Rory's Slide Guitar Playing

[Taste_Fan]

Hi Fellow Rory fans,
I would like to ask the experts about Rory's electric slide guitar selection and setup

From what I have read, and studied on YouTube videos, Rory typically played slide on his white Telecaster in earlier years and a black Telecaster in later years
However, on the cover of "Live in Europe", Rory is holding his strat and has a slide on his finger
I also recall that on the Irish Tour DVD there is a short clip that also shows Rory with his strat and a slide
I'm puzzled by this as a guitar that is setup for soloing will not work well for slide and vice versa;
slide guitar playing typically requires raised action and thicker strings; open tuning can put more load on the neck
Did he play his strat as a slide guitar or did he use a slide for portions of certain songs?

It looks like he played with a copper slide on earlier performances (Isle of Wight, Beat Club); did he later go to a glass slide?

It looks to me that he typically did not use fingers to damp hi frequency buzzing/overtones that a slide can cause
Rolling back the tone pot can compensate for this
Does anyone have any insight into his slide guitar tone pot settings?

Gi raibh mile maith agaibh agus shona Nollaig daoibh

Eamon

[weezerdude]

He would've used the strat for songs that were played in standard tuning e.g. Cradle Rock, Big Guns, Secret Agent etc.
Any song in open tuning - mostly G/A - he would change. Up until about 1979/1980 he used Telecasters/Esquires for all open tune songs e.g. In Your Town, Bullfrog Blues, Who's That Coming? etc. Then he switched to a Gretsch Corvette and finally a Deluxe Telecaster I believe. The Strat sounds grand for slide for the most part but the Corvette would be my personal favourite.

[weezerdude]

Also he used to use old aspirin bottles (glass) from what I remember although they were hard to come by I think. As for the tone he constantly fiddles with it no matter what guitar he's playing so I wouldn't look to much into his preferred setting.

[vasdis]

I was always led to believe he used a glass Tyrozets bottle .

[capo]

He also liked using old Coricidin bottles too, first popularized by Duane Allman. They stopped producing them by the 80's but have since been replicated just for guitarists uses. See the Wiki page for Coricidin.

[RobertaSparrow]

Here is a collection of interviews on the subject from the man himself:





And yes, he [layed slide on the Strat as well, as I understand it, he liked his guitars to have the action set high, he must have had very strong hands.
He speaks of his Strat and his set up a bit in this interview:

[Jay Jay]

It looks like he played with a copper slide on earlier performances (Isle of Wight, Beat Club); did he later go to a glass slide?
It looks to me that he typically did not use fingers to damp hi frequency buzzing/overtones that a slide can cause
Rolling back the tone pot can compensate for this
Does anyone have any insight into his slide guitar tone pot settings?
Gi raibh mile maith agaibh agus shona Nollaig daoibh
Eamon

Hi Eamon and a very warm welcome to Rory's home on the internet..

As you rightly say in Rory's early career he tended to use more copper and glass slides with various guitars. Yet as we can see with those youtube clips above that Cynthia (RobertaSparrow) kindly but up ie: Stratmasters.. Rory in his later years opted mainly with a chrome metal slide. His action on his famous Fender '61 battered Stratocaster was always very high, compared to most modern day players preferences. Regarding his tone pot settings. You must know surely that on his '61 Strat... Rory early doors wired his middle pot tone control, to the bottom pot tone control, therefore making this the master tone control. As with his Fender Telecaster's and Gretsch Corvette alike only having 1 volume and 1 tone control for slide also. If you click on this link here to other section On the boards > RORY GALAGHER'S GUITARS viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2657 there is more about RG's control pots

Rory Strat slide.jpg

I'm privileged enough to have one of Rory's last slides
Rock On for Rory
Slainte Jay Jay

[ken]

Did a series of photo ages of Rory playing slide at the IOW.
Have a look
https://www.flickr.com/photos/52647217@ ... 343407602/

[Taste_Fan]

Thank you everybody for your replies
I enjoyed the videos, and particularly the strat master clips.
The clips answered/explained some of the questions I was asking about
How seemingly effortlessly Rory could play


Thanks again and a happy 2018 to you all

Eamon