Is It Smart/Practical to Play Bottleneck Blues Guitar on a Stratocaster?
I notice that the book came with several pictures of a very different looking type of guitar. I am trained classically (I also play the banjo), but never really worked my way into the blues/jazz/rock. Any additional perspective or advice or information would be very much appreciated.
Related posts:
- How Can You Play Good Blues Guitar?
- How Can I Learn to Play Acoustic Blues Guitar Proficiently?
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Well John Mayer uses a strat all the time and the majority of his last album was blues. The Strat is very versatile and was made that way it’s simply a great guitar and can be used in many genres and is, for the most part, the guitar of choice to many guitarists in the rock world. John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers uses it, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Dick Dale, Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Pete Townshend and so many more guitarists have or currently do use it. It’s a great guitar and if you do want to go into the genre of rock I’d def. get a strat but as for blues and jazz a semi-hollow might be the better way to go. Hope this answers your question! Good Luck!
Sure, why not?
Slide has been played on Fenders, Gibsons, Martins, Guilds, you name it.
Not sure what “the book” is, but it may have depicted a resonator guitar-most likely a National. However, the fact is that most of the famous Delta players played Stellas-one of the cheapest brands available..
I’d like to know what ‘the book’ is that you’re referring to. But the strat is excellent for blues/slide work. Just listen to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaugn.
You can play a bottleneck on any guitar you like. Many use the Stratocaster because they like the tone. You can use a bottleneck on the large hollowbody electric guitar like George Thorogood, and get an amazing sound. Just listen to his blues track ‘Madison Blues’.
You can play bottleneck/slide on any guitar. If the guitar you saw looked metal, it was prob. a resonator, or related instrument.
Yes, but sometimes it isn’t practical until you raise the string height of the guitar so that the slide isn’t pressing the smaller diameter strings into the fret board (e-B). You were probably looking at a Dobro (which is really just a guitar with the strings WAY off of the neck) or some type of resonator guitar. Most of these guitars have a square neck (why spend the money to make a neck) and lay on their backs. You play them virtually flat. They are called ‘high-wires’ because the strings are really far off the fretboard – however – the resonator cones coupled with the high strings really makes the guitar sustain and it’s usually very loud.
You can play bootleneck on ANYTHING, but sometimes the setup of the guitar has to be changed, and different gauge of strings used to enable the more ‘out there’ tunings still being in tune (Open C, Open G).
The biggest differance you’ll soon find is whether to mute the open strings behind the slide or not.
Some good listening is the Allman brothers, Eric Clapton, and especially Elmore James.
Slide guitar can be played on everything with strings.
I’ve even played it on my ukulele. I just think the sound is best on steel strings. So I wouldn’t recomend playing on a classical nylon guitar.
That’s kind of a dumb question
A slide is tool of the trade
Its like asking if its practical to use a pick on Gibson Guitar
IF I were you I would trade your Fender in for a Gibson
Gibson’s are a better guitar for Blues
Yes, definitely. The distinctive tone of a Stratocaster comes in a large part from the heavy sprung metal bridge, which is unaffected by using a slide at the other end. Also the well cambered strings and fretboard mean that it is easy to use the slide on the 1, 2 or 3 strings that you are picking(you wouldn’t want to pick more strings playing electric slide) without getting scrapes and buzzes off the unused strings.
I played a cheap Korean Squier Strat on this, and I think it sounds fine:
http://www.esnips.com/doc/70eaf29b-dae7-4199-8c98-3b80ea8575fd/Ride-Free