What makes for a good slide guitar?

[Boudoir Guitar]

beyond the usual of having a setup with a little higher action and maybe up a gauge on strings, is there anything particular you look for in a slide guitar tonally compared to what you’d look for in a non-slide guitar?

 

[Achilles]

beyond the usual of having a setup with a little higher action and maybe up a gauge on strings, is there anything particular you look for in a slide guitar tonally compared to what you’d look for in a non-slide guitar?

Gibson style tunomatic or Nashville fixed bridge with a set neck and humbuckers. All the best slide I've loved over the years has been played with a Gibson. Duane Allman, Leslie West, Joe Walsh, Derek Trucks, etc.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Gibson style tunomatic or Nashville fixed bridge with a set neck and humbuckers. All the best slide I've loved over the years has been played with a Gibson. Duane Allman, Leslie West, Joe Walsh, Derek Trucks, etc.

Sonny landreth, Bonnie, Lowell George - plenty of legendary Fender slide players, too. Question is more in terms of “is there something specific you’d look for in an SG for playing slide that wouldn’t necessarily be what you’d look for in an SG for non-slide playing”.

 

[Achilles]

Sonny landreth, Bonnie, Lowell George - plenty of legendary Fender slide players, too. Question is more in terms of “is there something specific you’d look for in an SG for playing slide that wouldn’t necessarily be what you’d look for in an SG for non-slide playing”.

Nope. Other than making sure it can intonate open tunings really well. I'm a big fan of Sonny Landreth btw. Just a much bigger fan of humbucking slide tones - which Sonny seems to be able to coax out of single coils somehow!

 

[Eagle]

Some quirky pickup is something you might want to consider. Not much else makes it to the sound after the slide.

 

[TSJMajesty]

A guitar attached to it! (With well-cut nut slots!)

 

[Achilles]

A guitar attached to it!

Or close by!

 

[fretworn]

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

A guitar attached to it! (With well-cut nut slots!)

He is such a great performer, and seemingly toured like a MoFo for a loooooong time given how often he swung through North Carolina in the late 90s/early 00s.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Some quirky pickup is something you might want to consider. Not much else makes it to the sound after the slide.

Makes sense. Kinda points towards a strat with a pickguard for easy experimentation.

 

[Achilles]

David Lindley

Millions of people have heard Lindley's work - most of them just don't know it.

 

[la szum]

How about a Gretsch with P90s???

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

How about a Gretsch with P90s???

Just because one starts a thread to discuss a topic doesn't mean they aren't already pursuing the most obvious solution immediate solution!

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Not my wheelhouse but that Junior Brown video was cool AF

 

[Eagle]

Makes sense. Kinda points towards a strat with a pickguard for easy experimentation.

Ry Cooder did exactly that.

 

[Piing]

Just because one starts a thread to discuss a topic doesn't mean they aren't already pursuing the most obvious solution immediate solution!

On my beginnings I was so poor that I could not even afford this (and I had to travel to the city if I wanted to buy it, which was an additional cost):

So I used this:

And it did the job! for some Blackmore and Gilmour riffs.