Guitar slides?

[holy reality]

What is the difference between all the different types of slides available? I know they produce different sounds, but how great of a sound difference is there? And doesn't Adam use a bronze one?

I'm thinking about getting one eventually.....

edit: and while I'm at it I'm looking into getting new pickups for my Jackson DKMGT.... I want a bit more treble then these damn EMG HZs give and I'm totally clueless as to where to find Jackson guitars with non standard pickups to try.... I'm thinking I'll go active though.... I want to have tons of gain without it getting all bitchy and feedbacky and/or muddy...... and I want to have great cleans as well....

[Apoc]

Hmm are you really good or are you just an ok guitar player? I suggest you get a slide if you're really good at playing solos and you're comfortable with scales. If you can only play chords then you probably won't have much use for it.

[holy reality]

Hmm are you really good or are you just an ok guitar player? I suggest you get a slide if you're really good at playing solos and you're comfortable with scales. If you can only play chords then you probably won't have much use for it.

I can solo ok, but I'm nothing great, overall I prefer soloing over just strumming a few of the standard chords over and over again.... plus I mean the things only cost like $5, it's not a huge investment.

[Apoc]

Yea true enough, go for it then.

[holy reality]

Yea true enough, go for it then.
Well yeah but what about all the different kinds? What are their purposes?

[Elgyn]

I've wondered about this too,
They make some wicked sounds.
I don't know anything about the different types though, other than that there are metal and glass varieties. One of my favourite Guitarists (John Butler) uses an amped steel string, and has some crazy effects going. It just sounds amazing, and after seeing him in concert I'm pretty eager to try it out.

[mesa-b]

hey man

well as for the different types of slides, glass ones (usually a bottleneck or a coracin (sp?) medicine bottle) have the warmest, smoothest sound, and are what I prefer. Metal ones (steel, bronze) have more of a "metallic" sound, very chunky and really only sounds good heavily distorted. Also I think that they make some sort of nylon/plastic slide but i'm not really sure and I don't know how it would sound either.
But it all really comes down to what you wanna play and what you like, so i would try getting your hands on a glass one and a metal one (at a music store, from a friend, whatever) and just try 'em out.

happy riffing bro

-James

P.S. when you get a slide try this out: Switch to your neck pickup and put your slide close enough to the bridge that the pickup won't "pick it up," (sounds better on the higher strings) then pick the string and slide the slide back and forth over the pickup. It gives you this cool "chirping" kinda noise

[Valkyrie]

Ahh. I love slides. I'm experimenting with a chrome one these days (steel metal, polished whatever) and they rule.

I thought I found a wild effect, but Santana already knew about it on the live video I have.

Take the slide and hold it as close to the bridge as possible with your electric turned up. Then pick the tiny amount of string between your slide and the bridge. You'll get a HIGH frequency ping noise great for creating electronica-flavoured synthwash.

I play with a slide only occasionally. I haven't really had enough schooling to know what to do much with it.

One problem is string isolation. You'll get more string buzz with a slide (at least I do).

But they're fun as hell. I've tried a glass before, and it just sounded less trebly. I recommend a steel for biting electric, and a glass (or Coricidan) slide for acoustic tones.