Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have seen little written about Harrison's slide guitar playing. Did he have a prefered tuning and is there a reference for this? My ear tells me that he is using standard tuning.

Peter, I'm definitely not a slide player but I did manage to figure out Your Love Is Forever off the album titled George Harrison and that is done in a standard D tuning(drop the low E down to D, etc.). That's one great song. I think Brainwashed is one of his finest albums with just incredible slide playing. George was so humble about his guitar playing but we all know he was fantastic. I thought this was so cool in the Guitar Player interview from November of '87 -
'You can't do a 12-bar blues the same way twice, so they say. There's things that Eric can do where it would take me all night to get it right -
he can knock it off in one take. Because he plays all the time. But then again, when we're listening to some of my slide bits, he'll look at me, and I know he likes it. And that, for me, if Eric gives me the thumbs up on a slide solo, it means more than half the population.'

I think on My Sweet Lord the B string is tuned down to A#...
Now I'm not sure about that completly, but I think that's how it is.

I always thought it very curious how unique his slide style was, as it's really just metal (slide) on metal (string), but one could always tell it was George. Also thought it odd that what seems like 90% of any solos he did after the Beatles, he did on slide. It's almost as if he was intimidated by 'faster' guitarists. Kinda like why John basically dropped the harmonica after about '65, at least on what I remember hearing. anybody?

Umm actually I've read that George prefered a glass slide to a metal one. And from what I can hear (and have seen) he uses glass all the time.

I'm a big fan of his solo career and I'm really impressed with his slide ability.
Cloud 9 is one great slide tune, I like how he uses more then one slide track too, there's usually more then one guitar to listen to in his songs. Crackerbox Palace is another good example of his creative slide playing.

If you get a chance to see his Dark Horse Years DVD you can see him play Cloud 9 from Live In Japan, the DVD is worth it just for the Live In Japan section in my opinion.

I've never bothered trying to figure out much slide playing, especially since it doesn't realy work out on the RIC, but he mostly uses a standard tuning and I'm guessing there's many exceptions to that.

This may have little importance, because I don't know what they're all like, but I have a 1965 Strat (not Sonic Blue though) and it's just amazing for slide. I know he very often used Rocky for his slide work, so maybe it was something with those guitars that helped the sound.

Strats are terrific slide guitars and IMO sound best out of phase. I've got a '59 Duo Sonic that I got from Ry Cooder back in '81. When I pulled it out of its case, it was set up with a .013 HEAVY set and tuned to an open E6, apparently one of his favorite tunings.

Duo Sonics back then were wired very interestingly, especially considering the era...the two single-coils are wired in reverse from each other, so that when both pups are "on", in effect, you have a humbucking guitar. Ry had this guitar modified sometime around '77 by Lloyd Baggs, with a DPST out-of-phase switch which eliminates the reverse polarity if desired. Talk about snarl!

George was my Fave slide player hands down, 2nd is David Lindley, who was Clyde Browne's slide player and could make his Rick BD's sing like an Angel.

Ry is my favorite; Lindley a very close second. It's a real experience to see either in a smaller venue. Ry is technically excellent, but reserved and professorial. Lindley kicks a**! He just lights a fire and screams! The room generally goes nuts and breaks into a sweat. Have you heard his version of "National Holiday" done Jimmy Stewart-style?

When you guys play slide, do you just use a guitar setup normally, or do you have the guitar setup for slide specifically? I know that if you set it up for slide with a higher nut and higher action, it is easier to play slide on it, but I've never done it myself and I have issues playing slide on my normally setup guitars because the action is so low...

My Strat had really high action on it when I got it. I use really heavy strings with it, usually starting with a .12 for the high e. I also use a wound G string, it really seems to help out a lot with the tone.