i like to have fun with foreign objects

not sexually of course...but i bought a slide...buuuut i have no friggin idea how do i use it...am i supposed to actually fret the strings like i usually do with the slide?

you need a guitar with higher action, and then you literally slide. Very little pressure is needed, and you have the slide over the fret you want to play - right over the top of it.

I'm a fairly poor slide player, but that's about it....

ahh seems more comlicated than what i had thought...fun though...yea the bit that really needs getting use to is the amount of pressure applied..fun though..double woot

It is fun just grabbing somethign random to play slide with though.... jars of mustard nd coffee mugs work OK....

For actual slides, I prefer glass to the metal ones, but it's a personal thing...

Wow. The title of this thread really had me sitting here scratching my head. I've always wanted to learn slide as well but I think I'll wait until I can play in the regular fashion before I try that. Let us know how it goes.

Yeah, let us know how you fare, man - I've got a slide sitting on my desk that I've never used, and I've been considering picking it up and learning some Ry Cooder-style ambient licks.

Ya should try using a little small one sometime.
I got this tiny 3/4" slide that fits over my 3rd finger.
You can leave it in place and still play most chords, but you can use it anytime you want just to add a little extra flavor to your playing.
Plus it suprises the hell outa people... you're playing and have this silver thing on your finger that looks like a big ring. Everybody's wondering what the hell that thing is... suddenly during one solo, you just use it to hit a high note on the 32nd fret right over the pickup. Or use it to slide a chord down really slowly.
You can keep it handy by duct taping a piece of coathanger to your mic stand.
When you're not using it, you just hold your finger over the coathanger and let is slide off.
When you want to use it again, just stick your finger in and it fits back in place.

Awh... I feel cheated. lured to a thread with high expectations.. only to be let down... bait and switched again.

Makes you appreciate what guys like Duane Allman, Robert Randolph, and Eric Sardinas do... haha

I mess around quite a bit on slide but I don't normally tune my guitars to open tunings. I usually just drop down to D and us the slide on the top 3 strings for rhythm type stuff... and do the lead with my fingers on the lower strings.

Just like playing normal 6 strings, there are those certain techniques that you have to get use to... Such as muting with your pinky and ring fingers behind the slide to minimize noise when you don't want it when you're coming off the strings or going onto the strings. If you really want to appreciate the tone of slide guitar go to a local shop and pick up a resonator. Those things are fun to play slide on!

keep in mind that plain standard tuning doesnt always sound great on slide..

try open tunings like open D. thats my fav for slide.

one of my buddies has just bought himself a National Resonator...this is a big deal here! I dunno how common they are in Usa, but before richard got his I had only ever seen a National in books (didn't even come across one in London, but that said, I didn't really look).

He got one with a square neck, for lap steel, and wow! I want a lap steel after hearing that thing...I couldnt afford a National, but I'm looking into a Fender electric lap steel...could be fun.

the one i got is made out of pyrex glass...sounds especially good over harmonics with a little slide vibrato...i played it over EGDF#BF# it was fun...tho the action on my electric guitar is way too low...but yea messing arnd with it over the pickups , that was something...i tend to play it more like a lap steel tho..for now... :D