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The Rock Slide Aged Balltip Guitar Slide - medium

The Rock Slide Aged Balltip Guitar Slide - medium

$27.99
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SKU:
BTRS-SMP-MB
UPC:
605546811822
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The revolution continues with the Balltip Rock Slide®. This slide features everything you’ve come to expect from a Rock Slide®, the cutaway, tapered interior, excellent weight and comfort, but now in a lap/pedal steel inspired ball tip.

If you are into tweed and worn out looking gear, these are for you.  Tonally they sound like a standard brass Rock Slide®, but they resemble something from the bottom of the Bayou.  We individually hand age these using a multi-step recipe of destruction.  They have a perfectly smooth finish for playability.

Each slide is aged by hand. Appearance WILL vary from slide to slide. Some look like the picture, some come out with more black, some come out with gold or leopard spots.

Balltip Rock Slides® have two notable features when compared to an original Rock Slide®.  First off is the very obvious ball nose which makes this a combo slide for use on a variety of other instruments like Dobro or Lap Steel.  Secondly, the slide has 2 playing surfaces for a longer or shorter slide.   Size/Specs follow standard RS design but are slightly heavier & longer due to the added ball-tip.

The one slide your resonator should NEVER leave home without.

Information on sizing:

What size do I need?
Our slides fit the same across all materials. If a small glass fits you, so will a small ceramic or small brass and on and on. Not all situations and fingers are the same and there is also a degree of personal preference that can’t always be figured out with a measurement.  For the majority of customers, pinky finger will take a small slide. Ring finger will take a medium or Large slide. If you have very large hands, medium usually works for the pinky and XL for the ring. If you have smaller hands, check out our XS glass.
 
Method 1: Jewelry Store
The most accurate way to size your finger is to stop by your neighborhood jeweler and get your ring size which should be free and takes about 90 seconds.  We have gone to dozens of jewelry sellers ranging from high end, mall stores and even box stores like WalMart or Fred Meyer. None of them have ever charged us to measure and have given us the same result.
 
Method 2: Measure with Wrenches
If you have access to a set of Metric or USA box wrenches you can very quickly measure your finger.  To measure any finger size, use the OPEN END of the wrench. DO NOT use the ring end of the wrench as it could get stuck on your finger.  Find the size that slides over the large knuckle snugly like how a ring fits.  If it goes over your knuckle without touching the skin then try the next size down.
 
How Should a Rock Slide Guitar Slide Fit?
Forget everything you’ve read in slide books or heard from your guitar teacher saying you need giant slide with full string coverage.  That’s old news.  Ideally these should fit snug enough that you can point your finger straight down at the ground without the slide falling off.  The proper fit is for the slide to stop at the large knuckle creating a 2/3 finger slide.  This allows you for bending of the finger with the slide on which makes, playing, fretting and chording MUCH easier.    Full finger slides feel like wearing a cast which is limiting and not recommended unless you already have this habit and know you like it this way.
 
Information on sound:

Polished Brass & Nickel Plated Brass Rock Slides have huge sustain. Why so much sustain? Because the heart of The Rock Slide is the solid brass rod that is CNC carved to fit your finger. This particular brass formula is very heavy which is the best for tone and sustain. The walls are thick and get thicker towards the end of the slide because of the internal taper design. We intentionally added a tone ring at the fingertip end which adds mass and helps secure your finger. Like a Hawaiian tone bar cuts through the mix with more weight and mass, so does The Rock Slide.

Aged Brass Rock Slides are all done by hand so no two look alike. There is no sanding, dinging, or scuffing involved so the surface is smooth, not scratchy. It’s a satin finish vs. the high gloss polished finish. It sounds the same as the polished version and the patina will wear off with use.

Moulded Glass Rock Slides also have very thick walls because of the internal taper, in fact, the walls at the opening are 4mm and 6-8mm thick at the fingertip end. That’s about twice the thickness of a typical heavy wall glass slide at the end. A baseball bat has a sweet spot for hitting a home run, The Rock Slide® has a sweet spot too. While it is thick enough everywhere to light up the strings, the extra thick end almost acts as a gain knob which helps bring out the low notes, and makes for killer lead playing.

Ceramic Rock Slides have an ultra hard/smooth finish similar to glass but produce more sustain and low end since they outweigh the glass, and even our brass slides.  They are much more durable than glass being made out of high heat industrial ceramic rather than coffee mug/studio clay.  Hi-tech injection moulding allows us to create the same tapered interior and other Rock Slide features you’ve come to love.

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