Considerations for Selecting a Bottleneck Slide for Guitar
Materials
Glass - In my opinion, glass tends to offer the best tone due to it's density. Thick wall quality glass from a wine bottleneck has a desirable heavier weight than the lighter glass found on beer bottles.
Metal - Brass or steel are the most common. Metal has the advantage of not breaking if accidentally dropped. Avoid light weight thin wall slides. They tend to float on the strings, instead of riding correctly and produce a weak tone.
Bone - Serious Mojo factor. Bone tends to be slightly softer / not so bright, but with more of a haunting tone. Mississippi Fred McDowell wore a beef bone ring.
Ceramic/Porcelain - The material varies. Usually lighter in weight, but still dense. They tend to be surprisingly bright.
Size
I prefer a snug fit. Some like it loose and floppy. Knowing my pinky ring size is a 9 (3/4") makes selecting possible options for slides easy by simply measuring the opening for my finger. BTW: Never stick your finger in a bottle. The vacuum will cause your finger to get stuck. LOL
Length
I like the slide to be long enough that it is possible to bar across all the strings. Cigar Box guitars with 3 or 4 strings have fingerboards not as wide as a standard 6 string. A stubby slide may be better.
Which Finger?
I would suggest using the pinky or ring. This allows for usage of the other fingers to play notes and bar chords. Although, if you were going to be playing mainly lead guitar while being backed by a band, the middle or index can work too.
Making your own Slide
Search the internet for other instructions. Laying the bottle on it's side, I simply drew a line around the bottleneck where I wanted to cut it. Using a hacksaw, I cut while turning the bottle round and round. After a long time, this created a stress point and the bottle just snapped. Then using crocus cloth, I polished the lip smooth. There are much better easier methods, but this worked for me.
My Collection
A - Vintage Mateus Wine: Made by me in the 1980s.
B - Keni Lee Model: Made by www.ebay.com Search: willy's slides
C - BonerZ: Made by www.ebay.com Search: bonerz slide
D - Mojobone Works: Made by www.facebook.com Search: Randy Bretz
E - Titanium Bottleneck: Made by Bill Helferich
F - 3/4" Deep Well Socket: Cut down to reduce weight by Bill Helferich
G - Dunlop Rev Willy's: commercially available
H - Vintage Brown Glass Pill Bottle: Flea market find
I - 1970s Brass: Made by Mighty Mite (like used by Sam Mitchell)
Lessons
Instructional Video CDs with email student support
CD 1 - CD 3: Open D and G tuning on 6 string guitar (CD 1, 3 string CBG too)
CD 4 - CD 6: 3 and 4 string Cigar Box guitar
www.ebay.com Search: keni lee
Replies
ED...consider a deep well socket...although you may need to cut some off the end that attaches to the handle to decrease weight. A standard size may work as a stubby for CBG. Enjoy.
I had one hand painted glass slide I got for a present. It fit and worked well, but met its end on my tile kitchen floor one day. It was beautiful.
Life's never easy, is it ? The diamond cutting wheels for my Dremel arrived today, so I headed to the garage with a nice wine bottle that I'd saved. The neck's off in no time but, oh no, it turns out that bottles from French Rhone wine don't fit my fingers ! So, this afternoon, I was wandering round the supermarket trying to find a wine that fits my finger. I'm currently drinking my way through a 2010 Chianti and Italian bottles are looking better. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it !
Same problem here. I don't think I have overly fat fingers but the fact I can't find a bottle to fit makes me a little self conscious about it. I find myself hiding my hands in my pockets when around strangers.
Dumpster dive at a local restaurant. I see tons of bottles getting thrown away by me all the time. Although, nothing wrong with drinking 3 or 4 bottles of wine either before you find a keeper...LOL Enjoy
It brought something to "mind"...when are we going to have automatic spell check...LOL
Thank you Diglydog for your reply.
It brought something to mine, so here goes...Many people are under the impression that the string height on a guitar needs to be high for slide style.
Possibly slightly, but you still want the ability to finger notes and chords over the entire fingerboard too.
Certainly, if you have an old guitar with a real bad bowed neck (strings so high you can slip your head under the strings LOL) you can play in what I call, "Old School style". All bottleneck slide, no fretted notes with fingers. Possibly, this is where lap style began. Although, remember because the neck is bowed, the frets that act as markers now are off. You have to really use your ear, or it will sound off. Example of Old School style: http://youtu.be/D9M37qeA_oM
To get the right string tension for the side to "ride on" correctly, and not bottm out hitting the frets, is a relationship between tuning and string gauge. In general, the lower the tuning, the heavier the gauge to compensate.
In general, using a standard scale length of about 24", action set (nut and bridge height) low for finger syle fretting, medium gauge strings usually work well for open D and G tunings. Although, I find a heavier higher 1st string (.016) works better than the .013 in the pack.
Light slides float on the strings. Light gauge, too soft tension strings, bottom out. A good relatively heavy slide rides with no added downward pressure smoothly on the strings.
I hope this sheds some more light on this topic. Enjoy.
Thanks for the comprehensive advice, Keni. I'm using a thin steel tube because that's the only thing in my garage that would fit my finger. I have now added 'Dremel diamond cutting discs' to tomorrow's shopping list and plan to try converting tonight's wine bottle into a slide.
Thank you everyone for adding your comments. Enjoy.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next