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1,773 posts
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Post by MartinB on Feb 17, 2017 16:53:16 GMT
What tunings do you use?
I like playing slide (no good at it though)
I play in standard open D, Elmore James "Dust my blues" is about the size of it.
I have a brass Dunlop slide I use on my ring finger and a glass slide I don't remember the make of that I can use on my pinky, tbh I can't really hear too much of a difference between them. I did used to use my brother's steel slide but it has a horrible scratchy sound to my ears.
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DefJef
THBC Moderator
Due to musical differences I've decided I can't work with myself any more.
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Post by DefJef on Feb 17, 2017 17:16:13 GMT
What tunings do you use? I like playing slide (no good at it though) I play in standard open D, Elmore James "Dust my blues" is about the size of it. I have a brass Dunlop slide I use on my ring finger and a glass slide I don't remember the make of that I can use on my pinky, tbh I can't really hear too much of a difference between them. I did used to use my brother's steel slide but it has a horrible scratchy sound to my ears. Hi there MartinB . Slide is a whole different world and can sometimes seem quite restrictive at the beginning. It takes quite some getting used to and I'm not really there yet. I sometimes feel a bit of a blues fraud when I'm doing it (I do not live in Louisianna) and have my eyes set on trying the very tricky George Harrison approach which was not at all bluesy, and was very accurate, hardly ever falling away from the target note. My favourite slide has been a piece of mysterious steel tubing found on the floor of a Honda workshop back in the eighties. It has a hole in the side for some reason and some kind of gearing grooves etched onto the inside like deep rifling. The grooves help the tube to grip my finger and the hole is handy if I'm lap steeling 'cos I can wedge the tip of my finger into it. But it's flippin' heavy and I cannot whack it on my pinky 'cos I can't control it. I do have a glass bottle one as well but that gives me a sweaty finger. I'm trying to incorporate some electric slide leads into our live songs so I'm not planning on changing the tunings from standard on those. When I'm just noodling I have tried open D but it always seems to lead to sadness and open G which is a bit brighter and I can mix with Keith Richards style Start Me Up style fretted riffs. Sometimes I just drop the top and/or bottom D. I did try a weird C# tuning once but I could only seem to play one tune in it so that had to go. I have found this little gadget useful though for using a guitar as a temporary lap steel.
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1,773 posts
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Post by MartinB on Feb 17, 2017 17:35:53 GMT
There are a few Elliot Smith songs in open D down a step, maybe it does lend itself to melancholy.
I've never actually tried open G as far as I can remember, though I have my share of blank periods.
Never tried to do it lap steel style.
I used to know the slide solo to "Scar tissue" RHCP, it isn't particularly complicated, that was standard tuning.
I don't have any handy chunks of metal but I think I recall using one of my Zippos once.
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