Decided to dedicate myself to slide for a while...

#1 - Get a guitar with double cutaways.
#2 - Raise the action and add heavier gauge strings
#3 - MUTE EVERYTHING except the note you're playing
#4 - play/do everything slow at first (especially vibrato)
#5 - Watch Derek Trucks

Basic guidelines that will make life easier, above all have fun with it & once you get that first nice note that doesn't buzz, you'll pick it up surprisingly quick.

Haha amazefraze? where did i merit such a complimentary form of alliteration?

And no worries

I suggest listening to some classic slide material: Muddy Waters, Elmore James or Duane Allman.  Don't jump into Derek Trucks right away - it's going to be a lot harder for your ears and hands to make sense of it.  Start with some classic Muddy Waters tunes, learn the licks and build out your repertoire from there.

Don't worry about having a different guitar for slide (outside of the convenience of having one in a different tuning), or even much of a setup change - if you like slightly higher action you're probably just fine as-is.  Like anything else, it will take some time to discover "your" tone, figure out what type of action you like, what finger you like the slide one, and even what type of slide you like.  I originally liked bigger porcelain type slides, but eventually changed to smaller Dunlop Chromes and that's been it for me ever since.  Some folks like brass, some folks like glass.  It depends on your playing and your instruments - you just have to use your ears and experiment.

The biggest tip I have is just use your ears - focus on getting to pitch on every note, then add vibrato.  Don't go too crazy with a million notes at first - it's going to sound sloppy.  Work on feeling (and hearing) where the pitch is.  You can do this by learning some classic Muddy Waters and Elmore James tunes and build out from there.

One note: I love Elixer Nanowebs, but to my ears and hands, they're not great for slide.  They just don't seem to generate the tone and feel.  Probably less resistance due to the coating.

If you wanna have fun learning slide, I'd tune to a chord. If you want to keep the high and low E, tune to an E chord. "BUT" I like to tune to a D because it's lower, and I can use a capo on the 2nd fret for open E

1,4,5 blues is a one finger deal when using a slide with open tuning After you get comfy, you can go to other stuff.

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping.

Don't worry about your guitar, what you play now is fine.  Unless you play in open tunings now, learn to play side in standard tuning, more time to concentrate on technique and not searching for notes.  Learn to play in open tunings without the slide, more time to concentrate on notes intead of technique.  I had tons of trouble playing Statesboro Blues in D (hardly played anything in standard tuning in D) until I practiced it without the slide in open E.  Don't change string guages, don't change action.  Keep your setup as close to what you use now as possible, I use 8's for everything.  If you use 10's or less, always tune up instead of down, the added tension makes it easier to play.

Allman played in open E.

Johnny Winter uses open D a lot (downtuned open E).

Warren Haynes uses standard tuning.

Lowell George (Little Feet) used open G because he said open A adds too much tension.

Robert Johnson used a multitude of tunings.

Hate to resurrect an old topic...but thought some of you might be interested....here's how far I've gotten so far after 3 days http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbYwCoTqF34