• From: montreal, quebec
  • Registered: 2007-04-17
  • Posts: 327

Topic: Slide

Any slide guitar players out there. This is a realitvly new thing for me. Any advise would be appericiated

what a long strange trip it's been
  • From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Re: Slide

Bonjour Patrick, how are you, did you receive your MARTIN, and?????, it must be a great guitar.
I was in the music store last Saturday, and being a good customer, they even let me play guitars, you can only admire in a locked transparent closet.
This time it was a VERY expensive SANTA CRUZ, a brand more promoted for fingerpicking, but also for strumming.
There was, and this is almost never to admire in a guitar store (here in Belgium) a MARTIN D-35.
They had a D-45 too, 6000€ as far as I understood not brandnew, but used by somebody who bought it brandnew, and bringing it back after 1-2 weeks. ( Probably too expensive).
About playing slide? I can play some slide, using an open tuning, like open D or G, still it looks weird to me, taking one of my guitars, D tuning, and you can play using the frets, playing 2nd or 10th fret. Not having a steel guitar, and not intending to buy one, you can create BEAUTIFUL sounds with a bottleneck. I think that most of guitarists playing slide use open tunings, you are even able to play a certain song using this method

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

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3 Reply by Bo diddley (edited by Bo diddley 2007-08-18 08:51:37)

  • From: Dover, kent, England.
  • Registered: 2007-05-07
  • Posts: 22

Re: Slide

I was going to put a thread up about this. I was just wondering why pro players go up and down the fret board? I'm no stranger to playing myself, I have loads of songs I know, but only use the same top 4 frets, apart from a couple where I put the capo on 6 & 4.

Am I missing something here? i.e. what can you play by going up and down the frets that you can't on the normal  first 4 frets that most people play, and what advantage is there to slide playing? sorry if it sounds a stupid question, but I'm self taught, and never had any pro teaching. smile

Insanity is just a natural adaption to an insane world.

Bo diddley's Website

  • From: Belfast, Northern Ireland
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 338

Re: Slide

The things I took longest to learn playing slide were :-

Play in an open tuning (Doh - but if you don't know it simply won't happen !).

Play directly above the frets and

Keep the slide moving all the time.


You can play slide guitar in normal position or go country style and lie it across your lap. Slide guitar can really sing when it's played right. The old blues stuff was all fingerpicked while later electric was flatpicked.

As far as I'm concerned, the finest ever slide guitarist is Tut Taylor. He played country style with a flatpick on a square-necked Dobro. Check out his album "Friar Tut" at http://webpages.charter.net/tutbro/tutfriar.html . There are audio snippets of most of the tracks. He is playing with Norman Blake and Sam Bush - the Trinity !!!

"What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understandin' ."    Elvis Costello

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