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Post by vikingblues on Jun 16, 2014 15:46:21 GMT
Could be sliding into debt if I went with this! Wolfram Martin Simpson SlideApparently virtually no noise due to the lack of friction from tungsten carbide. It's the right size for me but at 190g weight compared to the 30g of my lovely (and quite thick) Redhouse glass slide from Diamond Bottlenecks I think my pinkie would end up needing traction. The Wolfram is a classy slide for a classy player, but out of my league (on a number of counts). I maybe need to speak to Ian McWee at Diamond and see about getting a slide more specifically for acoustic guitar. The Redhouse was one that was a good fit for using on electrics. It does a good job on acoustics too though. Mark.
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Martin
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Post by Martin on Jun 16, 2014 15:52:00 GMT
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Post by vikingblues on Jun 16, 2014 16:17:51 GMT
Thanks for that link Martin - dates somewhat before my arrival here and I hadn't seen it. I guess I should have done a more careful search here first, but I didn't spot it. The place where I saw about these slides did seem to suggest it was a rather newer thing than it is. It shows just how good the product is that the price tag is considered to be not outrageous by those who have tried one. But I do know just how massive a difference a sound, and ease of playing, can be achieved with just a fairly affordable good quality slide compared with the budget lightweight ones often found in guitar shops. So I can quite believe that a further massive improvement could be found over what I now have. A good quality made to measure slide lead to a better improvement in my slide playing than a whole series of lessons. I really do still find the thought of that extra weight of the tungsten carbide slide a bit frightening. Mark
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Post by earwighoney on Jun 16, 2014 17:01:50 GMT
New endorsee
Wtf? A slide guitarist on a CBBC prog. Random.
I think the chaps at Wolfram Slides should make a slide for a lap steel/Weissenborn guitar.
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Post by Trevor TAMCO on Jun 18, 2014 8:37:16 GMT
There is a review of Wolfram slides in the latest Acoustic magazine.
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Post by bellyshere on Jun 18, 2014 23:08:13 GMT
Must be a printing error as that says £250 for a slide!!!!!
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wolframslides
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Post by wolframslides on Jun 25, 2014 20:43:09 GMT
Hello all,
David here, founder of Wolfram Slides. It's always great to see my slides being talked about - I'd just like to add to the discussion if I may.
First, yes, the price. They are undeniably expensive compared to any other guitar slide. But there is also no other guitar slide in the world made this way, in a process that takes nearly six weeks!
So, why tungsten carbide? When I started out, I had an ambition only to make myself one 'perfect' guitar slide: no compromises.
Tungsten carbide is twice as dense as steel, so I can make a really heavy slide without it being at all bulky - I like a heavy slide, but also like it to be agile. I also borrowed a feature from Martin Simpson's own designs - an internal taper, which concentrates more of the mass towards the fingertip where it's most useful for single-note work. Many people are nervous about such a heavy slide (190+ grams), but it has one huge benefit - you barely need to use any pressure on the string when contacting it with the slide to get a great tone; the mass of the slide just does the work for you. This actually makes it very nimble and easy to play with. I use my own slide (which became the Wolfram Martin Simpson Signature Slide, which we now produce and sell) on a guitar with a comfortable fingerstyle setup and light gauge strings - and it sounds phenomenal. You definitely do not need a second guitar with a high action with these slides!
I worked with Michael Messer to design another, more conventional cylindrical slide. It took a year, and five prototypes, until we were happy and launched the Michael Messer Signature Slide in June. This is a much lighter slide - at approximately 90 grams, it's half the weight of the Martin Simpson model.
Tungsten carbide is hard - comparable to sapphire, and can only be machined with specialist diamond tooling. Because of its hardness, we can polish it (by hand, with diamond paste) to a really microscopically smooth finish - no other slide comes close. I personally make sure that every one is absolutely perfect - they look more like a piece of jewellery than a guitar slide. This enables the slide to glide across the strings, as if they are oiled, with absolutely none of that scratchiness and string noise you get from many slides.
Most slides get quite scratched and pitted on the surface in a relatively short time, which makes them sound rough - a result of the wound strings acting like a steel saw as you move the slide over them. Tungsten carbide is much, much harder than those strings - it will keep that beautiful finish for decades.
All of these things add up to superb tone and feel. These slides simply sound like nothing else out there - bold, smooth with a very full tone and a long, blooming sustain. They also let a lot of the guitar's underlying character show through. There is absolutely no string drag as you glide the slide along or across the strings, helping you to play fluidly and easily. Virtually no pressure is needed to get a great note, so you don't need a high setup and can easily play hybrid slide-fingerstyle on one guitar, as Martin Simpson does.
So, I guess to view the cost in another light, these slides represent my view of the ultimate material, the ultimate designs to achieve the cleanest tone and smoothest feel possible; all made in England, but hand, to the absolute highest quality possible. I believe you will find precious few other things in the world that meet a description like that and can be bought for only £250...
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Jun 25, 2014 23:39:40 GMT
Thanks for chipping in David - and welcome to the Forum as wolframslides Keith
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