slide size?

[SoloBill]

Hi all,
A beginner question - I'm intending to buy a MM lightning as my first reso. There are no music shops where I live so, to give me a starter, what size of bottleneck/slide do you guys use? Is it a snug fit or does that get uncomfortable after a while? If it isn't a snug fit on the finger does that make it more difficult to play accurately?
TIA, Bill

[Ian McWee]

Hi Bill,

No magic answer i'm afraid It's purely whatever you feel most comfortable wearing whilst playing. I know folks who jam their slide onto the slidin' finger like a splint & wouldn't have it any other way....and others who use huge internal diameter slides that would fly off most players fingers in the heat of the song!
The only way to make certain of your own personal ideal slide size would be to track down & buy a couple of inexpensive Jim Dunlop 'Pyrex' glass slides and play around with them for a while - are you considering using your 'pinky' or ring finger for
slide-wearing duties?

What area do you live in? If you contact me from our website link listed on Michael's 'Links Page', i'll hopefully be able to point you to your nearest stockist of all things tube-like

Slide On & good luck

Ian. (Diamond Bottlenecks)

[Michael Messer]

Hi Bill,

I am pleased to hear that you are planning to buy an MM Lightning. Thank you.

Your question about slides is so difficult to answer. Ian has advised you well. The problem with trying out the cheap glass & metal slides that you get in your local music shop, is that they are nothing like good ones. My advice would be to start with a standard size green wine bottleneck cut by 'Diamond Bottlenecks'. Go for the model they call 'Redhouse', get the ends rolled (not bevelled) and get the two seams polished out. This will give you a very high quality 'average size' slide to get started with. It will fit on both your pinky and your third fingers. Over a period of time you need to collect a few different types; brass, steel, glass, etc.., so you can form your own opinion of which type you prefer. But if you start playing a resonator guitar with a cheap Dunlop slide, you won't get the right tone at all. They are not actually made of glass, they are some kind of Pyrex, whatever that is! Apart from being oven-proof, I don't see any point in using that material.

For the first few years of playing slide guitar, I bought and made dozens of slides, each time thinking I had found the ultimate tool for the job. Since 1991 I have used the same steel slide that was made for me by a friend. I mostly use glass on electric guitars, but occasionally I go through times when I prefer glass on my resonator guitars. These are my 'glass' periods! Sometimes I just need a change.

I hope that information has been helpful. If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Shine On
Michael.

[SoloBill]

Hi Ian/Michael,
Many thanks. Ah, which finger?! I just checked and my ring and pinky fingers are more or less the same diameter. Some of the guys whose playing I like use the ring and some the pinky. I'm guessing that's another thing I have to try out both. Is there a use for the pinky if you put the slide on the ring finger e.g. to damp the strings?

I live in Scotland, there don't seem to be any diamond bottleneck stockists here. I'll probably go with Michael's advice so I can buy direct from the website (I had already come across the link, good site). By the way, how come there are no MM gigs in Scotland either?

I like quite a range of styles from Ry Cooder's Paris, texas to Ken Duchaine, also the old guys like Tampa Red and Robert Johnson and more. So there is no one sound I'm aiming for.

This is a fantastic forum, so many of the guitar forums in my experience are intolerant (too many big egos I suppose) and antagonistic. This one is full of people with good advice and very friendly and good humoured. A big pat on the back to everyone.
Bill

[Lewis Cohen]

Hi Bill,

Which finger to wear the slide on is, I'm afraid, another thing your going to have to try and see what's most comfortable for you. People like to use the pinky because it leaves you with more fingers behind the slide for conventional fretting. Conversely, others would say that you get more control by having it on the ring finger, and also having a finger either side of the slide enables you to use a heavier one (for tonal reasons).

Personally, I practice using both (not at the same time obviously!), and choose which to use depending on what I'm trying to play. For example, I'd use the slide on my third finger for a Robert Johnson song because of the large conventionally fretted stretched that he tended to use - I need to use my pinky for fretting in order to make them. Conversely, I'd use my pinky to play something like "Willin' " because the chord fingerings I use are quite close together and the slide would get in the way if it was stuck in the middle of all that.

Experiment! It's half the fun

[Ian McWee]

Hi Bill, Thanks for your kind words (and thanks also to Michael for his recommendation ). As mentioned here - if you don't have a drawer full of cylindrical tubes by this coming Christmas....you're missing out on all the fun ;D

....Michael's comments about Pyrex slides is totally spot-on, and if i may, i'd like to add another topic regarding these 'slides'

Slide On!

