I'm on a number of "regular" guitar forums in addition to this one, and we had a discussion about slide guitar.  Being an enthusiastic slide player, I offered a few tips.

One fellow mentioned he'd just bought a 50 dollar slide.

I pointed out that my very best resonator CBG only cost about 30 dollars and that such a device would be..... A little out of character.

 

I'm pretty happy with my broken-off wine bottle necks and hacksawed pieces of tubing... 

 

 

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i found the bottle that i cut the neck from whilst walking by the river. it fit perfectly so i cut the neck off there and then and rubbed the edge smooth on the concrete river barrier. can't get any cheaper or traditional than that. mind you i would sell it for $50.00 if anyone is astute  enough to part with thier hard earned dollars for it ;-D i could then build about 5 or 6 more box guitars with the proceeds! (ps i also took the rest of the bottle away from the river bank which helped the environment too)
$50.00?!?!?! Shubb  makes a lap steel slide that usually sales for around $30.00 or so online, and that's the most expensive slide I've ever seen or heard of... I just use a polished 1 3/4" length of bronze pipe.

I have a 16" thickwall polished stainless pipe that I got for about 20.00.  will make about 8-9 nice steel slides. 

I might pay 50.00 for a glass bottle for a slide, but it also better contain some darn good wine. john

I get all my guitar slides from one location:  Lowe’s Hardware Dept!  The slide pictured above is a $1.50 axle spacer found in the section that sells nuts and bolts.  It’s dense, fits my finger perfectly and cheap enough to give away at the end of my gigs.   I use this slide on all my cigar box guitars with 4 or more strings.

For my 3-string cigar box guitars, nothing beats a 3/4″ socket.  It just fits across all three strings but is stubby enough for me to play individual strings.

H

 I think their are as many opinions as types of slides. ey whatever gets you their, somebody threw a great bone in our composter, that I salvaged, works well and the price was right. I did however feel I was spending big bucks in buying a $6.00 store bought glass slide just to see if it was any better.                     Cheers Ron.

It's easy to spend $50 on a slide...and each to their own, but a good old-fashioned bottleneck does it for me.  The main difference is that folks playing cigarbox guitars and the like, they are shooting for a minimal approach with the hardware, in order to concentrate on the music...and this seems to encourage a more direct route to musical self-expression...and it's all round a more satisfying and complete experience.

 

If you go down the path of expensive guitars, it's easy to fall into the trap that the sound you are after lies somewhere out there, and is created by this magical ideal instrument, slide, strings, amp or whatever. These people seem forever dissatisfied with their gear, and feel that somehow they'll find the "holy grail of tone" if they spend money on more and more outlandishly expensive amplifiers and guitars....and yea, brothers and sisters, they shall ever pursue the always fleeting end of the rainbow, for such is their folly.

 

 

 

 

Maybe it was a "bar", not a "bottleneck"? They tend to be a little more expensive. I did a quick lookup in my favourite music shop, found at least 20 different slides under 20$ (glass, brass, ceramic, straight, conical, open, closed, full, ring+plate type etc.) In other words - a piece of brass or glass tube, bottleneck lookalikes, cutted and formed metal plates.

 

BTW: "The path of expensive" - my dissatisfaction with "the gear" pushes me farther and farther down the "acoustic fretless" road. It means from an electric Yamaha bass guitar to an EUB (price of the Yamaha-$300) to the guitarron (price tag: EUB-$200. And, boy, does this thing sound!). From a 300$ (actually  quite cheap in the above context ;-) ) guitar to the i-don't-know-how-much-but-sure-as-hell-less-than-$10 CBG. Kinda proves your theory, John.

 

ChickenboneJohn said:

It's easy to spend $50 on a slide...and each to their own, but a good old-fashioned bottleneck does it for me.  The main difference is that folks playing cigarbox guitars and the like, they are shooting for a minimal approach with the hardware, in order to concentrate on the music...and this seems to encourage a more direct route to musical self-expression...and it's all round a more satisfying and complete experience.

 

If you go down the path of expensive guitars, it's easy to fall into the trap that the sound you are after lies somewhere out there, and is created by this magical ideal instrument, slide, strings, amp or whatever. These people seem forever dissatisfied with their gear, and feel that somehow they'll find the "holy grail of tone" if they spend money on more and more outlandishly expensive amplifiers and guitars....and yea, brothers and sisters, they shall ever pursue the always fleeting end of the rainbow, for such is their folly.

 

 

 

 

I found a broken beach umbrella in the dumpster. It was made from steel tubing. I cut off a piece with a plumbing pipe cutter (it might produce a better edge than using a hack saw). Works OK. Cost $ 0.
California wine bottles. Necks are wide enough for an average finger. Nice, heavy glass. I have to master the art of cutting yet. Hopefully my liver is strong enough.
I think there is a lot of psychobabble about slides, people talk about hearing the difference in tone between clear glass and green glass...give me strength.  In my practical experience it's down to weight (a lightweight slide doesn't have enough mass to 'stop' the string cleanly) surface hardness and smoothness, so the slide can glide cleanly and not drag on the strings or create grinding noises. The two factors of weight and smoothness then allow you to produce good clean glissandos and help with a smooth, open sounding vibrato. Too light a slide and the note wont sustain, and too rough or soft a slide material, and the note will sound muffled and dull.
OK, As some may know the reason for Hip Bone Bellaire is because I had my hip replaced last April... I also work at the hospital and use my persuasive skills and try my hardest to keep my hip bone "Femur" for a slide... I know it was a long long shot but hey.. what the heck.. having a bone slide from ones own leg would have been the  best ever!  Priceless!
I bought a green glass slide made from a wine bottle on ebay for $5 and got a second green glass slide free (with a cool cloth bag) with the purchase of some of Keni  Lee Burgess video lessons.  My metal slides were cut from a piece of electrical conduit I found (free).

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