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  #1  
Old 07-27-2016, 12:19 PM
paulp1960 paulp1960 is offline
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Default Guitar setup for playing slide guitar

I got my Ibanez dread out of the case and tuned it to open G and I was having a go at "I can't be satisfied" by Muddy Waters because I really like that old song.

I chose the Ibanez over my Yamaha AC3M as the action is higher. But for me trying to play slide on a dread is really difficult.

My question is really do you need to have a higher action to play slide guitar?

I was even thinking of getting something cheap like a Gretch Jim Dandy to use just as a slide guitar.

Thoughts anyone?
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  #2  
Old 07-27-2016, 12:34 PM
Rodger Knox Rodger Knox is offline
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Get something like this:
http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and...nsion_Nut.html
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  #3  
Old 07-27-2016, 01:21 PM
frankmcr frankmcr is offline
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Those extension nuts are for playing Hawaiian style - guitar flat on your lap, fretting with a solid steel bar. I got one long ago. It didn't sound very good, & when I took it off after a few weeks it had dented the fingerboard from the pressure of the strings forcing it down.

For bottleneck - guitar in standard position, fretting with a hollow tube on one finger, like Muddy - you just need a guitar with a slightly higher than standard action. Many. perhaps most, bottleneck players use the bottleneck only part of the time, for expression, and fret notes with their fingers the rest of the time. So you don't want the action so high you can't play fretted notes.
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Old 07-27-2016, 01:47 PM
MC5C MC5C is offline
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My slide guitar is a 1936 Dobro with a warped neck and extremely high action, and I love it. You can play slide on a guitar with normal to mid-high action, but you need a light touch. It also helps to have somewhat heavy strings. Bonnie Raitt uses .013 - .052 on her strat's and .012 - .056 on acoustic. If I was to set up a guitar for slide but didn't want irreversible changes I would just go up two steps on the unwound strings and dial in some relief with the truss rod. That will get the strings up off the fretboard and the added tension and stiffness of the B and E strings will stabilize the slide. Playing acoustic bottleneck blues, you expect there to be some rattle and thump. I play with the slide (glass Jim Dunlop) on my second finger and rarely damp behind it - I figure I want all the sound there is going on!
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Old 07-27-2016, 10:46 PM
Mycroft Mycroft is offline
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Try shimming the nut: take 2-3 strips from a business card, knock out the nut, and put them underneath.
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  #6  
Old 07-28-2016, 09:41 AM
BFD BFD is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paulp1960 View Post
I got my Ibanez dread out of the case and tuned it to open G and I was having a go at "I can't be satisfied" by Muddy Waters because I really like that old song.

I chose the Ibanez over my Yamaha AC3M as the action is higher. But for me trying to play slide on a dread is really difficult.

My question is really do you need to have a higher action to play slide guitar?

I was even thinking of getting something cheap like a Gretch Jim Dandy to use just as a slide guitar.

Thoughts anyone?
I've found it's always a trade-off - the higher the action, the better for slide (less bottoming out strings and whacking frets w/the slide) but the harder it is to then fret notes. I typically like to do both, so don't raise the action a whole ton. I certainly would not put 2 thicknesses of credit card under the nut or an extension nut on top. Scale length is a trade off too - longer maintains more string tension for slide playing but isn't quite as friendly for fingerstyle.

I think a Jim Dandy would be a cool blues-type axe, as long as you're not looking for beautiful, long sustain, Kelly Joe Phelps type stuff (which he gets dobro style anyway)...

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  #7  
Old 07-28-2016, 03:38 PM
paulp1960 paulp1960 is offline
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Thanks for the replies everyone. I just ordered a cheap parlor guitar from ebay.

Its a Canadian built Art And Lutherie Ami.

http://www.artandlutherieguitars.com/amicedarblack.html

This should be better than my Ibanez dread for slide blues and fingerpicking I reckon. Wish I had never bought a dread!
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  #8  
Old 07-28-2016, 09:23 PM
Mycroft Mycroft is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BFD View Post
I've found it's always a trade-off - the higher the action, the better for slide (less bottoming out strings and whacking frets w/the slide) but the harder it is to then fret notes. I typically like to do both, so don't raise the action a whole ton. I certainly would not put 2 thicknesses of credit card under the nut or an extension nut on top. Scale length is a trade off too - longer maintains more string tension for slide playing but isn't quite as friendly for fingerstyle.
I said a business card, not a credit card. World of difference in thickness. Otherwise I agree with you.
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  #9  
Old 07-29-2016, 05:04 AM
Silly Moustache Silly Moustache is offline
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For playing in "lap style" then the action needs to be quite high as there is no fretting involved.

It IS possible to play with a bottleneck only - with no fretting, but one usually frets chords and play fretted bass lines as normal, and generally uses the bottleneck (be it glass, brass, steel, ceramic or tungsten carbide) for melodic lines and riffs.

A "slightly" higher action, or a thicker 1st string can help but the "art" of bottleneck is to use as little pressure over one or two strings as accurately as possible with the bottleneck putting the power into the notes with the picking hand.

YouTube is your friend of course and folks like Stefan Grossman,



Matt Smith,

Doug Macleod

Mike Dowling:

and of course "the man" the late great Bob Brozman



This is my (very) humble style using a guitar set up with low action :



Thought you might need to make a bottleneck - this is a "warning" video :



This is probably a better way :
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  #10  
Old 07-29-2016, 07:48 AM
BFD BFD is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mycroft View Post
I said a business card, not a credit card. World of difference in thickness. Otherwise I agree with you.
Whoops, you sure did...that is a world of difference.

Note to to self....listen better!
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  #11  
Old 08-11-2016, 04:24 PM
KCharlesD KCharlesD is offline
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[QUOTE=Silly Moustache;5017281]For playing in "lap style" then the action needs to be quite high as there is no fretting involved.

It IS possible to play with a bottleneck only - with no fretting, but one usually frets chords and play fretted bass lines as normal, and generally uses the bottleneck (be it glass, brass, steel, ceramic or tungsten carbide) for melodic lines and riffs.

A "slightly" higher action, or a thicker 1st string can help but the "art" of bottleneck is to use as little pressure over one or two strings as accurately as possible with the bottleneck putting the power into the notes with the picking hand.


This is my (very) humble style using a guitar set up with low action :




Great version of 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' - excellent singing and dobro playing!
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  #12  
Old 08-11-2016, 06:24 PM
macmanmatty macmanmatty is offline
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the more radius your guitars fret board has the higher the action needs to be for slide so the slide doesn't touch the fret board. In fact they make concave slides just for guitars with a very large fret board radius like 7" or more. I am getting a round neck resonator custom made and my fret board will have zero inch radius just to make slide playing better with close to my regular guitars action.
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