Glass guitar slide

[bexrox]

Hello everyone,

I'm working on a couple of ideas that combine two of my favorite things: glass and guitars! The one I am having difficulty with is the glass slide. I would like to develop a series of them that are both tonally wonderful, and of course, very pretty. I have no idea where to start.

I know leaded crystal is the best for tonal quality, but I do not have any. I do, however, have a reasonable amount of boro rods to start, and some medium to heavy walled tubing. I'm working on a Cricket with a 5 lpm oxycon, and it can handle boro, but I need to be very patient! All I need now is to know what the heck I'm doing.

Anyone done these before? Anyone know where I can find info/tuts/anything? Online, all I can find is how to make one out of a bottleneck.

Gonna post this in the Tutorials section too, so sorry for the redundancy.

Becky

[Rhymnoceros]

in terms of making a simple slip on tube slide, all you need to do is use a glass cutter to score the size of tubing you want and then flame polish both ends so they round out

Id recommend something around 24-26mm ID heavy wall tubing in approximately 3 inch sections.

Hope that helps

[bexrox]

Thanks Chris,

I was hoping to make it pretty too, though. I think I'm going to have to try another method.

Becky

[JetAge Studio]

I'm sure you can find lots of 'beautification' techniques from the boro artists! :grin: I'm always amazed at the tricked out tube work they do.
I found a really neat studio that makes glass slides: www.silicasound.com
So, it can be done!....and maybe this is inspirational too?

Good Luck!!
Renee

[glass_beads]

Back in may, one of my musician friends asked me to make him a glass slide. I had some very difficult family issued on my hands when he asked so I told him I was unable to even give it any thought -- I'd love to hear how you make out on this if you decide to attempt one.

[IF-Designs]

fuming the glass tube will make it pretty and adding clear over fume changes it up it just depends how much into it you want to go if you really want to get into decorating them start with bigger thicker tubing do design and then pull it down to the correct size / thickness.

[bexrox]

Thanks for all your help, folks! Renee, that site was great! They made theirs pretty by decorating the inside of just a little bit, and turned that into a feature of being a snug fit at the fingertip. Not only that, but the one musician in the gallery was Derek Trucks, the husband and bandmate of one of my favorite blues women, Susan Tedeschi.

IF, I had never considered fuming. That would be a great idea, as I could keep the tube consistent without having to worry about smoothing down exterior decoration. I did buy a bit of boro tubing that is larger and thicker than what I need, as that was the same thought I had in mind too... work with it, decorate it, then pull it down to even it out and make it the right size. I've never worked with tubing before though, so I don't expect anything amazing to happen for awhile!

Melissa, I'll gladly let you know how this goes... heh... it's going to be a learning experience, that's for sure!

Thanks everyone!
Becky