Posted by Seth on April 07, 2007 at 09:19:27:
In Reply to: Re: duane allman guitar lics posted by roy on November 27, 2005 at 10:05:13:
I'm assuming that when you say Duane Allman you mean slide. Here's some helpful tips. For tone, you need some humbuckers. No matter what kind of guitar, you need that fat sound. If you want Duane's paticular slide scream, you need to use a coricidian medicine bottle slide. For the amp: I use a Fender Blues Deville, 2X12. You have to have tubes! You need some gain, but not death metal distortion. He used a fuzz box with a nearly dead battery to get his gainy sound.
Now that you should have the right, very crucial tone, here's some playing tips. Even though Duane used his ring finger for the slide, the best way to use it is by placing it on your pinky finger. Lay your other fingers down on the neck behind the slide to mute the strings. Also mute the strings with your pick hand. Oh, and about the pick. DON'T USE ONE! That's one big mistake people make while playing slide. All that muting will keep all of those unwanted nasty overtones away.
He used open E for most of his slide. That's bottom to top E B E G# B E. But if you don't want to try that tuning, and break strings to get it, stay in standard. Because it was open E, pretty much all of his licks can be played out of a pentatonic scale. Try it!
Other than that, here's some advice. Go out and get yourself the deluxe version of Eat a Peach. The one with the live 2nd cd. Then wear that live cd out listening to it and stealing his licks! Trust me, it's worth it. It's hard at first, but it's worth the effort. Also, look to his influences: Elmore James, Taj Mahal, B.B. King, Freddie King, Eric Clapton, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. (Yes, he liked jazz and it showed up a lot in his modal soloing. See In Memory of Elizabeth Reed on Eat a Peach.)Other than that, I'll just tell you, keep playin'!