Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on May 3, 2012 at 11:07am

Great tips, thanks Keni.

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Permalink Reply by Clock The Wolf on May 3, 2012 at 11:25am

"BTW: Never stick your finger in a bottle. The vacuum will cause your finger to get stuck. LOL"

                                                                                                         ---Keni Lee Burgess

Interestingly enough, this is actually the secret origin of the Bottleneck Blues.

The great Fat Fingers Freddy Freeland got rip-roaring drunk before a gig and,

like a danged fool, stuck his finger in a bottle of moonshine. Of course, his 

finger got stuck... this being his favorite fretting finger... and, instead of doing

what any sane and sober man would do... run for the hills... he proceeded to

play with the finger still firmly stuck! It should be pointed out, however, that

what we now think of as blues slide playing is somewhat different than what

Mr Freeland became notorious for... that is, he played slide with the whole

bottle!!! Poor Freddy never did get his finger out of that bottle...

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Permalink Reply by SlowHound on May 3, 2012 at 11:37am

Thanks for those descriptions. I need to give bone a try.

For me, as of now, it's heavy brass snug on my middle finger. I can note better with my first and third fingers. I've yet to find a glass slide that's feels right both in fit or tone. I know it's out there, I just haven't found it yet.

 

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Permalink Reply by Lonman on May 3, 2012 at 1:15pm

awesome info. Thanks Keni.

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Permalink Reply by Keni Lee Burgess on May 4, 2012 at 4:20am

Thank you everyone for adding your comments. Enjoy.

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Permalink Reply by Diglydog on May 4, 2012 at 7:03am

Thanks for the comprehensive advice, Keni.  I'm using a thin steel tube because that's the only thing in my garage that would fit my finger.  I have now added 'Dremel diamond cutting discs' to tomorrow's shopping list and plan to try converting tonight's wine bottle into a slide.

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Permalink Reply by Keni Lee Burgess on May 4, 2012 at 7:26am

Thank you Diglydog for your reply.

It brought something to mine, so here goes...Many people are under the impression that the string height on a guitar needs to be high for slide style.

Possibly slightly, but you still want the ability to finger notes and chords over the entire fingerboard too.

Certainly, if you have an old guitar with a real bad bowed neck (strings so high you can slip your head under the strings LOL) you can play in what I call, "Old School style". All bottleneck slide, no fretted notes with fingers. Possibly, this is where lap style began. Although, remember because the neck is bowed, the frets that act as markers now are off. You have to really use your ear, or it will sound off.  Example of Old School style: http://youtu.be/D9M37qeA_oM 

To get the right string tension for the side to "ride on" correctly, and not bottm out hitting the frets, is a relationship between tuning and string gauge. In general, the lower the tuning, the heavier the gauge to compensate.

In general, using a standard scale length of about 24", action set (nut and bridge height) low for finger syle fretting, medium gauge strings usually work well for open D and G tunings. Although, I find a heavier higher 1st string (.016) works better than the .013 in the pack.

Light slides float on the strings. Light gauge, too soft tension strings, bottom out. A good relatively heavy slide rides with no added downward pressure smoothly on the strings.

I hope this sheds some more light on this topic. Enjoy.     

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Permalink Reply by Keni Lee Burgess on May 4, 2012 at 7:33am

 It brought something to "mind"...when are we going to have automatic spell check...LOL

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Permalink Reply by Diglydog on May 11, 2012 at 7:55am

Life's never easy, is it ? The diamond cutting wheels for my Dremel arrived today, so I headed to the garage with a nice wine bottle that I'd saved.  The neck's off in no time but, oh no, it turns out that bottles from French Rhone wine don't fit my fingers ! So, this afternoon, I was wandering round the supermarket trying to find a wine that fits my finger. I'm currently drinking my way through a 2010 Chianti and Italian bottles are looking better. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it !

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Permalink Reply by Keni Lee Burgess on May 11, 2012 at 8:14am

Dumpster dive at a local restaurant. I see tons of bottles getting thrown away by me all the time. Although, nothing wrong with drinking 3 or 4 bottles of wine either before you find a keeper...LOL Enjoy

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on May 11, 2012 at 8:49am

Same problem here.  I don't think I have overly fat fingers but the fact I can't find a bottle to fit makes me a little self conscious about it.  I find myself hiding my hands in my pockets when around strangers.

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Permalink Reply by Keni Lee Burgess on May 11, 2012 at 11:57am

ED...consider a deep well socket...although you may need to cut some off the end that attaches to the handle to decrease weight. A standard size may work as a stubby for CBG. Enjoy.

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