Martin Harley
He’s one of Britain’s top slide artists and a thoroughly decent chap to boot. We catch up with dapper mojo-worker Martin Harley to talk about what it takes to get started and stay motivated in learning slide – including why a 12-string is a beginner’s best friend, choosing gear that’ll help you sound great, and how a bit of minor larceny
from pubs can save your gig
On geting started on slide…
“I think being really stubborn helps. It was a real bug for me. I play guitar, and I enjoy guitar playing. I was in heavier rock bands. I’d always had a love of blues and just working out that slide could be played across my lap was a big thing.
“When I first tried to emulate Paris, Texas and Ry Cooder I did the bottleneck thing. I found it quite limited: it didn’t sit that comfortably with me. Then I saw there was the whole lap-steel thing, and then the Weissenborn thing [ hourglass-shaped, lap-style guitars inspired by the 1920s designs of Hermann Weissenborn]. I found that quite intoxicating. It’s across your lap. You can isolate notes in a different way.”
…And then sticking at it
On picking a cheap guitar to learnwith…
“I think there are a few things that made me want to stick at it. There’s so much that I want to achieve, and am still trying to achieve. It’s such a long learning curve. It seemed like a long journey and I quite liked that sort of challenge. I feel like I’m changing, improving, learning different things every year I play.
“So I never really feel I’m resting on my laurels, and that keeps me interested in it. Also, Weissenborns are just sexy instruments. [laughs].” “Other than just using a bottleneck on a regular guitar, my dad was always picking up second-hand guitars from junk shops and car boot sales. So I got this old 12-string and strung it up as a 12-string – but then realised that the top was a bit too warped and the action was a bit too high to really do anything with.
“So I just raised the action up at the nut end, and at the saddle, tuned it to an open chord and started with that. I went through a few 12-strings, actually. They’re a good thing to convert into a slide guitar, because they’ll take the tension of higher strings. When you raise the nut and the saddle higher to suit slide, you put more tension on the top [see our accompanying video with Martin, on how to convert a standard acoustic for slide].
“But 12-strings seem to be constructed to deal with that. Also, the necks are generally slightly wider so if you don’t want a real narrow spacing at the nut, you could really spread that out.
“The second slide guitar I converted was when I was living in Australia: I bought
“In Australia, I started playing a lot, because I was living in my car and I was on a budget. Getting better seemed a good way to make money –and you’re never far from friends or beer when you play guitar”
another 12-string that warped in the [heat of the] back of the car so that got converted. That was where I really started playing a lot, because I was living in my car and I was on a budget, getting better seemed a good way to make money along the way. You’re never too far away from friends or beer if you play guitar. So that helped.”
On bottleneck vs lap-style…
“I play lap-style because it gives you I think more sustain, because I play with a tone bar which is very heavy. Just the physics of that allows you more sustain. You can cover all the strings, or you can partially cover the strings to create the impression of minors going on.
“For me, it just seems more versatile as an instrument as opposed to bottleneck, and has a slightly bigger sound. Weissenborns are generally hollow and they’ve got really big fat strings on them, so there’s just much more depth to the sound. Also, with lap style, it’s maybe like a cello player: you feel a lot of vibration from the instrument. You’re quite connected to it.”
On choosing a tuning to play slide in…
“I think the first thing I did was try tuning the guitar to an open G tuning [D G D G B D], just because I’d listened to and researched Robert Johnson's playing. I think he’s most people’s first port of call, or certainly was at that time. I found out he used a G tuning, so I just tuned my regular guitar to G. Then I got the bottleneck out and persevered with that for a while.
“Now, generally, it’s open D [D A D F# A D] that I use. I like that deeper sound and because I alternate the bass line, it’s nice to have that low D.”
