How to Make a Guitar Slide

A guitar slide is a great tool for blues and country playing. Playing with a slide allows a guitarist to continuously alter his tone, creating bluesy bends, twanging vibratos and other effects. The material used greatly affects the tone the slide produces, as does the size and shape of the slide. Bottle neck slides were extremely popular homemade models among early blues guitarists, and many still use them today.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Bottle
• Glass cutter
• Gloves
• Goggles
• Paper bag
• Water
• Sidewalk
• Sand paper

1. Find a bottle for your slide. Most slides are made from wine bottles with thick necks that are either straight or very slightly tapered. Which slide is best for you is a matter of preference.

2. Use a glass cutter to make a scratch around the neck of a glass bottle right before it attaches to the main body of the bottle. The line should be straight and unbroken all the way around the neck.

3. Put on gloves and goggles. Holding the bottle by the handle, smash it against something hard. The bottle will break, leaving a somewhat jagged guitar slide in your hand. You may want to hold the bottle inside a paper bag to catch the debris when it shatters.

4. Wet the jagged edge of the slide and grind it against the sidewalk until most of the sharp edges are gone. The sidewalk works like very coarse sandpaper, rounding off the roughest parts of the break.

5. Sand the rough edge down more with sandpaper. Start with fairly coarse grain, then use finer and finer grained paper until you have a finish you like. You don't have to get it completely smooth unless you want it to be.