Guide to
Slide
Take a guitar string and use something to slide up and down…magic! And then, things start to get complicated. Let’s explore a bit….
Slide guitar
A generic term covering any object (pocket knife, comb, bar, beer bottle, hambone, mic stand, lipstick cover, Coricidrin bottle, etc.) sliding along or fretting strings.
Steel guitar
A generic term for a guitar with raised strings played “on its back”; usually a solid wood or metal body with an electric pickup.
Pedal Steel guitar
A steel guitar with pedals and knee levers to change tuning with feet and knee
Ped-A-Bro
A cross between pedal steel and Dobro; an acoustic pedal steel
E-Bow
A battery-powered electromagnetic device that drives or “bows” a guitar string, giving infinite sustain and effects; an electrified violin bow.
Dobro
Created to increase guitar volume using a steel resonator cone; the name now refers to an acoustic slide sound used in Hawaiian, country, blues, bluegrass and rock.
Bottleneck guitar
A standard guitar played with a round tube on the fretting hand; used in blues and rock and played in open or standard tuning.
Hawaiian guitar
Essentially a lap steel or Dobro; the term refers more to the style and origin.
Lap Steel
A solid-body electric guitar with six or eight strings, smaller than a standard guitar, played on its back in the lap or on a stand
History
How the slide/steel story developed
Joseph Kekuku is generally acknowledged as the originator of the steel/slide guitar technique. He discovered the technique using a pen or comb to slide up and down strings in Hawaii in the mid-1880s.
Hawaiians used open tuning; a straight bar allowed chords by moving fret to fret. Kekuku later traveled the mainland and Europe demonstrating the style.
The instrument evolved through steel bars, new tunings, raised strings, lap/back playing, slanting the bar, more strings, stands and multiple necks/tunings.
Electric pickups were added; steel guitar became the first commercially available electric guitar in the early 1930s. Pedals and knee levers were added in the early 1950s, allowing tuning changes while playing and reducing the need for bar slants.
The guide explains that steel guitar has a relatively short and exotic history and remains less familiar than traditional instruments; terminology can be confusing, so clarification helps listeners.