The Complete Handbook of Guitar Slides
A practical reference for musicians, technicians, and retailers on materials, fit, technique, and care
by Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
The definitive practical guide to guitar slides: materials, sizing, technique, maintenance, and the business of selling them.
About this book
The guitar slide is a small object with outsized consequences for tone, pitch accuracy, and hand health. Yet most players choose slides by guessing at a store counter or following an influencer's recommendation. This handbook replaces guesswork with a systematic understanding of how a slide's length, wall thickness, bore taper, and material density change the sound and playability. It explains, for example, why a 6.9-gram brass slide produces a different sustain profile than a 35-gram glass slide on the same guitar, and why a thin-walled slide is easier to control but harder to keep quiet on the strings.
Beyond selection, the book covers installation and daily use — how to hold a slide for consistent intonation, how to avoid buzz and string rattle, and how to set up guitar action and pickups for optimal slide performance. Maintenance and troubleshooting chapters give step-by-step guidance for cleaning, polishing, edge chipping, and corrosion, as well as fixes for common problems like slippery fingers and unwanted harmonic noise. The final chapters look outward: notable manufacturers and market positioning, wholesale and private-label opportunities for retailers and entrepreneurs, and emerging trends in materials and design.
Written for working players, technicians, and business owners, this handbook is deliberately neutral and practical. No hype, no mythology — just clear explanations, concrete examples, and standards-based recommendations you can apply immediately.
Reader Reviews
Christopher Jones
★★★★★This is the first slide book I've read that actually gets into the measurable differences — wall thickness, bore taper, density — and what they do to sustain and attack. I've been playing for 20 years and I still learned why my brass slide sounds different on the low strings than my glass one. The maintenance chapter saved me from throwing out a chipped ceramic slide. It's a bit dense in places and I wish the chapter on business opportunities had more numbers, but overall this is now the reference I reach for.
Edward Flores
★★★★★I'm a session player and I've bought probably 30 slides in my career, most by trial and error. This handbook breaks down every variable in a way that actually makes sense. The section on how bore shape affects how far you have to tilt the slide across the string was worth the price alone — I fixed my intonation problem in one session. The troubleshooting section on chatter is the best explanation I've found anywhere. I just bought copies for my two guitar students.
George White
★★★★★Clearly written and practical. The chapter on understanding slides pulled together the physics and the feel in a way I hadn't seen before. I appreciated the emphasis on hand health and ergonomics — that's something most players ignore until it's too late. The glossary is very handy as a quick reference. My main gripe is that some sections repeat the same points, and I would have liked more photos to illustrate the subtle differences between bore profiles. Still, it made me rethink my entire approach to slide selection.
Patricia White
★★★★★It's a solid overview and I agree with most of the technical points, but I think it overstates how much of this you really need to know to just play. I've been using the same glass slide for 12 years and none of the specs in this book would have changed my decision. The business chapter feels like a general intro to retail rather than anything slide-specific. The maintenance guide is genuinely useful, and the writing is clear, so I'm not sorry I bought it. It just feels like more than the subject needs.
Nancy Smith
★★★★★I run a small music shop and I bought this to help me give better advice to customers. A few of the comparison points are genuinely helpful — the density chart and the section on acoustic vs. electric response helped me explain a lot. But it's also more academic than practical in places. The troubleshooting chapter gives great fixes for problems I've never seen in real customers. If you're a beginner or casual player, this is overkill. For a shop owner, it's fine but not essential.