On choosing the right slide…
“A lot of people use a glass medicine bottle, which is quite light, and Derek Trucks uses that sort of sound, I think. It’s nice. It’s quite mellow, but doesn’t have a lot of sustain. You can use quite a lot of attack and it still stays quite round. My personal favourite cheap-y way of doing it is using a socket from a socket set. Get a long socket. You might get a little bit of a scratchy sound if you use the bit that says Draper Tools or whatever on it. Once, I was doing a gig at the Bedford Arms in Balham and getting ready backstage. I thought, ‘Oh God, I’ve left my slide at home. This is going to be embarrassing’. I can’t play the slide guitar any other way. I was like, ‘What can I do?’
“There was a toolkit in the corner. I think this [sheepishly holds up a socket from his box of slides] actually belongs to them. So I apologise to the Bedford Arms in Balham! The socket’s really good. It’s somewhere in between a regular chrome-plated slide and a tone bar, so it’s quite heavy. It’s got quite good sustain.
“But the tone bar is the best for me. That’s the thing I’ve got used to. It’s a Shubb SP2. It’s heavier than a socket and it’s got without a doubt the best sustain. It is heavy: it’s a heavy thing to navigate for a while. Finally, if you’re doing things on the cheap, you can even improvise with any metal tube – even just a bit of wardrobe rail.”
On choosing pickups for acoustic slide…
“It’s trial-and-error with pickups. I’ve navigated more towards soundhole pickups over the past few years, because you can move them from instrument to instrument without too much damage or disruption. Piezos are a real pain to fit, sometimes, and I don’t find they’re necessarily very consistent. I’m sure there are good ones out there.
“I’ve mostly tried Fishman, just the standard Fishman soundhole pickup, and I’ve got a couple of Sunrise pickups. The one I’ve settled on for the Weissenborn is an LR Baggs Active M1. What I like about that is that it’s quite body-sensitive.
“So if you start tapping the body right down at the bottom, you hear that coming through the pickup. Because one of the nice qualities of the Weissenborn is that the whole body resonates and it is hollow, that helps to pick up that sort of tone. Downside of that is, if you’re trying to play with a band it’s a bit prone to feedback.
“Slide is great for emotional playing. I’m still drunk on the sound. I just think it’s great. Could be in tune, it could be out of tune… It’s just a brilliant sound”
“The Sunrises are really good but they’re very – they sound quite electric. It doesn’t seem to bring out the [tonal] quality of the acoustic sound that much, but it is hugely feedback-resistant. So in the acoustic slide guitars, it’s the Active M1. I don’t generally mic them up.”
On writing for slide guitar …
“This varies. With regular guitar, you pick it up, you want to go major to minor, you want to do a key change, it’s just all there. If your mind is working on a song, that gives you more freedom, at least in some respects. So slide isn’t always the mainstay, but it can be. You’ve got to be in the mood to write the kind of song that fits with the slide guitar, I think.
“I mean, sometimes, it will just be playing around with a new tuning. On slide, that usually gives way to a new song. You just start working out what’s what, slowly, and half an hour later you realise you’ve got a progression that’s probably worth keeping. So that’s certainly a good way of keeping yourself writing on the slide guitar.
“It’s probably 50/50 to be honest, but a regular guitar is… well, there’s usually one around somewhere. Sometimes there are songs I wish I could transfer to slide from regular guitar, but haven’t quite worked it out yet. It is so diverse.”
On why slide is worth the effort …
“I think playing slide makes me consider phrasing a bit more, because you can be slightly limited in what you can do on the slide guitar. It’s so… human; it’s quite vocal. You’re not moving fret to fret to fret to fret. You have amazing control over vibrato – it’s this linear sort of note.
“So I think it’s very characterful. It’s helped me just understand how to get more phrasing into other instruments and, quite often, how to simplify. As I get older and greyer in my beard, I’m so much more fascinated by real feely emotional players. So slide is great for that. I’m still drunk on that sound. I just think it’s great. Could be in tune, it could be out of tune… It’s just a brilliant sound.” Mojo Fix by Martin Harley is out now, on 60/20 Records.