The most obvious difference between a guitar used for bottleneck purposes and one used for other purposes is the tuning. When using bottleneck technique the guitar should be tuned to and open tuning which means strings should sound a chord when strummed without using any fretted notes. An exception to this rule is the awesome Muddy Waters who used standard tuning as well as slide.

Open G tuning is probably the most common tuning for bottleneck slide; low to high (D G D G B d). This tuning has two roots (strings tuned to G), three fifths (strings tuned to D) and one third (string tuned to B) The G tuning has the advantage of being able to accommodate notes below the lowest root. This usually results in the use of lead in notes. Looking at Figure 1 (below) we can see in the Son House lick the use of the lead in note in the last half beat of the bar. When strumming in this tuning however, the lowest string is made a little redundant losing a lot of the low range of the spectrum making it good for mid range, punchy licks as opposed to lower droning type measures.

Open D tuning, low to high (D A D F# A d), has three roots (strings tuned to D), two fifths (strings tuned to A) and like open G tuning, one third (string tuned to F#). Open D is great as the highest and lowest open notes are roots which can be effective in drone and solo string combinations, something open G struggles to accommodate. This advantage comes at a price in that an effective lead in note is removed from the tuning. A lead in can be done an octave higher than the root but doesn’t have the same feeling. I use open D (tuned a step down to C) for lap slide guitar. The alternate thumb combos with open string soloing up high make it perfect for lap. Figure two is a short Blind Willie Johnson lick which would be difficult and less effective in open G, in my opinion it is a good example of the advantages of open D.

My main bottleneck tuning is a modified open G tuning, low to high (G G D G B d). The low G enables me to fully access the lower register of the key and only silghtly restricts the use of lead in notes. The same Son House lick as before can be played in this tuning with the advantage of a rumbling low end can be seen in Figure 3.