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Lots of different ways of picking, types of picks, slides, E-bow ETC
Just wondered if any of you guitarist have a favorite alternative way of picking / strumming your axe.

For instance on our song NOISE POLLUTION I use a ping pong ball in my right hand.
It has an odd sound almost a slide style technique especially on the intro.

Great Topic:

When I practice my scales and modes, I sometimes use a nickel to refine my alternate picking technique. The round edge of the nickel makes it difficult to maintain attack and you have to apply the right angle and pressure to simulate a plectrum. Helps in developing good right hand technique.

George

I hadn't realized you were into glam rock!

Only strang pick I've used was a big old felt jobby that was supposed to be for studio use. I was nervous before my first shot in a studio so I was trying to stack the deck in my favor. It was supposed to produce a 'truer' sound.

I used it about 15 seconds and went back to my usual alternate of fingers / heavy pick. (bass)

Talbot

I don't play much slide, but when I do I
use a Bic lighter for a slide, seems there's
always one laying around.

A guy in North Carolina machined a custom made "pick punch" for me and I use old hotel room card-keys now. They're a little thicker than your average medium pick and I can get 3 or 4 of them out of a credit card.

Im kinda of learning to incorporate harmonics into my solos and rythyms, plus a little tapping here and there.

If you ever listen to old Ventures stuff, or Dick Dale, where they hit the hi G on the big E string and pick real fast while sliding down the neck.

Side scrapes with the pic, can bring a little life into a change up.

Ive been using my whammy pedal to hit harmonics on the G string and give them a diving effect.

When I break into a solo, I try to think in vocal terms, dynamics up and down, and little breaks to accenuate the bar changes, so a solo becomes more of a vocal or conversation line if that makes sense, and the art of holding notes longer than you think you should is good too. In other words I try to make solos breath, I can pick as fast as anyone I know, and at times in burst this feels appropriate, but over doo it and its just unecessary wanking! LOL, but it sure feels good sometime!

All of these little tricks I mention can be incorporated into rythym or lead. Learning triads for chords up and down the neck, plus inverting chords, so when you play a rythym you dont play the same open chord all the time gives your playing some contrast also can lead to some interesting changes with in your structure.

Over the last 6 monthes I felt I had gotten real stagnate in my playing, nothing anyone else would notice, but Im gonna be a shredding fool this sat at my gig!

I love playing with a slide. In Cruise Control I played Tush, Freebird, Rocky Mountain Way, with the slide for the lead. Most Blues players use the slide on their pinky finger as they don't use their pinky during solo's. I noticed early on in my career that especially in the late 70's and 80's that the guitar players were using all 4 fingers for soloing. I started around 1981 to training my pinky to work as hard during soloing as the rest of my fingers. I also started working with the slide on my middle finger (shooting the bird finger)! These things opened up a lot of options in my playing!

J-HALEY wrote:I love playing with a slide. In Cruise Control I played Tush, Freebird, Rocky Mountain Way, with the slide for the lead. Most Blues players use the slide on their pinky finger as they don't use their pinky during solo's. I noticed early on in my career that especially in the late 70's and 80's that the guitar players were using all 4 fingers for soloing. I started around 1981 to training my pinky to work as hard during soloing as the rest of my fingers. I also started working with the slide on my middle finger (shooting the bird finger)! These things opened up a lot of options in my playing!

Very Very Interesting... I recently started teaching my self slide... and Innately chose the pinky .The reason being, it freed up my hand for other standard fret action ... Mind you , I play like I need to be in a special Music Education class...but, I am practicing and started getting a hang of it... I also discovered on slide work, that finger picking is a better option than using a pick. (At least on some songs)

I know for slide on a song like Tush the birdie finger is the best to play it on if you wear the slide the whole song, I started using a beer bottle, but I get beer all over myself and the guitar when I use one that has very much beer in it!

Haley brings up a point, when I started playing guitar I always used my pinky, I see some guys that hardle ever use it, so train that pinky to wank!

I agree John. If you watch Stevie Ray Vaughn play he never used his pinky, blues playes usuall don't! I was watching Joe Walsh play Rocky Mountain Way and he wears his slide the same as we do John. I found an awesome slide that I would highly recommend. It is a brass slide and is concave. In other words it is wider at one end and is smaller in the middle. This is awesome for muting those unwanted notes on other strings. Also because it is made of brass it has a warmer tone. I found this slide at G C about 6 years ago!

Dog I use 1st 3rd and pinky finger for playing Chords while wearing the slide.

On slide technique Im not that great, but what I also found using my birdie finger was that you have a finger in front and behind the slide to mute strings.

If Im playing slide Im ussually using the G and B strings, so I lightly touch the strings behind the slide with my first finger, and then I cup my ring finger over the neck so it mutes the hi E string and I rest the tip on the lower E and A strings, also it kinda stabilizes my hand when doing slide, which isnt very often, but sometimes I do, just for the heck of it.

Haley did you ever see one of those half slides that fit on your finger like a ring and would only cover about three strings at a time?

Another goofy trick I do, is if Im holding a big power chord, then I will outline the chord with my picking hand 12 frets up, octave, if you can work out intervals on the root string you can get some cool things happening.

Heck, just grad the lower E string at the G and run your hand up the neck real quick.

Good info guys thanks for sharing.

I've attempted a little slide ( very little ) using a deep socket on my third finger.
Have a friend whom played slide this way back in the 70's and was really my only exposure to the technique in person.

I forgot my ping pong ball at a gig last year and campused the audience for a bic lighter.

It worked, made a cool interaction with the audience.
But it lacked some of the dynamics I get using that thin walled hollow ball.

Re slide.

A buddy gave me an old coricidin bottle (shades of Duane Allman) but I can't get much going. Both my guitars have very low action and light string. I can't bear to ruin the action on either one but have thought of buying a squire or epi to set for slide.

Talbot