Help a newb?

You don't need to use alternate tunings, it can be fun though.

I think an important thing with slide is muting: mute the string noise with your fingers behind the slide. In other words, if you put the slide on your pinkie finger mute the string behind the slide with your index, middle and ring finger. You can use the slide on any finger really, but I find the pinky or ring finger to be the easiest.

After that I think the next important thing is pitch, it's not easy to play slide because you never really slide into perfect in-tune notes (like when playing with frets), so it takes some practice and learning how to play vibrato is another good tip: basically it's just moving the slide back and forth across a fret to sustain a note, which makes the note sound on pitch.

Sure is easier to learn in an open tuning, because picking hand string muting technique isn't as critical. Any string that happens to ring will be in tune with the others. The folks you mentioned mostly play in open tunings, and if you want to sound like them, play in their tunings. Open E will get you started for Duane Allman, and is the most commonly used electric slide tuning. Low to high, EBEGbBE.

Of course, Kirk Lorange has excellent lessons on playing slide in standard and Dropped D tunings here: http://www.bottleneckguitar.com/

Most of the slide guitar resources I think of right off are pretty straight-up blues-oriented. My other main hangout, Big Road Blues, has some very basic slide lessons linked off the main page: http://bigroadblues.com/ The forum there is full of slide players who're helpful and can point you to more links.

Open E's also the preferred tuning of Derek Trucks and Joe Walsh, amongst others. Open D is simply open E tuned down two semitones - some players prefer open D because the strings aren't as tight. Open G and open A have the same relationship....open G's DGDGBD, open A's EAEAC#E.

I like open G because the 2nd 3rd and 4th strings are tuned the same as standard, and that DGB triad is very handy for rhythm. You can add notes to this triad to create a melody, and it's easy to switch from fretting to slide. You can do the same thing in open D or E - just move the whole shape down a string to the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings.

I've also been playing in standard quite a lot - if you've only got one guitar, it saves the hassle of re-tuning! Actually I've got two acoustics - one in standard, one in open G. Only one electric - but if I really need to re-tune it for slide, open G's pretty quick and easy to tune to.

:D :D :D

Vic

Sometimes to get that open G sound, I just tune the high E string down to D and don't touch the 5th and 6th strings when I play.

Sometimes to get that open G sound, I just tune the high E string down to D and don't touch the 5th and 6th strings when I play.

Yeah, you could get away with that - Keef's been doing it for years! I'm still not quite sure - is it open G he uses with the 6th string taken off? So he's got the G root on the bottom (5th!) string?

:D :D :D

Vic

That's what I've heard, otherwise you have that D in the bass. :)

He even had that custom guitar made in the 70s that was a 5-stringer. Didn't go with it for too long though. I could never figure why until I got my 5-string bass.

That guitar was made for him by his guitar tech at the time - Newman Jones - and it had pickups made special for it and a special bridge. Thing is though, when I thought about it, knowing Keef changes guitars so often, to suddenly have a guitar with the string spacing different would be a bit of a throw-off almost. If the thing had a standard width neck (which I believe it did), then the strings would be spaced differently, and that would instantly feel weird. If he wanted the same string spacing, then the neck would have to be narrower across its face - again something that would tend to make you think of the guitar rather than the song. So I think in the end he just started taking the 6th string off Teles, since the Tele seemed to work good for the sound he wanted. The Newman Jones guitar had humbuckers I believe.

Ah someone finally has good pics of that guitar online!

http://www.iorr.org/talk/read.php?1,277771,page=1

And one with a cutout, which I'd never seen.

Thanks for the help guys. Think I will try that open E tuning and see what I can come up with.
Is there a pentatonic shape I should use? I really only know 2. Or are they differant with open tunings?

Dude! Go here: http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/guitar/index_rb.html Plug in that tuning. Look up scales and chord shapes to your heart's content.

But what you really need to know is that I, IV and V are on the open (& 12th), fifth and seventh frets. Third fret is the minor third. That's where most of your action occurs. There are little patterns you learn where you slide up two frets to a note on one of those frets, pick a note over to one side, slide back down two frets, or vice versa, that sort of thing. Play around with that stuff and you'll find lots of classic blues and rock licks right there. Think T and L patterns, kind of like a chess knight jumping around.