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Slide guitar is a particular method for playing the guitar. Instead of altering the pitch of the strings in the normal manner, by pressing the strings against the fretboard with the fingers, a slide is used. The slide is a tube of some hard material. Commonly these are made from glass (or a bottleneck, which gave rise to the description bottleneck guitar), although metals (normally steel or brass) are also used. The slide is pressed against the strings (lightly, so as not to touch the strings to the fret board), producing a sustained tone which can be continuously varied by moving the slide across the neck. Many slide guitarists will still use their free fingers to fret the strings if they want to mix up the sounds they get from their guitar.
In this style the guitar is often tuned to an open chord, such as open D or open G, allowing the player to change chords simply by moving the slide with one hand, without fretting any strings with the other. This method is the easiest way of playing chords in slide guitar, and is most common; but many experienced guitarists use other tunings as well.
Some specialised makes of guitar are commonly used to play slide. These include resophonic or resonator guitars, commonly also known as dobros after the Dopyera brothers, whose company first made them. These guitars are made with steel bodies. Some have a square neck rather than the more normal curved neck and are designed to be played across the knee.
The technique appears to have originated with classic African American blues artists. Some of the blues artists who most prominently used the slide include gospel singer Blind Willie Johnson, Son House, Lightning Hopkins and legend Robert Johnson. The sound has since become commonplace in country and Hawaiian music. It is also used occasionally in Classic rock, mainly by bands, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zeppelin, that have been heavily-influenced by the blues. Arguably the most influential classic electric blues guitarist is Elmore James, who's riff in the song "Dust my Broom" is considered textbook. Blues legend Muddy Waters was also very influential, particularly in developing the electric Chicago blues slide guitar from the acoustic Mississippi Delta slide guitar.
Many consider the late Duane Allman to have been the man to bring slide guitar into rock music through his work with The Allman Brothers Band and Derek and The Dominos.
Slide Bass
Though rarer than slide guitar, some musicians have used slides with bass guitars. Mark Sandman of Morphine was probably the best known proponent (with Morphine, he perfomed primarily on a custom 2-string slide bass guitar), though Bill Laswell, Kevin Rutmanis and Marc Sloan have also played slide bass. John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin has performed on a custom-made bass lap steel.
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