Setting Up Your SG Guitar for Slides
Slide guitar is a style most prominently associated with blues guitarists. The guitarist moves a slide along the strings to change notes rather than pushing the strings into the frets. The slide is usually a cylinder made of glass, metal or ceramic that is worn on a finger, but almost any hard object can be used. The action of the guitar, the height of the strings above the fretboard, is usually raised for playing slide guitar. A higher action minimizes the risk that pressing on the strings with the slide causes it to also hit the frets. On a Gibson SG, the action is changed by adjusting the Tune-O-Matic bridge.
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Instructions
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Tune down the pitch of all the strings on the guitar. It does not matter what pitch you change them to, but the strings need to be slightly slack. You do not need to remove them.
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Turn the screws on the Tune-O-Matic bridge counter clockwise to raise the height of the bridge. You do not usually want to turn these screws more than a half turn before checking the action. You do not need to adjust the stop bar.
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Tune the strings back to the tuning you normally use. Different tunings put the strings under different amounts of tension. Check the action on the correct tuning to make sure the strings are high enough above the frets.
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Drag the slide along the strings. You do not need to press down on the slide with much force. You only need to use enough force to ensure the string and slide form a solid connection. Make sure at no point the strings are pressed down into the frets when you do. The action on your SG is high enough when the string stops touching the frets when you use the slide.
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Repeat the steps to raise the action higher if the strings do contact one or more frets when you test the slide.
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Tips & Warnings
Raising the string height can throw the intonation of the guitar off slightly. The intonation refers to how precisely the note made by each fret matches the pitch it is supposed to make. Ideally, all of the frets should make the exact pitch of the corresponding note. If the intonation is slightly off, each progressively higher fret is slightly further from the intended pitch. You might need to have the intonation re-setup if you lower the action back to revert to playing using the frets.
You do not have to change the action on a Gibson SG to use it for slide guitar. Adjusting the action makes playing slide guitar easier, since it gives you more leeway with how hard you can press with the slide without hitting the frets.
References
- Gibson: Gibson SG Standard
- “Ed’s Shed: The Ultimate Guide to Guitar Maintenance”; Ed Mitchell; 2007
- Kevin Brown's Slide School: Setting up a slide guitar correctly
