Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 25, 2017 at 8:54am

If you like to play fretted, then low action is your friend. Which means, if you also like to play slide, then you need to work, a lot, on your technique, as well as finding a slide of the proper weight, material, and fit for the sound you're chasing.

Playing slide is kinda like using a handsaw: let the tool do the work. Don't force it. Take yer time. Concentrate on a light touch.

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Permalink Reply by Milt Haselmire on April 25, 2017 at 9:12am

My approach to this for what its worth is to set the action to what would be fairly high for regular playing. You can then play notes with your fingers. This gives a little easier playing with a slide. As your slide technique improves you can lower the action a bit.

Stick with standard fret wire. 

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Permalink Reply by Chris F on May 12, 2017 at 4:13am

Sounds like you need to setup for the intended playing style. 

CBGs often have a bit of bow to them without a truss rod.  This can be an advantage when talking about a hybrid setup. 

My CBGs (fretted) are relatively low action near the nut which makes for easy fretting where you do it most.  The natural tension pulls the neck up a bit and raises the string height to the slide range past the 5th fret or so.  This works since most sliding is higher up the neck.

Specifically, around 1/16" clearance at 1st fret, 1/8" at the 12th fret.

If you use bolts for nuts, you can also setup your CBG with low action and a smaller bolt.  Swap out a slightly thicker bolt as needed to raise your action into slide territory.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on May 12, 2017 at 6:35am

All good suggestions, but why not have more than one guitar? The slide technique will come over time... like everything else, its practice, practice, practice...

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Permalink Reply by Jim Saraceno on May 12, 2017 at 7:15am

I measured a Dobro string height of .112" above the 12th fret. A friend of mine has a National Steel that I measured at .120". These both lend themselves to both slide and fret playing.

If you wanted just slide you would not even need frets. If you wanted just frets .070 - .090" at the twelfth fret would be good.

Of my two favorite fretted guitars, one is a 4 string set at .070" and the other is a 3 string set at .090". I play slide and frets with both of them though I do more slide on the 3 string and more fingering on the 4.

Bottom line, your technique and personal preference is what should determine your action.

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Permalink Reply by jeff weins on May 12, 2017 at 9:33am

I like the nickel and dime method. Use a dime at the 1st and a nickel at the 12th to set the string height.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on May 12, 2017 at 10:15am

A nickel is 0.077" (spec, anyway)my ideal setup is 0.080" so close enough...
A dime is 0.053", which is high, IMHO.. I prefer a medium pick gap...(0.030")

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on May 12, 2017 at 12:24pm

What "Oily" said......

You don't need really heavy strings, but extra lights pose their own problems. If you use a medium set of strings (20~25 lbs of tension) then you can set the action down in the 0.030" range at the first and 0.070" at the 12th and be able to play both slide and fingered notes. You need a setup that allows you easy fretting (without every note going sharp). With reasonable string tension and practice on slide technique, you can use one guitar for both styles. It's not that difficult.

Decide how you want to tune the guitar (Open G, Open G, etc) then use the string Tension calculator to pick strings that give you tension in the range noted above. It will all work out.

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