V-Slide

I've been playing with something interesting. Called a V-slide, it looks like an ordinary 1" Pyrex tube slide but is made of cast acrylic instead. It's a bit lighter than a comparable glass slide. I had very low expectations of how a slide made of any plastic material would work, but I'm pleasantly surprised. It sounds pretty doggone good, actually. It doesn't have the greatest sustain, as you'd expect, but it's not as much reduced as I thought it would be by the lower mass. I think it has a little more frictional "bite" than smooth Pyrex on the plain strings to keep sustain going with vibrato. It's also harder than I expected, not showing wear or scratches from the strings after playing with it for a while. I've been playing with it on acoustic. It would surely work very well on an electric guitar with light strings and some gain on the amp. I plan to try that, but haven't been playing electric lately.

They also make a clear cast acrylic pick called a V-Pick. The one I have is quite thick and rigid, with a smooth rounded bevel on the edges. I'm basically a fingerpicker, but the V-pick works well if you like stiff flatpicks.

Nobody can collect too many bits of gear of this sort. Give 'em a try: http://v-picks.com/