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Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | I want to set up my trusty old USA Ultra to play slide ... but am a little lost as how to best do it. Should I pop the nut and put a shim under it, or get a new nut? How much higher should I go at the nut, and how much at the bridge (I have some extra shims pulled from other O's)? Is there an ideal string height? What about string gauge? Finally, are there any preferred open tunings I should start out with? Any help is appeciated. |
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Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | These fit over the nut. They're pretty wide though. so you may have to modify it.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Nuts,_saddles/Slide_guitar_extension_nut/Slide_Guitar_Extension_Nut.html |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | nut extenders are fine for lap playing but raise the strings too high to fret anything should you want to. Most non-lap slide styles involve a combination of notes played with the slide & fretted conventionaly. A nut shim around the thickness of a credit card or a little less is enough to allow clean slide-playing in the lower positions and still be able to fret notes. An extra shim or 2 at the bridge will be fine.
String gauge shouldn't be too light, especially if you use a heavy slide. I use E tuning with a 13-56 set, but increase the 1st string to a .015 or 016.
E tuning (E B E G# B E) is a good tuning to get you started. One of the advantages of E tuning is you already know the root positions at each fret, so you don't have to transpose on the fly. |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | I agree with Paul, a shim to start and add another if you need it higher. David Hamberger has a great book out on slide techniques. I keep a guitar in open D and G. They are very fretable since not all the notes will be with the slide.
If you're looking for the lap steel slide thing it's a whole different animal. Old lap steels from Magnatone or Oahu can be got on fleesebag for 100-300 quite often.
Those nut extenders were very popular on Nationals and others in their day but they do put added stress on the neck. I find that every National I have gotten that had one needed much more neck straightening to get it playable again.
Good Luck. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | I like open e |
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Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | Thanks for the replies. Once again, it shows what a great place this is to get good info that's useful. |
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Slide Guitar
