slides

What type of slide do you use when you play? I use a slide that imitates the old corcidian bottle that Duane Allman used to use.But I'm thinking of trying a porcelain slide next ,any ideas?

I'm not sure. I want to learn to play slide though. Is it hard?

I have both a metal one and the one that imitates the coridicin bottle. It's easier to learn with the metal one (IMHO) and it's not to hard if you have a guitar that's set up for slide playing (high action, and open tuning).

What's open tuning?

it means your open strings are tuned to a chord (I use DADF#GD)

I like glass slides cause their more warm, but chrome ones are cool too.

Do you have to open tune?

[Edited by Locomotive breath on 08-19-2002 at 12:37 PM]

The only open tuning I've ever tired was open D5 when I was learning a Creed song.
See, when you tune your guitar to an open chord, its so you can play chordes using only the slide, not your fingers, you can stop all the srings at only one fret and get a chord, unlike standard tuning.
If your only playing a solo or melody line, you dont really need open tuning, the slide just makes it sound neater, like in You Aint Seen Nothin Yet by BTO, or This Flight Tonight by Nazareth, those are cool slide guitar lines.

Also, open tunings make it easier when you're playing leads. If you aren't super clean and happen to hit the wrong string, or if you sound another string with the slide, the "wrong" note will most likely not be a dissonant note.

Heres a tip: stick a matchstick under the strings at the nut. It raises the action withouyt you having to mess around, and when your finished you can take it back out again and the guitars back to normal. Make sure to strike the match first, if you set your fretboard on fire dont blame me.

The tuning dictates the intervals you play laterally as opposed to horizontally (Woww their Simon, what was that !!!!). I mean you can move any distance to play interval up and down the neck however the intervals across the strings are dictate by the tuning.
This has a dramatic effect upon the runs you can and cant play.
I personally think it is easier to play slide with an open tuning though it is possible to do it with EADGBE.