OT: sliding stuff guitarists wear in their finger

[Darren N]

I saw someone using a disposable plastic lighter (bic) the other day. I wouldn't of thought they would be the best material, but he seemed to have it under control.

[bwanasonic]

The shell from large size Switchcraft phone plugs with the knurling ground off with a bench grinder is nice for a pinky-finger slide that fits over two knuckles of your pinky so you can alternate fingering and slide. The threads keep it from falling off. FWIW

You must have some skinny-ass fingers! If I ever got one of those on my pinky, I'd have to go to emergency room to get it cut off. My pinky fits just right in an 11/16" socket.

Kerry M

[petemoore]

Like the ones you buy...but tile can dent them..I throw them off my finger to get the darn thing off there in time for the Non slide/echo/wah part of the lead in All along the Watchtower...any flat spots or dents will make for a dead spot in your sliding action.
 A spoon without the handle...with an epoxied on 'strap' and a buncha heavy metal on the sides of it...gets clean [no wound string bzz] plain string slide because of the three dimensional roundness of it.

[Chris R]

i saw one guy playing with a bone that he had got from his previous dinner (ribs)..  he said all you have to do is leave it outside for a few days and they get really hard..  havn't tried it yet though ;p

C

[zener]

Wow!  There are so many I can use instead. I thought I have to buy one. Maybe I can find one in my garage or in an auto shop.

Thanks.

Zener

[The Tone God]

I saw someone using a disposable plastic lighter (bic) the other day. I wouldn't of thought they would be the best material, but he seemed to have it under control.

Done that. Worst sound ever. No sustain, hard to track, wears easily. You need something hard and with alittle weight. I've even used old chicken wings bones.

Andrew

[Chris R]

oh yeah.. lipstick is a crowd pleaser ;p

[Lonehdrider]

I use a socket.. Got the idea from one of my all time faves the late Lowell George of Little Feat fame, in the alblum Hoy Hoy I think it is, theres a sound snippet of Lowell. Its amusing as he talks about using Sears and Robuck Craftsman sockets, because if you break it you can get a replacement.
A few things about slide for people who have never tried it. Open tunings... Much easier , open E, D or G being popular particularly with the blues crowd. Slightly heavier strings help as well, get better tone than trying to play bottleneck (slide) on .08's. Slide is a thing of touch and sound, if you can't play anything without having a exact diagram you may have a tougher time, but if you have half an ear (your probably van gough hehe.. ), you can get something reasonable happening. A little distortion and verb sounds kinda cool too.
Bottleneck is as mentioned just slang for a slide, I'm thinking it orginated with the blues guys (ok, so I'm biased, am a blues player), who would break off a old whiskey bottle and play slide with it. Each material has its sound and its particular to a individuals tastes as are amps, guitars, effects etc. Popular slide sounds like Lowell got as well as like Bonnie Rait are often done running through a few compressors. Ok, thats the extent of my knowledge of it, I'm not terrific at it, but don't cause dogs and small children to run anymore when I pick up a slide. Another thought, treble pickups, way up on the neck and high volumes WILL get dogs and children (and bar patrons) running, done badly it can really hurt the ears, I've heard alot of that in the blues open mikes...

Regards,

Lone

[Ansil]

glass syrup jars from the cracker barrel  they work wonders just like old glass medicine bottles..  i have about 8 of them if anyone wants some

[slajeune]

Hey Ansil,

you have 8 glass medicin bottles lying around?!?!!?  I'd definately be interested in one of them!  Send me an e-mail at slajeunesse@yahoo.com we'll arrange something.

Thanks,
Stephane.

[Nasse]

:shock: Some famous slide guitar hero mentioned using a piece of central heating plumbing, non-stainless steel/iron one. But dont remeber who...

Albert Järvinen (r.i.p.) played great slide at his later days, but he could also play quite well so that it sounded like he was usin slide.

Maybe it is just the hands...

The first electric gtr instrumental recording classified as rock n roll in my country was done with hawaii slide gtr. And Leo Fender started with these guitars, I quess. The slide guitar dudes must have been the first ones who discovered cool clean amp sound, and distortion too... maybe