9 Awesome Slide Guitar Tunings to Rock Out With

I’ve messed around with slide guitar tunings since 2005, and I love the way a slide sounds on the guitar.

If you’ve ever played the guitar with a slide, you know it can be tricky to play with in standard tuning.

So what are the best guitar tunings to use when playing the guitar with a slide?

The best slide guitar tunings are:

• Drop D: DADGBE
• Open A: EAEAC♯E
• Open B: BF♯BF♯BD♯
• Open C: CGCGCE
• Open D: DADF♯AD
• Open E: EBEG#BE
• Open F: CFCFAC
• Open G: DGDGBD
• DADGAD: A Miscellaneous Tuning

Click the tuning above if you want to jump straight to that section.

Otherwise, I’ll walk through how to get set up your guitar to play with a slide.

Setting Up Your Slide Guitar

You’ll notice in several of the videos below that the slide guitarists are using a funky looking guitar.

That guitar is called a resonator guitar (sometimes also called a dobro).

Many slide guitarists like using resonator guitars because they amplify the sound of the slide on the strings really well.

If you get serious about this style, you’ll probably want to purchase one.

(But you don’t need a resonator guitar to play slide guitar.)

This is a good starter resonator acoustic guitar if you’re looking for one.

If you’re playing with a standard guitar, many slide guitarists recommend:

• Raising the action (increasing the distance between the strings and the neck) on your guitar
• and using heavy strings like these for an acoustic and these for an electric.

These are the opposite recommendations I give to beginner guitarists.

But in the case of slide guitar, I agree with these recommendations.

Heavy strings and a high action will enable you to get the best sound from your guitar when playing with a slide.

So if you can, have one guitar dedicated to playing with your slide and another dedicated to alternate styles so you don’t have to raise and lower the action and replace strings whenever you want to play.

(This is another reason you might consider getting a resonator guitar if you’re going to have an instrument dedicated to playing with a slide).

Choosing a Slide for Your Guitar

Nearly everything about guitar slides comes down to personal preference.

Slides are usually made of glass, brass, or steel.

Each slide material has subtly different effects.

Slides can also be open on both ends or just one end (again whatever you prefer).

And slide guitar players wear slides on whichever finger feels most comfortable.

However, if you’re planning on picking in addition to sliding, many guitarists recommend using the slide on your pinky finger so that your index, middle, and ring can do the picking.

Slide sets are inexpensive and I recommend purchasing a set like this one so that you can try each type to see which one you like the best.

Slide Guitar in Drop D

Drop D is a popular tuning for slide guitar that’s easy to tune.

You just drop the low E 6th string one whole step from E to D.

The above video is a good example of a slide guitarist making a great sound come from a standard acoustic guitar (not a resonator guitar).

You’ll also notice that he primarily uses his index finger or thumb to pick the string.

This is common among slide guitarists who often use their other fingers to mute the other strings not being played.

Slide Guitar in Open A

As I mentioned in my article about open tunings, there are several ways to make an open tuning.

However, I try to use the most common open tunings for convenience’s sake.

So I tend to use the open A tuning used by Led Zeppelin and The White Stripes: EAEAC♯E

Be careful when tuning your B string up to a C# especially if you’re using heavy strings since the tension will be very high on that string and on the neck.

Just tune up slowly and play the string a bit to help it adjust to the new tension.

The guitarist in the video above wonderfully illustrates how possible it is to both pick and slide at the same time.

You’ll notice he uses the slide on his pinky to give his other three fingers the flexibility to make notes for picking.

Slide Guitar in Open B

The common open B tuning is: BF♯BF♯BD♯

Because you’re tuning some strings down multiple full steps, your strings may fee floppy.

You’ll notice in the video above this slide guitarist illustrating an important concept in slide guitar:

It’s better to slide up to and provide vibrato at the note but not above the note.

If you slide below and above the note, it tends to sound sharp.

If you slide below and to the note, it sounds great.

Slide Guitar in Open C

One of the most common open C tunings is: CGCGCE

This is another tuning that requires tuning the B string up.

So again, be careful as you tune it up a half step which adds more tension to the string and neck.

Slide Guitar in Open D

A common open D tuning is: DADF♯AD

For this tuning, you will tune all strings down so you don’t have to worry about strings breaking or too much tension on the neck.

In the video above, Andy Aledort gives a tutorial using the open D tuning.

This video will give you more tools to excel playing slide guitar.

Slide Guitar in Open E

A common open E tuning is: EBEG#BE

This is another tuning that requires tuning some strings up.

Marty Schwartz gives a great tutorial in the video above about how exactly to tune up your guitar to this tuning.

Marty’s playing an electric guitar which typically has lighter gauge strings which put less tension on the guitar neck in general.

As such, he doesn’t have much of an issue tuning up the strings required for open E.

However, if you’re playing an acoustic guitar with heavy gauge strings, you might be concerned about putting too much string tension on the neck of the guitar.

If this is a concern to you, many guitarists opt to tune to open D and capo on the 2nd fret to avoid unnecessary tension on the strings and neck.

Keep this in mind as an option for this open tuning.

Slide Guitar in Open F

A common open F tuning is: CFCFAC

This tuning doesn’t require tuning any strings up.

In fact:

you will be tuning some strings more than one step down so your strings may feel little bit loose or floppy.

The guitarist in the video above shows how he has attached a magnetic pickup to provide a better sound for his guitar.

The pickup is the small silver rectangle you see just below the neck of the guitar on its body.

It can be a bit of challenge to make sure you get the best sound out of your instrument when using a slide.

Just remember the recommendations.

1. Ideally you use a resonator guitar to play with your slide.
2. Use heavy gauge strings like these for an acoustic or these for an electric.
3. Take your guitar to a guitar shop and ask them to raise the action (this will reduce the likelihood of an unwanted buzzing sound that can happen when your slide causes the strings to hit the frets). Or just tell them that you

Slide Guitar in Open G

A common open G tuning is: DGDGBD

This tuning doesn’t require tuning up any strings.

And if you like you can tune to open G and capo on the 2nd fret for open A (since open A requires tuning up).

In the above video, Ted provides some background information on slide guitar and open tunings (like which tunings are best for which genres).

The first half of the video is primarily Ted talking and the last half contains more playing if you’re interested in one or the other.

Slide Guitar in DADGAD

DADGAD isn’t an open tuning, but it’s a really fun tuning that I think actually provides more versatility than most open tunings.

It can be challenging for novice guitarists to get a variety of sound out of an open tuning.

However, DADGAD seems to make your guitar easier to play with the slide and versatile enough to get a variety of sound out of the guitar.

The above video isn’t instructional but rather an inspiring show of what you can do with the slide, particularly in DADGAD.