slide candidates

JDE

koneguitarist;250772" said:

can't think of any slide players who use tele's?

Muddy Waters, but generally I agree. Although I think they work well for slide, if you can keep the strings from touching the neck pickup.

Depending on how your technique is...
Generally flatter fretboards work best.
Generally lower frets work best.
I have my thumb over the top of the neck, so I like skinny necks for slide. If you play "properly" and keep your thumb anchored behind the neck, you'd probably want a bit more chunk.

LP Jr/SG Jr/SG seem to be the classic dirty blues slide electric guitar. My favourite player is Duane Allman who used LP Std's and SG's. The Strat + Compressor is generally a cleaner take on it - Little Feat, Landreth, Bonnie Raitt, Chris Rea.

Buy a dobro!

p90fool

Anything works for slide, but for me it must have a tone control.
Also, I don't actually like a flat radius for dirty electric slide, I rarely want or need the messiness of all six strings being available at once.

thumpingrug

monofin said:

Anything with strings

+1.  Ive seen slide played on pretty much every type of guitar.   My personal preference is single coil pickups.  

Raise the action and put some heavy gauge strings on.  

ThePrettyDamned

Alternatively, how about a real, vintage lap steel? They can be had pretty cheaply, look the nuts and sometimes have a matching valve amp, sometimes in the hardcase!

I can't do standing slide, but lap steel is much more accessible to me.

koneguitarist

I have a lap steel as well, love it, but to me totally different feel, still trying to work out a different tuning for it to fit in band.

57Deluxe

Anything from the Thomann cheapo Harley Benton line. Intonation issues are not a problem with slide as you come up to and off the note anyway... you're bound to get heavier strings and higher action to start with it too!

ADD a compressor and some grit from your amp (or lick some sandpaper if playing acoustic) and you will sound awesomely ordinary - that is... until you practice your ass off!

Flanging_Fred

A 1970s 'Audition' branded Woolworths catalog guitar with a couple of mods (machine heads mainly). Instant Ry Cooder. It might be apocraphal but I heard Cooder took the pickups from the Teisco equivalent of these guitars and put them in strats...
Sounds awesome into an old twin reverb with a big muff too.

mattacjones

Interesting range of views! I must say, I'm inclined towards the strat idea .... but then again .....

koneguitarist

Flanging_Fred said:

A 1970s 'Audition' branded Woolworths catalog guitar with a couple of mods (machine heads mainly). Instant Ry Cooder. It might be apocraphal but I heard Cooder took the pickups from the Teisco equivalent of these guitars and put them in strats...
Sounds awesome into an old twin reverb with a big muff too.

I think Ry uses old Rickenbacker horseshoe magnet pickups in his strats. I think it's all about what works for you and what sounds you are after.

ICBM

Going by what a chap I do a bit of work for who is a very good slide player uses, anything cheap and crap. As long as the strings stay attached at both ends and it doesn't go out of tune, and particularly if it has some sort of horrible tinny-sounding microphonic single coil pickup on it, it will have a great bluesy howl. He seems to buy them from car boot sales for about a fiver and then get me to spend about five times that fixing anything that makes them truly unplayable… the best one so far was a Zenta (Top Twenty-alike) which he paid a whole pound for!

koneguitarist

ICBM said:

Going by what a chap I do a bit of work for who is a very good slide player uses, anything cheap and crap. As long as the strings stay attached at both ends and it doesn't go out of tune, and particularly if it has some sort of horrible tinny-sounding microphonic single coil pickup on it, it will have a great bluesy howl. He seems to buy them from car boot sales for about a fiver and then get me to spend about five times that fixing anything that makes them truly unplayable… the best one so far was a Zenta (Top Twenty-alike) which he paid a whole pound for!

He was ripped off!

57Deluxe

/\ is his name Steve??

cbilly22

mattacjones said:

Is there any particular models that are ideal for slide or is it simply a question of get one and get used to it? Had a les Paul Jr which was good poss because it had a fairly flat radius. Considered strat teles but fiddling with action at bridge to get it raised can be a faff... anyone found the ideal model for slide?

What sort of slide stuff are you looking to play? SGs and LPs work great for Allman/Trucks or the rockier stuff, while strats and teles do the Cooder/Little Feat sound a little better.  At the end of the day pretty much anything will do the job, but a sound or style can be a good starting point.

JDE

The Teisco, Valco lapsteel and Bigsby pickups Cooder famously uses in his guitars are not "crap" really. They were probably the closest thing available to a full range, loud lap pickup that would work suitably in a regular touring guitar, in the 70's. They're old tech, perhaps, but not cheap rubbish. A 50's P90 is not "crap" and they're not a million miles from a Bigsby pickup. Or a 50's Esquire pickup, really. I'd give some nice dollar for an original Bigsby pickup.

Flanging_Fred

I'm going to go out on a limb here and do The Thing That You Must Never Do on a guitar forum and link to an actual bit of music. Here's my £10 boot sale Audition. (Fingers crossed the link works)

http://sclk.co/s74015

- insert self deprecating comment about one's poor slide playing here

ICBM

57Deluxe said:

/\ is his name Steve??

lol

No, Gary .

koneguitarist

Flanging_Fred said:

I'm going to go out on a limb here and do The Thing That You Must Never Do on a guitar forum and link to an actual bit of music. Here's my £10 boot sale Audition. (Fingers crossed the link works)

http://sclk.co/s74015

- insert self deprecating comment about one's poor slide playing here

This is the whole point, you can use what you want, and it can work for you. Cheap guitars can often sound great with good effects and amps etc. Here is a link to a more expensive guitar for slide, does it sound better? only the listener can decide some will say yes, some will say no. 

Its whatever works for the music played!

koneguitarist