I've been trying to learn slide recently and I was wondering what tuning it is generally played in. I know it can differ from song to song but what would something like All Down The Line or the live solo to Love In Vain (Mick Taylor) or even Rough Justice be played in?

open-g is always good for sliding.

Open A, E, D and even standard are good. The trick is not so much the tuning, though that is certainly important, but the technique in damping unwanted string noise. Mr. T is a master as you probably know.

Now that's what I'm really having a problem with, dampening the strings

Which finger to you put your slide on? I use either the pinky or ring finger and damp with the trailing fingers. It takes practice but if you are persistent you'll get it.

or you could do it the way Sonny Landreth does, and just fret the strings behind the slide.....On second thought if your just learning the slide, stay away from Landreth, he might discourgae you....


.....if your up for the challenge, listen to his version of "Taylor's Rock" from the Houndog Taylor Tribute CD..

good luck

I have a guitar that I keep in open-E for slide work.
Standard tuning, D and G tunings work well, too.
I put my slide on my second finger, like Ron does.
I prefer metal to glass slides.
For a quick sort-of G tuning, when in standard tuning drop the high-E string to D.
Taylor did this on Love in Vain on GYYYO (I don't think he used a guitar
totally in open-G, but it's possible) and Brian did this on Little Red Rooster.
Wood usually played ADTL in standard tuning ('75 and'78).
When he uses the Zematias disc front guitar, it's tuned to open-E (Rough JUstice,
Let it Bleed from 81 dnd 82, Around The Plynth (faces tune), Happy in the old days,
even Love in Vain from 78 and others).

Also use your right hand to dampen unused strings.

To me the whole dampening was the most frustrating thing to get with.
Ron is a great slide player. It does surpise me that he does not play open G as much as many ohters. Matter of fact I wonder if he used it much at all before hooking up with Keith. Ron is master of on stage. he played all that stuff in standrad tuning, right?