Re: Bottleneck question


"Sean" <sean@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:LKWBk.1321$Pv5.385@xxxxxxxxxxx
Lee wrote:
I am learning All along the Watchtower and this version has a slide
section in it. It starts at fret 15 > 2 on the D,G,B strings and I was
hoping to eventually play it on the 12 string setting on my Variax.

Problem is the wound strings sound terrible (Elixir Electric 10's).

I never played bottleneck before so is it worth sticking with this and
practicing more or is it a waste of time and always going to sound bad on
wound strings?

I once experimented by putting flatwounds on my Tele, thinking it would
give my slide playing a smoother sound. I actually didn't like it and
switched back to regular strings.
Slide can have a pretty earthy, primitive sound. Listen to Ry Cooder: a
lot of extra noises and he even bumps the frets sometimes, but it sounds
great to me. Organic, eh?
It takes a lot of playing to develop a feel for playing slide. I remember
thinking that I'd never get past sounding horrible. At least now I've
gotten past thinking that I sound horrible, if you can see the
distinction.

I won't add much, except to note that I play more slide than fretted these
days on both electric and acoustic. The slide noises don't bother me any
more, probably because I have them well under control, but you can't here
them much anyway in an amplified electric with the treble wound off a bit. I
think brass slides are the most quiet, followed by heavy glass and ceramic.

If you are keen to learn slide, you might consider setting up a guitar
specifically for it with a higher action than normal - try about 1/10" at
the 12th fret treble side. String gauge for acoustic slide is usually fairly
heavy, minimum 13-56, but notable electric slide players seem to use a wide
range of gauges from 10s up to 13-56. I'm tending to go light for Spanish
position electric slide and heavy for lap slide.

Tony D


.

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