what to look for in a wooden guitar for slide

[richclough]

Dec 15, 2020 14:40:30 GMT Stevie said:

Well I do it using the back of the middle finger nail launched from the pad of the thumb. I think it produces the attack we're talking about. After a while I found I could accurately hit any string and play melodies that way. It adds a percussive rhythmic element and I noticed it in a lot of older English folk players but performed so quickly I couldn't figure out what they were doing. I have to stop here RichC because I'm forking the thread!

e&oe ...

Oooooohhhh...you nasty forker!   Yes, we're talking about the same thing - you described it better. 

Some other things I took home from MS's slide playing...
- Playing all strings with fingers (as well as all strings with thumbpick)
- Melody focus: work out the tune, then work out the best tuning for it. 
- Playing behind the slide - I've used this a couple of times, it's a nice effect particularly on my tricone.
- Focus on open modal tunings i.e. no open thirds.
- Letting open strings keep ringing to add complexity easily to the arrangement, sometimes you watch and there's not that much happening hand wise, but the harmony and melody are still moving. 

Anyway, I'm still probably forking the thread as it was about guitars rather than technique, so I'll stop. 

[cakewalk]

Thanks for everyone's responses. Sorry to use ingrained lingo: Adi is short for Adirondack. I found the replacing 13 with a 15 string very interesting and would explain some of his treble clarity. Also the nails are an interesting point. I do have a ladder braced old wooden guitar for slide: a Harmony from the 50's. It has a great Delta dirty, dry tone. Its action is too high to comfortably fret and my only recourse is to have a neck reset done. I am considering it. Here I have "forked" my own thread. Thanks again everyone.

Brian

[Michael Messer]

I have been playing guitar since I was a child, and have been dedicated to slide guitar and to the blues for something heading towards 43 years. It’s gotta be about 57 years all in all.

I have always been baffled by the idea of a guitar that is great for blues and a guitar that is great for slide. Surely it is the player that determines what a guitar sounds good doing, not the guitar.

The great English bass player, Danny Thompson, was once approached after a gig by a member of the audience who said to Danny.... “Danny, your double bass sounds amazing” .....Danny handed the guy his bass and in his own inimitable way, said “It doesn’t sound so good now, does it!”

I believe it is the player that determines whether a guitar is bluesy or slidey in its character, not the guitar.

Shine On
Michael

[Andymccann]

Michael is of course right
...however we wanna play the blues on cool guitars
I adore pre war Harmony guitars.....

Alex K just rebuilt one of these for me. Another top drawer job from him. Fine work. Hats off