Slide on a strat advice

lukedlb

I'm looking for some good advice to pass onto my mate who's going to make a serious job of learning slide a la Lowell George, Ry cooder. He's a drummer, says he has chubby fingers, and knows nothing about guitars. And he lives in Oz. He's made a good first step by ordering a SlideRig. Next is replacing his acoustic with a strat. 
What need he consider?
heavier strings?

thanks. 

mike_l

Higher action than normal.

richardhomer

Ry Cooder certainly uses heavy strings - 11s and a slightly higher action should be fine.

A lot of his stuff is in open G (DGDGBD low to high).

A thick glass or ceramic slide will get close to his tone (Lowell George used a metal one).

Good left hand damping behind the slide - and good right hand damping of unused strings is a big part of getting a good, articulate tone. Clearly intonation matters a LOT - he should aim to have the slide directly over the fret and develop a good vibrato.

lukedlb

Playing tips are always helpful. The difficulty is finding info and advice on the choice of neck for a slide player. Heavier strings require high tension and cause tuning problems. I read of a slide player using 68-18 strings. 
What kind of neck should a strat slide player consider? For example I have a long thin hand and I like a thick D neck, whereas a thin neck tires me out. I play with the thumb hooked on the low E so I need that wood in there. Perhaps a thinner neck would be more suited to a traditional thumb behind the neck style. 
A wider neck for chubby fingers?

lukedlb

Hard tail or blocking the trem off?

lukedlb

A raised nut and higher action?

Voxman

Aside from tuning changes for slide (and sometimes I play in standard tuning)  I just keep all my guitars as is. I wear the slide on my little finger as it leaves other fingers free.  I have a heavy brass, chrome and bought glass slide. But my fav is a thick, heavy homemade bottleneck made from a wine bottle. 

lukedlb

I'm probably going overboard but I like to test things to the max:
which produces a higher sound, the glass or metal slide? I wonder if this could be compensated with a denser guitar body.