Fingerstyle or slide?

[resolive]

I'm just curious how people here play their instruments: do you play mostly slide or do you play mostly fingerstyle? If you do both, how is your instrument setup so that you can play with your fingers comfortably, but at the same time have either a high action or a heaver string gauge or both so that you can easily play the slide as well?

[petej]

practice,till you get used to it,over time it will become second nature
petej

[Michael Messer]

It is all a personal taste thing, but to play slide and fingerstyle you have to have a compromise with string height and string gauge that works for both. There are numerous threads on this forum that deal with this question. The most common setup for this is something around 2.5 to 3.5mm at the 12th fret and medium gauge strings. My own setup for a compromise fingerstyle & slide setup is 4mm at the 12th fret. My guitar frets perfectly in tune, but has enough height for me to dig in with the slide.

It is all trial & error and something that will come over time.

Shine On
Michael

[Deleted]

I'm interested in songs that combine both slide and fretting -- it seems like most songs are all one or the other. Any suggestions of good starter Open G songs that combine them?

I've noticed that it's easier to slide on my resonator, which has a flatter fretboard and HEAVY strings), and easier to fret on my (non-reso) parlor guitar, which has a more pronounced radius, and lighter gauge strings. I'm thinking of replacing the High E (well, D since I'm playing Open G) with a heavier guage to make it easier to slide with.

[resolive]

Not exactly practical if you're in a band but... I guess tuning up or down to vary the strings tension to suit fingers or slide would work as well? I sometimes tune a half step down to help, is a full step up too much for slide?

I guess I need to check my action just to see...

[slidefever]

If you're in a band and have the compromise set up as suggested, you can play both finger style and slide in any key without too much trouble. If you go for thinner strings which are easier to play finger style, then you compromise the slide tone depending on the tuning you are using. As petej says, you'll get used to it if you ...........practice...practice.......practice. There are options with different brands of string which come up to pitch at a lower tension which in turn means easier to play whilst preserving the fat slide tone. And you're right, not practical to keep tuning up and down, strings will break.

[Deleted]

Well, I'm a couch player for the moment, and in my last band it was just me and a drummer, so no worries about tuning. Tuning down to Open E works great on my reso -just the right tension to allow me to fret it (although I'm keeping the action fairly high), still sounds great on slide and -- big bonus -- it makes it a lot easier to sing.

Plus, I'm really getting into Robert Belfour -- he didn't seem bothered by not being perfectly in tune, so why should I? ;-D

I'd be afraid to put strings as heavy as this on my acoustic parlor though.

[slidefever]

You could consider highish action lower tuning and use a capo?

[Deleted]

I don't need to play in tune with the original recordings -- I never understood why people insist on doing that, to tell you the truth. They didn't have electronic tuners back then, but we do! Anyway, my set-up's working for me pretty well these days (although I retuned the guitar to Open F).

Now I'm looking for interesting songs/tabs to play that combine fretting and sliding.

[resolive]

I can't remember what's my string gauge for the life of me, guess it's time to put on some new ones anyway, it's been a while...

Action at 12th fret is about 2.5-3 mm on the low E string, so that's good. However the low E string all the way to the G string were kind of sitting out of their slots at the nut. They seemed quite high so I figured I should file the slots a little bit to ease chords fretting. I think it helped. Except I filed the D string slot a bit too much! It was buzzing a little if I dug in too much. Not sure if anyone has ever heard of Bondic (plastic weld, hardens in about 4 seconds under UV light) but it worked like a charm to re-fill the slot! It can also be filed, it worked very well and I hear no change in tone...

[Deleted]

Mar 30, 2015 9:23:31 GMT @mickeyz said:

Any suggestions of good starter Open G songs that combine them?

Try some son house - death letter and empire state require some fretting.
TT

[Deleted]

Ah, I love Son House -- I'm still trying to get at the secret behind Dry Spell Blues. Never sounds quite right when I play it. Maybe I'm not thrashing the guitar hard enough?

[bod]

Apr 4, 2015 10:16:24 GMT @mickeyz said:

Ah, I love Son House -- I'm still trying to get at the secret behind Dry Spell Blues. Never sounds quite right when I play it. Maybe I'm not thrashing the guitar hard enough?

Maybe, but I noticed the other day that you said (above)

I don't need to play in tune with the original recordings -- I never understood why people insist on doing that, to tell you the truth. They didn't have electronic tuners back then, but we do!

I'm no expert, but to my mind (and ear), one reason for playing in tune with the original - assuming one is aiming at the original sound - is that the numbers often don't sound quite right unless you do. (Sorry if this is labouring the obvious... Two possible levels to this: 1) pitch, tension and feel of strings factoring in, 2) open tuning thirds may need to be between natural and flat in a way that my electronic tuner doesn't really help with... )      

[Deleted]

On this particular song, there's something in the ryhthm I'm just not getting. I've listened to the song dozens of times, played along with it (in tune with it) and listened to CW Stoneking's version of it as well. It's still escaping me. Seems like a pretty simple song too!

In general, I find it more interesting to work up my own versions of these classics, rather than try to imitate these gentlemen - whose lives and voices are so far different from my own. But you're right, I tend to start out by trying to work along with the original, in the proper pitch, etc.

Usually I'm fairly satisfied with the results I'm getting. Except this song -- which is a shame, because it's one of my favorites. I'll keep plugging away at it though.

[resolive]

Seems like Rainer has some with fingerstyle and slide too...