What with the football, a week in the Lake District, a number of weekends away and the general stream of transcribing, guitar-magazining and bluesjamtracking, I just haven’t really done much guitar playing recently. That is to say, I always have a guitar to hand when I’m transcribing and I’ve practised stuff for the magazine CD, but that’s all very specifically focused; I’m talking about deep, intense playing.
Part of my problem is that I’m lazy. Another part of my problem is a very short attention span, especially when it comes to familiar old practice routines. The best way to make me work hard is to give me a new challenge. I’ve long intended to develop my slide playing, but was always confronted with a dilemma… whether to struggle with my clumsy technique on guitars set up with low action, or whether to tweak a guitar for slide, thus making it ineligible for “standard” duties.
Fortuitously, a solution arrived from (sweet home) Alabama, as you can see in the picture. This cheery little chap was built for me by my good friend Bill Jehle. As well as being a damn fine player, Bill has recently been investigating the fine old American tradition of the cigar box guitar. He’s already built quite a few examples and made an instructional DVD, so check out his website… BellyJelly Music.
So anyway… this is now my designated slide guitar. At the moment, I’m really just trying to build a solid, accurate technique (honestly, I’m working from a starting point of roughly 2% competence) so there won’t be any actual recordings just yet. I’m mostly working on intonation, improvising to little chord loops. Also, I have a tendency to lazily allow the bottleneck to pivot against the high E string, creating a very rattly contact with the B and G strings, so I’m working on developing a feel for angling it most effectively according to the string I’m playing. I love the way you can radically alter the tone by adjusting the way the slide connects with the string. More updates soon!
So what tuning are you using? Standard tuning makes slide hard.
Standard tuning, Steve. I like being able to apply the fretboard knowledge I already have (and I’m too lazy to find my way around a new tuning!)
Standard tuning – that must be what Jeff Beck uses as I noticed when I went to see him in Manchester a year or so ago that he kept the same guitar throughout the gig, never re-tuned and yet constantly picked up slides and then after use discarded them and continued to play normally – not that anything that JB does is normal!
I normally stick to standard tuning, although my Gold Top tends to remain in double-dropped D (DADGBD)… must be a hold over from when I used it for “Stuck in the Middle”.
Oh, and another thing Mr Clark – you’ve been reading my mind again. Just the other day, I decided to revisit “Under The Bridge” as a possibility for the National. Then I received my copy of the mag.
Ta muchly!
Yes, but the point is, if you go with some standard slide tunings, then you have the advantage of being able to play chords with the slide, a la pedal steel players.
Perhaps we should ask James Nugent…
Having said that I’m probably the world’s worst slide player.
That’s why I like double-dropped D – using the middle four strings (and some judicious muting of 1 & 6), you can still play chords; or more likely, diads and have an implied (or bass) root note.
Not that I play much slide, you understand…
Ross – the magazine is now being run entirely for your enjoyment… didn’t you get the letter? ;-)
Steve – part of it is that I’m trying to avoid that chordal approach, especially major chords. I’m not overkeen on the sound you get when the slide produces loads of major chords by default… I’m aiming for more of a linear sound. However, I might experiment with DADGAD, where you’ve got more of an open, suspended sort of sound.
picking single notes with a bottleneck – are you using one of those small slides that only cover appx 3 strings? or are you actually getting success with single notes using the normal slide ?
PS – I have never got around to learning slide, it just baffles me!
PPS – cue for a guitarist collective task?
Just a standard-size glass slide, Graham. It’s no problem playing single notes with any type of slide, because your picking hand damping is always preventing unwanted strings from ringing (and I try to follow Bob Brozman’s advice of angling the tip of the slide downwards when playing on the lower strings, so it’s then not even touching the higher strings)
Holy cow, good to see a picture of the guitar I made on your site Ade! As for tuning, you’ve got to get away from standard tuning. At least go to dropped D. My favorite has to be spanish tuning, DGDGBD, just like ol’ Slim Hamster plays. It’s basically just banjo tuning and I’m right at home there too. :P
I do understand the hesitation to stay in standard tuning, I feel the same way about 6 string guitars. It’s “home” and I know where everything is. Also, 9 times out of 10, if I pick up another guitar it’s going to be tuned that way.
Folks reading this will be interested to know that Ron Thal owns the sister guitar to this one. Yes, only two of them in the world. One lefty, one righty. Both in the hands of very influential guitarists. \m/