Best Tone for Slide

J

Jipps0525

Power User
I don’t play slide guitar often and I’d like to practice it and get better but when I try it, I can never get it to sound good. I know practice will clean up a lot of it but in terms of sound I want to make sure Im Doing the right things. I use a line 6 variax guitar so I have access to multiple models of guitars as well as tunings so Open G or sliding In E isn’t an issue. My guitar has low action. I use a glass slide. I tend to play hotter Marshall’s in my FM9. What amp sounds are generally best for slide guitar similar to Derek Trucks or Ian Thornley. Thornley sounds like he uses a lot of gain for the most part
 
"Low action" and "I want to play slide guitar" tend to be oxymoronic. :)

With super low action you'll get that Brass or Glass into the frets and it
will sound like ass no matter what amp or tone you try and dial in. Much,
or most, of a pleasing slide tone is in the technique and the setup.
 
la noise said:
"Low action" and "I want to play slide guitar" tend to be oxymoronic. :)

With super low action you'll get that Brass or Glass into the frets and it
will sound like ass no matter what amp or tone you try and dial in. Much,
or most, of a pleasing slide tone is in the technique and the setup.
Click to expand...
I had a feeling the low action had a lot to do with it not sounding good. I’ll try one of my other guitars with higher action
 
la noise said:
"Low action" and "I want to play slide guitar" tend to be oxymoronic. :)

With super low action you'll get that Brass or Glass into the frets and it
will sound like ass no matter what amp or tone you try and dial in. Much,
or most, of a pleasing slide tone is in the technique and the setup.
Click to expand...
Yeah I agree. I have very low action but man oh man I have to be very light-handed with my brass slide. I’ve definitely thought about raising it a touch.
 
la noise said:
"Low action" and "I want to play slide guitar" tend to be oxymoronic. :)
Click to expand...

Depends on your definition of low. I play slide on my strat with normal (pretty low) action and 010 strings. You have to adjust your technique to that. I read somewhere that Derek Trucks also plays with normal action, not really high action.
 
William Mims said:
I use a thick brass pinky slide all the time with normal PRS close to factory action (definitely not high). I use to use one guitar open tuned with high action for years but eventually learned to do regular action with that favorite pinky slide of mine.
Click to expand...
Any reason you use brass instead of glass? It really could just be my form is not good yet
 
Rex said:
Technique has a lot to do with it. Making solid contact with the slide, not crashing against the frets, muting the back side of the strings, muting the unused strings, starting and stopping in tune, keeping the slide parallel to the frets...
Click to expand...
This. Derek in particular has astonishingly great control

There are lots of great slide tones out there, from him to the Lowell George/Bonnie Raitt double-compressed clean thing.
 
I recently saw a post where someone talked about using flat wound strings for slide.
I have never tried that though.
 
Jipps0525 said:
Any reason you use brass instead of glass? It really could just be my form is not good yet
Click to expand...
Because I bought one that had size fittings, was thick and heavy still, but the pinky slide is easy for me to control.
Can't get that molded fit shape inside with glass. I have way more control over the slide with about a perfect
fit on my pinky. It's long enough to play 4-5 strings at a time still, too, if open tuned.
 
Jipps0525 said:
I don’t play slide guitar often and I’d like to practice it and get better but when I try it, I can never get it to sound good. I know practice will clean up a lot of it but in terms of sound I want to make sure Im Doing the right things. I use a line 6 variax guitar so I have access to multiple models of guitars as well as tunings so Open G or sliding In E isn’t an issue. My guitar has low action. I use a glass slide. I tend to play hotter Marshall’s in my FM9. What amp sounds are generally best for slide guitar similar to Derek Trucks or Ian Thornley. Thornley sounds like he uses a lot of gain for the most part
Click to expand...

I got hold of a brass Rockslide:

https://www.therockslide.com

It fits my pinky and doesn't slop about making it much easier to use than the over sized things I tried before. I just use them with my standard guitars, no high action, works fine for the few slide parts I need to play. As far as amp sounds, anything raunchy with some good sustain and some mids should work.
 
blackmoreguitar said:
I got hold of a brass Rockslide:

https://www.therockslide.com

It fits my pinky and doesn't slop about making it much easier to use than the over sized things I tried before. I just use them with my standard guitars, no high action, works fine for the few slide parts I need to play. As far as amp sounds, anything raunchy with some good sustain and some mids should work.
Click to expand...
Yep! I think their brass one is the small pinky size one I have as well as a larger 3rd finger brass one from them.
Might have to see how well their glass slides fit!
 
I prefer an open gain structure with moderate drive for slide - Crunchy Plexi, AC30, Tweed or Deluxe Reverb. My guitars are setup <2mm (12th fret) with little neck relief (.004-.006). I've used glass slides for years and have decent technique but not perfect.

I've been getting into it a bit more and remembered some positive reviews of brass slides, so after some research and wanting one with a thicker wall, bought a Dunlop concave slide. I really like it, very comfortable and has helped clean up my playing string to string, especially string skipping.

The concave shape makes using it on guitars that have closer to 1.75mm action much easier.
 
Dave Merrill said:
There are lots of great slide tones out there, from him to the Lowell George/Bonnie Raitt double-compressed clean thing.
Click to expand...

Any idea how to get the double compressed thing in the Axe fx? I know it is two compressors in series. But what are good settings for this? And which compressor types would you use for that?
 
I haven't tried to work up that sort of tone, but I think he used two 1176s in series. Closest to those in the Axe I think is the JFET. Settings I'm not sure about, sorry. Maybe check AxeChange?
 
I like the "But this is what Derek Trucks does" comments. Yeah, we are not soaring through the
air and dunking a B-Ball like Michael Jordan in his prime either, are we?? :)
 
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