Slides ..

EoghanIRL

I dug out a slide I bought a few years ago for my fender , metal not glass . I can't get it to sound great . I heard you are supposed to palm mute with your fingers the strings behind the slide . Any tips would be appreciated .

Rory Gallagher

First off a glass slide is always suggested when using the electric guitar.
Also have a reasonably high action, Now I don't mute behind the slide but a fair amount of people do.
Whatever floats your boat.Also ensure you have a slide that you are comfortable with and makes vibrato easy to do , Otherwise it will sound like ****e.

Hope I helped.

KeithTS

I put the slide on my ring fnger and lightly mute behind the slide with my index and middle fingers. You get much more clarity and it'll sound a lot fuller when muted as the note you intend to play will ring through better, a similar idea to why muted strings at the nut result in tapping sounding better.

Depending on how many fingers I need free I also put it on my middle then mute with the index only so I play thrills and whatever.

High action is best as you wont fret the notes you're playing as easy, the idea is that you play over the fret and dont actually push the string down, and you wont be knocking the slide off the frets either with high action.

I'd suggest learning slide on acoustic, if thats not an option though use a sound with low gain and little or no compression so you dont get overtones or accidental notes ringing through.

I prefer a middy or low end clean tone with a touch of reverb personally, especially with metal slides.

EoghanIRL

Late reply I know but thanks for the advice .