Before you start playing slide guitar, you need your guitar set up properly. The wrong setup will fight you at every turn – strings buzzing against frets, muddy tone, awkward fretting when you want to combine slide with regular playing.
Let me walk you through the essentials: which tuning to use, getting your action right, choosing strings, and finding the right slide for your hand.
Watch: How to Set Up a Slide Guitar
Which Slide Guitar Tuning Is Best?
Most slide guitar is played in an open tuning – where the open strings form a chord. This lets your slide play full chords anywhere on the neck by barring straight across the frets.
The three most popular slide guitar tunings:
Open G (D-G-D-G-B-D) – Probably the best tuning to start with. Used by Keith Richards, Robert Johnson, and countless blues players. The chord positions feel intuitive, and there’s a huge library of songs and lessons in this tuning.
Open D (D-A-D-F#-A-D) – Equally popular, with a slightly different voicing. Many players prefer the fuller bass response. Great for fingerpicking slide styles.
Open E (E-B-E-G#-B-E) – Same intervals as Open D, just tuned higher. This is Duane Allman territory. More string tension gives a brighter, more aggressive tone.
For a darker, bluesier sound, try Open D7 – it adds a dominant 7th flavor that works beautifully for traditional blues.
My recommendation: start with Open G or Open D. Once you learn the fret positions in one, they transfer directly to the other. The patterns are identical – just the key changes.
Action: Finding the Sweet Spot
Action is your string height – the distance from the bottom of the string to the top of the fret. For slide guitar, you need it higher than standard setup, but there’s a balance to find.
Too low, and you won’t get that smooth, singing slide tone. The slide will push the strings down onto the frets and create buzz. Too high, and fretting becomes awkward – which matters if you want to combine slide phrases with fretted chords and licks.
The sweet spot lets you do both: slide cleanly across the strings AND fret comfortably when you need to. You can use the edge of your fingerboard as a straight-edge reference to see how your strings sit relative to the frets.
If you’re setting up a dedicated slide guitar, you can go higher than you would on an all-purpose instrument. Many players keep one guitar specifically for slide with raised action, and another in standard setup for regular playing.
Strings: Heavier Is Better
Heavier gauge strings make a real difference for slide. I recommend 11s at minimum – they give you more tension to push against, which means cleaner tone and better sustain.
For string type, you have options:
Nickel wound (standard): What most players use. Brands like SIT or GHS Boomers work great – I’ve used them for years.
Flat wound: Smoother feel under the slide. Some players prefer them because they reduce finger noise. Worth trying if you find round wounds too textured.
The heavier strings also help with action – they don’t flop around as much at higher string heights, which keeps everything feeling solid and responsive.
Choosing Your Slide: Material and Finger
Slides come in different materials, each with their own character:
Glass: My preference. Warm, smooth tone with lots of sustain. I use a big, thick Dunlop glass slide – about the heaviest you can find. The weight helps with control.
Brass/Metal: Brighter, more aggressive tone. Some players love them for cutting through a band mix. I’ve never gotten as good a tone from metal as I do from glass, but it’s personal preference.
Ceramic: Falls somewhere between glass and metal. Worth trying if you want something different.
As for DIY options – I’ve heard of players using old medicine bottles cut with a glass cutter, wine bottle necks, brass pipe, even brass rings. Some guys play with pocket knives or big lighters. I’ve never gotten a really good tone out of any of that stuff, but whatever floats your boat.
Which Finger for the Slide?
I wear my slide on my second finger (middle finger). Here’s why:
Your first finger stays free for muting. Without proper muting, slide guitar sounds buzzy and rattly – all those sympathetic vibrations create noise. Your first finger rests lightly on the strings behind the slide to dampen them.
The other reason: I like having my first finger available for shuffle patterns, intervals, and partial chords. You can mix fretted notes with slide work, which opens up a lot of musical possibilities.
Some players use their third finger or pinky instead. Sonny Landreth, the famous slide player, uses his third finger and actually frets notes behind the slide – a completely different approach. Pinky slides work well if you want to stay in standard tuning and just add occasional slide phrases.
Experiment and find what works for your hand. There’s no single right answer.
The Muting Technique That Changes Everything
This is worth emphasizing because it’s the difference between amateur and professional slide tone.
When your slide touches the strings, it wants to make all of them ring. Without muting, you get a mess of overtones and sympathetic vibrations. It sounds glassy and uncontrolled.
With your first finger resting lightly behind the slide – not pressing down, just touching – you dampen everything except the notes you’re actually playing. The result is clean, singing tone with no unwanted noise.
Practice this from day one. It’s much easier to build good muting habits early than to fix bad ones later.
Do You Need a Dedicated Slide Guitar?
Not necessarily. You can raise the action on any guitar and use it for slide. But if you’re serious about slide playing, having a dedicated instrument makes life easier.
You won’t have to compromise between slide setup and standard fretting setup. You can leave it in an open tuning permanently. And frankly, a cheaper guitar often works great for slide – you don’t need premium electronics or perfect intonation.
Ready to start playing? Check out our beginner’s guide to slide guitar for your first steps, or dive straight into learning the 12 bar blues in Open G.
Want to Play Slide Guitar? Start Here (Free)
Most people grab a slide and get frustrated within five minutes. There's a reason for that, and it's easy to correct once you know the secret!
I've put together a short series of free video lessons that will get you playing slide the right way. You'll learn the best tuning to start with (hint: it's not standard!), how to lay down a mean rhythm with your slide, and why slide guitar can actually be easier than normal guitar once you know the trick.
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