Ian.

[Michael Messer]

Hi Ian,

Perhaps you can answer a question for me about Pyrex slides. Why does Dunlop use that material? It can't be for tonal reasons. Is it cheap and easy to buy Pyrex tubing in large quantities? Having said that (I am always saying ....there is an exeption to every generalization), Roy Rogers endorses Dunlop slides and he gets a great tone out of his.

Shine On
Michael

[Ian McWee]

Hi Michael,

That's exactly it . Pyrex (boro-silicate) is so easy to work with! Boro-silicate glass is available in it's cheapest form as clear, 'soft glass' tubing drawn in lengths with differing internal diameters from industrial glass suppliers, and to achieve the hardness required to allow these slides to last for a while on guitar strings, it needs to be annealed (baked at a high temperature) in furnaces for a specific time, although as we know from experience - that timeline can be as little as a few months

There are a few different ways of working with glass; the traditional way (as our folks do) is using high-temperature gas furnaces (kilns) and 'mouth-blowing' the molten glass using the long blow-tubes as seen on many T.V. programmes about glassblowing. This is very expensive and needs many years of glassblowing expertise to produce the best-quality product.

Pyrex (boro-silicate) can be worked by using the more modern method often seen in craft centre glass shops called 'torch-working' - this involves the glassworker using a small, hand-held blowtorch to melt small quantities of silicate and then shaping the semi-molten glass into whatever shape is required. This is the method used by small craft shops (and the 'e-bay' shops ) to make individual hand-blown glass products - like slides! But, as i mentioned earlier, you can purchase lengths of ready-made Pyrex tube (this is the method Dunlop employ) at a fraction of the cost of 'real' glass, and to keep costs to a bare minimum, glasscutters constantly chop up the tubes to the required length & then 'torch-work' the cut ends to take off the sharp edges and give a rounded feel for comfort.....all this would take around ten minutes per slide .

It's purely for the cheapness & availablility of the raw material with the least time required to achieve a saleable finished product that the 'Big Boys' use boro-silicate - yes, it is a form of glass (although nowhere near the quality of soda-lime (bottle glass) or leaded crystal we tone-hounds require) and it's certainly inexpensive to buy - but i personally feel Dunlop aim this product squarely at the high-voltage electric slide-players who can adjust the lack of tone into something 'useable' just by turning a few amplifier knobs & pressing a couple of pedals .

If folks ever peruse the huge Jim Dunlop website, it appears to me that they tend to steer any inquiring acoustic & reso players towards their range of ceramic or metal slides.........but that's a different story altogether ;D!

Slide On!

Ian.

[Michael Messer]

Thanks Ian. That is very informative.

Now - Ceramic slides; those are flowerpots, not slides!!!!!!! Another story altogether....I really don't understand the idea of ceramic flowerpot slides

Shine On
Michael

[Ian McWee]

Thanks Michael - I've never understood the theory behind ceramic slides either What with cookware & flowerpots.....any bets for what could turn up next in slide-land!

Slide On!

Ian.

[Michael Messer]

I am sure somebody will visit this thread that uses a ceramic slide and gets a great tone! There are no rules in this music of ours, only guidelines, experience and logic.

Shine On
Michael

[fitchmeister]

Hi

Keb Mo uses a ceramic slide - i bought one but it disintegrated when i dropped it on a tile floor. Didn't think that much of it to be honest way prefer the blue glass redhouse from Diamond.

Roj

[maxxengland]

Material, size, weight, is a large can of wriggly things. The advice and info you have above is all true, accurate, trustworthy, but it should be borne in mind that it will probably take you years to find your "right one".

You just have to enjoy the trip. And get used to all your friends looking at you in a funny way when you start toying with those shot type glasses in bars, or medicine bottles or long nose socket sets or motorcycle handlebars or......

Ian the Diamond is not just known here, he's well regarded on the Big Road Blues site too.

Where in the Land Of Blue Paint are you anyway? I know a couple of people either end of the M8.

[Deleted]

Basically, you need a real glass slide from Ian, and a metal one for comparison. The pyrex slide are fine for electric, but there's just not the weight on a reso. Being as metal is quite heavy to start with, you don't need to afraid of using Dunlop or other 'big-boy' manufacturers for that. Brass or steel is a whole other issue, and not one I can really comment on as I've never tried steel! Good luck