Glass or Brass?

I've got a brass one, but I'm not very good a slide.. :? Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers and Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd use glass slides, while some of the older blues guys used brass, such as Son House and Robert Johnson.. According to my ears, glass produces a more mellow, soft tone, while brass gives a kind of scratchy, more ragged tone... Sorry for no clips..

I'll have a go when I get home....should be back in action about the 17th...
I'll try and post something with glass brass and steel...

:D :D :D

Vic

Glass or brass? Of course! Get both.

(And steel, and porcelain, and bone, and bronze...)

I use a heavy glass Dunlop

I like the heavy glass donlop also. I use it for electric and acoustic. For lapsteel i use a craftsman sparkplug socket.

I use brass, glass, and steel. Ya want that acoustic or electric, Nick?

I LOVE the Craftsman socket for my heavy-stringed reso.

Works fine on electrics, but a lighter slide's handy on lighter strings.

Nice thing about Craftsman sockets, they make a size for every finger. SAE or metric. Six point or twelve.
:D

I started lap sliding with a bullet bar, but now I LOVE the Shubb GS (Gary Swallow) steel. It's pricey, but IMO worth it. And I'm as cheap as they come, so I don't say that lightly.
:lol:

Rico's right, try everything you can lay your hands on.
Currently, I'm using a Jim Dunlop Mudslide a lot.
I also really like my Diamond Ultimate: http://www.diamondbottlenecks.com/

Ian at Diamond is a great guy, and has a terrific range of great slides.

(He's got a Craftsman socket he likes, too.) :lol:

One thing I have found, since I bought a glass slide, I don't seem to bang into the edge of the fretboard nearly as much....I wonder if this is because of the fact I'm playing a lot more slide, or could it be subconsciously I'm being more careful because glass is more fragile? Or even that the glass slide is lighter? Whatever it is, I do tend to reach for the glass slide first these days...

Anyway, I've decided, when I get home I'm going to set the Squier Tele up for slide, get some heavier strings (virtually every gutar has D'Addario 9's at the moment....) and thanks to some advice from Teleplayer and others, I know what I'm going for...11's with a plain third and (if I can get one!!!) a plain fourth...

All I have to do now is decide which acoustic to use for slide....!!!!

:D :D :D

Vic

Vic, the longer you play slide, the better you'll get at positioning the slide just right by "muscle memory," rather than relying on the resistance of the string to stop it. Then you can play with really light strings and low actions, and won't knock on the neck so much. But heavier, tighter strings will always make it easier, and lighter slides generally work better with lighter strings.

I'm a brass fan. I use a shorter length because I play in standard or dropped D and I don't need to span all 6 strings. I like the density and weight of metal.

All the tunes at http://www.soundclick.com/pro/?BandID=156391 are played with a heavy brass slide. I'm pleased to see my version of Footprints is still # 1 in the Jazz General charts there.

Kirk

Nice take man... I like how sometimes it sounds like a sax... :shock: It's cool.. :)

Kirk is a monster slide player! Check out his lesson sites, they're all well worth studying!