What are you using for a slide

[Bob Womack]

On the left is a piece of brass pressure pipe that my son cut and machined for me. That's the one I currently use for acoustic. For years I used the brass Mighty Mite slide, third from left. It was always too small for me so I welcomed the one on the left. I use the Shubb Pierce SP-3 Sally Van Meter ergo slide in the lower middle. On electric I used the two Corricidin bottles for years. I got them righteously during a sinus infection in the '70s but they were tight. I welcomed the Dunlop Thick Wall pyrex slide on the right. The thin walled chrome thang, second from the left, was my first slide. It is too light for practically anything. I play with the slide on the ring finger.

Bob

[Murphy Slaw]

I break the glass Dunlaps, mostly.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by eyesore

I bought a slide [for round neck guitar] . It was a Mudslide. It was in a package when I bought so didn't try it till I got home.It almost gets stuck on my pinky ,way too tight. Anyway it rolled of the table a few nights ago and cracked. Need a new one now . what do you use? Thanks.

Hi eyesore
I use Rock brass slides. I have one that fits my ring finger and one that fits the pinky.

They come in several sizes.

I like the indent for the bend in the finger.

[Charlie Bernstein]

My favorite is a short steel tube a friend found in his garden. Took forever to scrape clean, but worth it. I also have about a dozen glass medicine bottles I've picked up at flea markets and junk shops. And a wrench socket a la Elvin Bishop.

I used to break off bottlenecks, but it's been years.

I also have one of those big, fat brass rings they sell, but I haven't mastered using it. And there's a store-bought slide somewhere. It lives in one of my guitar cases now. (I keep one in every case. Hence the term just in case.

[elvisdog]

I use a Dunlop #218 heavy-wall short glass slide and everybody else should too . . .

Seriously, I play a lot of slide and I have a lot of different slides for different guitars. For electric & lightly set-up acoustics I do mainly use the dunlop slide, which I buy in multiples and try to have a spare of for when I drop it onstage & break it. I also have a titanium slide that I adore, sounds like glass but just the right heft, but the company that made them seems to have disappeared.

for the resonators I use heavy brass, plated or un, in the same stubby shape. Unplated brass sounds better with my old duolian, chrome sounds smooth with the tricone. the extra heft of these gives a nice firm authoritative tone. I'll sometimes use these with an electric setup strictly for slide with an .011 set & high action.

I have tried everything else. I can get a nice sound on electric with a short length of copper pipe but it turned my finger green. ceramic is breakable and expensive IME. coricidin bottles are too light for my taste. and so on and so on.

[gregory70]

Another vote for RockSlides. I prefer the aged nickel.

[Dave Hicks]

Most often a Dunlop brass or a Silica glass. (https://www.silicasound.com/guitar-slide-selection)

D.H.

[Jdogblues]

One from Diamond made from a Italian balsamic vinegar bottle.

[zuzu]

I really like the Joe Perry ceramic slide (with the skull on it) for electric. Have yet to settle on a slide for acoustic since I lost my favorite about 40 years ago; my friend had made it from the brass handle of an antique, heavy commercial door. It was thicker than the "regular" brass slides available now, but not so thick or heavy as the "thick" models now offered. Maybe because of that it is long since my first thought of slide guitar is of acoustic guitar. When I hear a track or tune and my ears say "needs some slide", my mind imagines electric slide mostly.

[Bluenose]

Originally Posted by BlueBowman

Bluenose with a great answer as usual. I use the glass Rock Slide (medium, I think), and it's by far the best I've tried. Been using it for years now and have had no need to look for another. Be it electric, acoustic, or resonator, it produces a natural tone that just works for everything. But more than that, it's the comfortable fit that I love most about it.

Thanks BlueBowman... I appreciate the compliment. You just made a friend.

[random works]

The brass rockslide I have is my favorite 90% of the time. It is thicker at the tip of the finger and thinner at the base and has an indent for an adjacent finger.

[The Bard Rocks]

I've always used glass and, to my surprise, have yet to break one. I like them because they are light and prefer the stubby to the full length ones. One problem that I did not foresee was they "hide" rather easily. It's the light weight that attracts me more than the sound.

Merle Watson used a spark plug socket. Now, that's heavy.

[BlueBowman]

Originally Posted by Bluenose

Thanks BlueBowman... I appreciate the compliment. You just made a friend.

Credit where credit's due. Plus, we "blue" folk gotta stick together! haha

[Rolph]

I've been playing slide since I saw Bonnie Raitt perform at college in 1969.

Diamond Slides!! Vastly superior to anything else I've tried.
Contact Ian, he's got a website. Different densities of glass make all the difference in achieving a pure tone.

[tinnitus]

After seeing this thread a few days ago, I had a detailed color dream last night about playing slide on one of my acoustic guitars using my go-to brass slide, I was actually quite good (like I said, it was a dream).

Thread also prompted me to wonder if the ubiquitous Coricidin bottle would still be such "a thing" if Duane Allman had famously used something else. Either way, it certainly does the trick. It seems Gary Rossington used one as well.

Here's something related that I didn't know about until just last year even though I saw LS live three times in the seventies and never noticed (it was smoky in there). To raise the action on his Gibson SG, Gary initially slid a screwdriver under the strings (down by the first fret, which I suppose helped preserve string spacing only an inch or so from the nut slots). Later, to avoid chewing up his guitar, he switched to a piece of coated heavy gauge wire instead. Which begs the question... was Freebird recorded in standard or Phillips?