bottleneck slide guitar telecaster questions

Ben Godard · Post by **Ben Godard** » 8 Oct 2011 11:22 am

I am just starting to learn to play bottleneck slide on my telecaster. I was wondering what string guages most people use. I want to be able to still be able to play with the fingers as well so i dont want my action too high, but I need it high enough to use the slide.

Right now, I am trying .011 guage strings and I raised the action some. should I go with a higher guage string. I'm up for any suggestions

Bruce Terrell · Post by **Bruce Terrell** » 8 Oct 2011 12:22 pm

You'll need to change your bridge setup considerably. A Tele has a curved neck and the bridge is set up to capture that. For bottleneck, you'll need to raise the action and make sure the strings are lined up in a flat plane across. Regular lights (.10) or mediums (.11) are fine but you probably would get better tone the thicker the strings.

Marc Jenkins · Post by **Marc Jenkins** » 8 Oct 2011 12:56 pm

Depends on the tuning, really! I recently played a couple gigs in open E, and found that Derek Trucks' string guages worked well on an SG: 46, 36, 26, 17, 14, 11.

Cliff Kane · Post by **Cliff Kane** » 8 Oct 2011 1:03 pm

I use 11's. I sometimes tune own to a G tuning or a D tuning, but mostly I play slide in standard tuning as there is a major triad and a minor triad.

Robert Jenkins · Post by **Robert Jenkins** » 8 Oct 2011 1:26 pm

11s on a fender are nice and tight. They can be dropped down to D or G without getting too floppy for slide.

Ben Godard · Post by **Ben Godard** » 8 Oct 2011 2:42 pm

I've been fooling around in open D. I find is nice and rich, fairly easy to play, and its a tuning I'm familiar and can play a few tunes with. It also is easy to retun it to standard tuning should I need to. I dont how in the world people play slide in standard tuning. Seems to me it would be too easy to make a mistake.

Anyway, thanks everyone. I've got to get a new nut to raise the strings higher and i may later go to a .012 guage.

Brian Hunter · Post by **Brian Hunter** » 8 Oct 2011 2:49 pm

When I play bottleneck, I love standard tuning. Fun as can be.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 8 Oct 2011 3:42 pm

Ben Godard wrote:I've got to get a new nut to raise the strings higher

I wouldn't raise the strings at the nut if I were you. One of the (many) things that separates bottleneck slide from lap steel is the ability to combine fretted notes with the slide work. If you raise the action at the nut you'll basically have another lap steel...

Ben Godard · Post by **Ben Godard** » 8 Oct 2011 4:12 pm

Youre right. With the nut too high, i would have to fret the notes pretty hard and they would change pitch before making contact to the frets

Stephen Abruzzo · Post by **Stephen Abruzzo** » 8 Oct 2011 5:37 pm

You should be fine with 11s.

That said, Kirk Lorange, who plays a mean slide in regular and Dropped D tuning (lo-to-hi; D-A-D-G-B-E) has his first 3 strings at 17-18-20 unwound. He intersperses his slide with fretting.

http://www.bottleneckguitar.com/

Click on the link above and then click on "watch some videos". Oh yeah, Kirk uses bare finger pick blocking. Great stuff to watch from a technical basis.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 8 Oct 2011 5:56 pm

Muddy Waters played slide on a Tele, but I never liked the way it sounded on my Teles--can be very harsh and nasal. I did a bottleneck recording session last year with my Tele, though, and it worked out great. I still think a Strat is my favorite guitar for bottleneck.

I always used heavier strings like .012s or .013s, but I think it may have been overkill. I liked flatwounds, too, like Ry Cooder. You will want a fairly high action, though, only because it sounds much better and you don't want to bottom out with the slide.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 9 Oct 2011 5:12 am

Not meaning to hijack, but I just bought this one for bottleneck slide. Cost next to nothing, and after replacing the silly little pots with solid 500K's, it's got a killer bottleneck sound. Set the action at 2,75mm on the treble side and 3mm at the bass side with 011-049 strings, tuned to E.

