one guitar is a Tele and I don't want to change it up,for sliding ,heaver strings etc. Joe plays his Chandlers awesome guitars,but we beginers can't get ahold of one of these ,way over the paycheck level LOL. I have looked at a few on line,(elect. resno's) and all you find in the budget pages are a few old Brownsvilles and the new Tursers both from Asia. Anyone know anything about these ?

Next option is to find a non-resno and go with it or an acoustic. Any thought's would be a huge help.

  • Registered: 2010-03-09
  • Posts: 422

Re: Slide Guitar Info

http://chartersguitars.com/models.php?id=3

Ultimate in slide..... wink

  • From: Dixieland,USA
  • Registered: 2010-04-11
  • Posts: 147

Re: Slide Guitar Info

xcorporate wrote:

http://chartersguitars.com/models.php?id=3

Ultimate in slide..... wink

  Oh Yeah  WOW,not for th beginner though.  wink

  • From: South Brunswick, NJ USA
  • Registered: 2006-04-21
  • Posts: 133

Re: Slide Guitar Info

I recommend trying to find an old original Silvertone / Danelectro 1448 (the Amp-in -case model).  They are plentiful and still pretty cheap for an American made "vintage" guitar.  They make great slide guitars.  The action is already nice and high and they tune up to open E with a nice feel.  The single coil lipstick tube pickups give a nice clean sound.  Just add a pedal for more distorted tones.

Russ B.
  • From: North Carolina
  • Registered: 2008-10-26
  • Posts: 2,926

Re: Slide Guitar Info

I love the sound of a P-90 and slide together.  What kind of tuning are you going to?  Here are a few choices:

E,B,E,G#,B,E is an Open E
D,A,D,G,B,D is Open D
D,G,D,G,B,D is Open G

One easy way to get a open tuning is tune all your strings to a normal open chord.  Such as a "A" chord you would tune E,A,E,A,C#,E which is just a simple a chord on the 2nd fret.  Now you can strum all your strings and have "A" chord. 

currently I'm using a chrome metal slide on a Baja Telecaster so I can be bright and stand out in our 3 guitar redneck weekend warrior band.  I run .009's and don't set the strings any higher then my regular guitars which are a couple of Strats.  I don't mind playing slide on those either and they have .009's as well.  Standard tuning on all that.  Maybe you should find a VG strat that can fake all those tunings and a couple different guitars.  They really do sound better then a lot of people gave them credit for.  If you can find one for a fair price now since they discontinued it.

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  • From: Florida, USA
  • Registered: 2008-06-04
  • Posts: 1,420

Re: Slide Guitar Info

ModTourMan wrote:

I recommend trying to find an old original Silvertone / Danelectro 1448 (the Amp-in -case model).  They are plentiful and still pretty cheap for an American made "vintage" guitar.  They make great slide guitars.  The action is already nice and high and they tune up to open E with a nice feel.  The single coil lipstick tube pickups give a nice clean sound.  Just add a pedal for more distorted tones.

+100  Weird old guitars always seem to work well for slide.  Check your local pawn shops or mom 'n pop guitar stores for guitars.  I was lucky to pick up a mongrel mid '70s Gibson SG for about $200 that needed alot of work.  The frets are worn pretty bad and it needed some pickups, knobs, finish, etc but boy does it sound awesome now.

'67 and '74 Fender Twin Reverbs, '74 Marshall 1987 lead mkII, Metro Superlead 100. Pedals from TC Electronic, Ibanez, Dunlop, BK Butler, Electro-Harmonix, Fulltone, Maestro/Gibson, Loopmaster switching, VoodooLab, Boss. Gibson and Fender guitars, Dimarzio pickups.
  • From: Dixieland,USA
  • Registered: 2010-04-11
  • Posts: 147

Re: Slide Guitar Info

I belive Joes use's F doesn't he ,I think thats what I read somewhere,man that sends chills with all he does with that.

Thanks folks for all the idea's,I just I'll just start hitting the shops,there's a huge amount of them in Nashville.it's not to far away,sounds like a good Sat. afternoon plan. But dang,if anyone has anything in Nashville that has strings,they seem to think it's lined in gold.  lol An older SG sounds interesting and P-90's yeah buddy.

8 Reply by ZeyerGTR (edited by ZeyerGTR 2010-04-28 10:29:35)

  • From: Orlando, FL
  • Registered: 2010-04-15
  • Posts: 1,373

Re: Slide Guitar Info

My main (standard tuning) slide guitar for a long time was a tele w/ a SD Hot Rails in the bridge.   Sounds fantastic - you might want to pick up a cheap tele and drop something like that in there.  Can't argue w/ P90s or a pawnshop prize for slide, either.

Open G is nice to start with because you've got the D, G and B strings the same as standard tuning, so if you ever get lost you have half the strings doing the same thing they normally do, so to speak.

Another thing - I never change action or strings for playing slide.  It took a little while to get a feel for it and stop clacking on the fretboard, but you don't need to have super high action to play cleanly.  I did start using a Dunlop chrome slide on my ring finger, which I found gave me the best control and that helps playing w/out higher action.  Ultimately, all those factors are going to affect the tone, but I'm just saying don't not play slide because you feel like you need a separate guitar.  It is nice to have a guitar ready to go in an open tuning, but that's a separate issue from setup.

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