What slide for a flat top acoustic

VimFuego · January 2015

Fancy trying a bit of slide and was wondering what sort of slide should I be using on a standard acoustic guitar?

bandmaster188 · January 2015

Whatever you fancy really. I find glass and brass work well on acoustics and they rhyme as well!

VimFuego · January 2015

coolio, thanks

richardhomer · January 2015

And whatever it is - it needs to be thick-walled. Thin/light slides tend to sound that way - even on electrics. With heavier strings used on acoustics, the difference is more pronounced.

VimFuego · January 2015

yeah, I got a thin walled steel slide and it sounds shite. most of that will be me, but some will be the slide I'm sure.

richardhomer · January 2015

VimFuego;498395" said:
yeah, I got a thin walled steel slide and it sounds shite. most of that will be me, but some will be the slide I'm sure.

The slide makes a massive difference. I guarantee a heavy one will sound better.

bandmaster188 · January 2015

Yeh +1 to what richard homer said. The glass slides I use are all 4 to 6 mm thick and quite weighty and definitely makes the tone bigger. I recently found an old Budweiser bottle slide which I got off eBay years ago and compared it to the slide I always use. The glass of the bud bottle is quite thin and so is the sound.

bandmaster188 · January 2015

Just to give you an idea http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee512/bandmaster188/image.jpg1_zpsyp6osy9y.jpg

ToneControl · January 2015

to play it without raising the nut?

loads of diff shapes, you need to try a few

Jalapeno · January 2015

Those Jim Dunlop US Aspirin bottle slide are a bit on the weedy side.

VimFuego · January 2015

ToneControl said:

to play it without raising the nut?
loads of diff shapes, you need to try a few

I have a nut riser somewhere (chortle etc.), was thinking of trying it on an old acoustic of mine.

ToneControl · January 2015

VimFuego said:

ToneControl said:

to play it without raising the nut?
loads of diff shapes, you need to try a few

I have a nut riser somewhere (chortle etc.), was thinking of trying it on an old acoustic of mine.

it will sound a lot better with a nut riser and a tone bar, rather than normal action and a bottleneck
Unless you are wanting a rattley thin sound

Also with a nut riser you can pick out notes on any string, not just the top one

equalsql · January 2015

Jim Dunlop 218.. just about my favourite slide for acoustic work.
Their tapered brass slides are bloomin good too.

Sassafras · January 2015

Porcelain/ceramic slides sound very good as well as having a good heft to them.

VimFuego · January 2015

hmmm, I hadn't thought about them, shall have a look see.

IanSavage · January 2015

May I plug Diamond Bottlenecks again?

http://www.diamondbottlenecks.com/

Lovely people, making slides from actual bottlenecks in the Black Country - I popped down there and stayed for about an hour, being talked through the different types and thicknesses of glass they used and trying them out (you might not think it, but there's a difference in sound even between the colour4s of glass - subtle, but it's there!). Walked out with a custom-engraved green one which sounded a bit 'bigger' with my parlour and a slightly thinner blue glass one for electric; money well spent.

stimpsonslostson · January 2015

I've got a Joe Perry Boneyard Ceramic. It's streets ahead of my old brass one.

Working in a lab, I regularly get pill bottles. Some of those are great- as many others have said, the wall thickness REALLY translates into the tone you get.

VimFuego · January 2015

cheers beags, think I'll be getting one of them.

noisepolluter · January 2015

+1 on the diamond bottleneck. I bought a Red House from them and it's great for reso, normal acoustic and electric.

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What slide for a flat top acoustic

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