Steve Lipsey · Post by **Steve Lipsey** » 9 Oct 2011 9:02 am

I use open G (DGDGBD) and use the Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky dropped tuning string set (with a .015 subbed for the .012 that comes with the set).

Tuning those down to open G leaves me plenty of room to finger the strings also, with a somewhat raised bridge. The PRS 25" scale helps - the longer Fender scale makes a difference. As does tuning up to open E, which gives enough tension to use standard gauge strings...

Steve Cunningham · Post by **Steve Cunningham** » 9 Oct 2011 9:13 am

How about .14 - .68, open B?

http://youtu.be/ZBR-lmDJ1PU

It's a regular scale Tele.

John Bushouse · Post by **John Bushouse** » 9 Oct 2011 10:43 am

Holy moly, Steve!

Chris Walke · Post by **Chris Walke** » 10 Oct 2011 10:58 am

Steinar Gregertsen wrote:Not meaning to hijack, but I just bought this one for bottleneck slide. Cost next to nothing, and after replacing the silly little pots with solid 500K's, it's got a killer bottleneck sound. Set the action at 2,75mm on the treble side and 3mm at the bass side with 011-049 strings, tuned to E.

Danelectro u-1/u-2 re-issues are also nice for bottleneck.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 10 Oct 2011 2:08 pm

Well,,,, I played bottleneck a lot onstage, with my regular Tele. 10 gauge set. I used my Hipshot B and G bender, with three toggles that lower the Es to D and the A to G. Never had any problems, but it does take a light touch. Although my preferred slide is a Dunlop heavy, chrome-plated brass, on the Tele, a light thin glass slide sounded best. Playing a song like Jackson's version of "Mercury Blues," I had to be able to play regular guitar, dobro licks, and hot slide, all in rapid succession. No way was I taking three guitars to play one song! You can do it with a regular set,,,, but you must practice the technique required. Light left hand.

Now that I've retired, I have my two National archtops to play. My Dunlop heavy slide. One guitar is in G tuning, the other is in D tuning. I use the same set of strings for both; Thomastik-Infeld Jazz BeBop, 14 through 55. They sound wonderful, and last three or four times as long as cheaper strings, without losing their tone. Worth the price!

I guess it depends on just how much slide you're going to play, but I could never have played the Gatton and Hellecaster stuff with 11s or 12s. Well, maybe with 11s, as I don't really feel much of a difference.

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 10 Oct 2011 4:45 pm

Steve Cunningham wrote:How about .14 - .68, open B?

So that would be like open E but tuned down 5 frets? Sounds great!

Steve

Ben Godard · Post by **Ben Godard** » 11 Oct 2011 4:17 pm

Using .011 guage seems to sound Ok. but I am having trouble with using light pressure. I am not use to it. No matter what i seem to do, I cant get it right. I'm either too light and causing string buzzing aginst the slide, or too heavy and accidently hitting the frets causing buzzing that way. I cant raise the bridge any higher because when I fret notes, they are starting to go out of tune when I fret them. I am still considering going to .012 guage strings.

Steve Cunningham · Post by **Steve Cunningham** » 11 Oct 2011 5:05 pm

You might need to start out on a dedicated slide guitar, with pretty high action. You'll have more fun that way.
The light touch will come with time, to allow you to both fret and play slide on the same guitar.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 12 Oct 2011 6:27 am

That's some pretty sick playing, Steve.

Fred · Post by **Fred** » 13 Oct 2011 7:03 am

I used to use the D'addario Jazz set, 12-52(?) on a Tele tuned to open E. I raised the middle strings just a little and the outer strings more to flatten out the curvature.

I was able to fret and play chords in addition to slide with this set-up.

Ben Godard · Post by **Ben Godard** » 13 Oct 2011 1:32 pm

Fred,

Thats exactly what I have done as well, except I still have .011's on. I am switching to .012 this weekend. thanks everyone for your help.

Ben Godard · Post by **Ben Godard** » 13 Oct 2011 1:34 pm

Fred,

Which open E tuning do you use?

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 13 Oct 2011 2:18 pm

This isn't really about lap steel, is it? Moved to Music from Steel Without Pedals.