Topic: playing slide on an electric

[unezrider]

hello friend,
i'm not sure if this is the appropriate place for this, so please move it, if not.
i was feeling a little inspired by mike brosnan's slide playing on his paul, so i tuned mine down to vestopol to run through some elmore james material. after about five minutes i remembered why i never play slide on my electric guitar. i am constantly having to change the angle of my slide when i pick a different string to keep the notes from sounding half muffled, or like i'm just snapping the strings while coincidently holding a slide over them. i have the action reasonable high, though comfortable on the guitar. so that hasn't been an issue. & it's set up with .11's, which is good size for an electric guitar.
does anybody else here ever dabble with electric slide? & is this an issue other's have dealt with? i know the allman brothers never seemed to have issues playing slide on les pauls. or perhaps is it that i'm just not used to it? but as it stands, you'd swear i never picked up a bottleneck before in my life. & i can pick up my stella, & play just fine & with all ease.
maybe my best bet is to just find a friend for my rhythm chief 1000, & call it a day?
any help & or suggestions would be appreciated.
chris

[blueshome]

I occasionally play slide on a variety of electrics, none specially set up, mostly with 10's or 11's. Never really had any problems.

I suppose you can mess with the set up or try different guitars but I would recommend persistence, it's a different thing altogether to acoustic slide, needing a different touch and timing. Stick at it!

[Mike Brosnan]

Well, I'm far from knowledgeable about this stuff... But I'm glad I could help inspire someone else to do this stuff cuz I'm havin' a ball! 
The Les Paul I'm playin' is definitely not set up for slide.  Action's pretty low.  Strings are pretty thin (probably .010s or .011s).  I had a real hard time sliding on this thing at first, but it eventually started feeling more comfortable. 
Occasionally I practice slide on my Blueridge which has super low action and super light strings, so I think that was good preparation.
One thing that helps me is tuning UP to spanish or vastapol instead of down.  The extra string tension in open A and E feels a little more comfortable to me.   

[unezrider]

thanks guys.
about three years ago i started playing my electric a lot again. it had been spending most of it's days resting in my closet for years on end. & it took awhile just trying to get used to the difference playing it. now i feel like home on it. but slide is something i usually don't play on it, & that still feels foreign to me. & you're right, it's amazing how different an acoustic can be from an electric. so i'll just keep at it & see what happens. but i think i'll keep my eyes open one day for an acoustic archtop with a flat fret board to rig into an electric slide machine.
i'll give the tuning 'up' a try next time. i usually try to avoid that 

[unezrider]

hello friend,
been practicing a bit, & i think my action may just be a little too low for slide on her. though i was getting better, but was noticing some interference from some of the frets.
also tried tuning up, & that seemed to help. thanks again guys! i'll keep at it.
chris