How to make a guitar bottleneck slide.

 Here is one method on how to make one. Go to your friendly bottle shop/liquor supplier and look for a bottle that has a long, straight neck. Many high class sherry and port bottles are ideal. Drink the contents. Next day put a stone cutting disc onto your angle grinder and using water as a lubricant gradually cut around the bottleneck, just above the shoulder . Use eye protection. Smooth off the inside of the cut with a fine round file. If you don't have a grinder, cut a line around the bottleneck with the edge of a file and put the bottle inside a rubbish bin. Again using eye protection, smash the base of the bottle with a hammer and with any luck the neck will break off almost cleanly around the file cut. You can then grind the edge smooth on some concrete pavement. The combination of heavier strings, higher action and a heavier slide allow you to get a beautiful clean slide sound without scuffing the bottleneck onto the frets. You can vary the pressure on the strings to get different voices but you can still play finger style and chord comfortably. Some players use the slide on their ring finger but I like it on my little finger, leaving the others free to finger chords ar damp strings. I feel you have the most options this way. Finally I am not alone in encouraging you to use fingerpicks when playing a resonator style guitar. Fingerpicks allow you to fully exploit the incredible volume and subtlety of tone available from these guitars and they ( fingerpicks) really don't take much getting used to.

This is just one of many ways to make a slide, another great one is the "Burning Twine" method.  Legend says this is how a lot of the old bluesmen made their slides.  Follow step one above "drink the contents" then find some old hemp twine, soak it in kerosene, wrap it around the bottleneck and light it on fire.  Then after it goes out, plunge it into a bucket of ice water, and, it the theory is correct, it will break off cleanly and presto, you have a great authentic bottleneck slide.  The problem is,  I have tried this many times and have only gotten one or two good slides out of this wacky procedure.  I think the fun of doing it is wortthy of a try.  Please use eye protection if you do this.  If successful, you can grind or polish the cut end with emery cloth or fine grit sandpaper.  Some people like both ends of the bottleneck cut off, but this is way more difficult and best left to a pro, or purchased from a slide manufacturer/

You can make a slide from almost anything.  A piece of heavy brass pipe is also a favorite, socket wrench, a old hollow metal table or chair leg.  Each will have it's own charistic tone and vibe, experiment and come up with your own!