How does boxwood and service tree wood sound? Is there sustain?

Due to its lightness, wood will certainly be the material with the least sustain compared to other usual materials.

On an electric guitar you will be able to compensate for this loss by playing with volume and effects. On an acoustic guitar it will also find its place, does a fast blues picking need so much sustain? Wood is the guarantee of a completely different sound colour. A more subdued, round, intimate sound that will perfectly suit many styles of playing and emotions. Knowing that great guitarists now use my slides regularly, some of whom have even adopted them on stage, and with the feedback of more than a hundred satisfied customers, one thing is sure: wood, when it is well chosen, has its place in the world of slide!

And if you want more sustain, my bottlenecks weighted with copper sticks, as heavy at equal length as thick glass, will certainly satisfy your requirements on this point, and even more so with models with a brass tube inside. Yes, weight matters too!

What are the advantages of a boxwood or service tree slide?

If only sustain matters to you, move on, plain wood is not for you, you may try the models that are weighted with copper or a brass tube inside, which have a surprising great amount of sustain.

Nevertheless, my boxwood or service tree slide has lots of other qualities, here are a few:

Its lightness offers an incomparable comfort, not this feeling of something heavy on the finger, you’ll be able to play hours without getting finger-tired, you’ll tend to forget you a have a slide on the finger!

Being light is also an advantage when the action of your guitar is set low, finding the right pressure on the strings so as not to fret is made easier than with heavier materials, especially if you are a beginner!

Lighter also means less inertia when moving on the neck. Sounding clean when sliding requires precision, and with fast playing, a slide that is too heavy can be tricky to handle. It’s something I’ve often been told by my customers, more accuracy.

Another advantage over glass or ceramic, if it falls, it will not break!!

Another positive point is the incomparable sensation to the touch and the ability of wood to manage sweat, unlike inert materials.

It also generates much less parasite noises (zgwing zwging) when hitting the strings.

Oh yes, they are also laser customizable!!

Does a boxwood slide wear out?

I am very vigilant about the selection of my woods, I have tested more than a dozen local species, and I have only retained three, boxwood and service tree, for sale in my shop, and holm oak, of which I unfortunately do not have enough dry stock to sell them here, the only three local species that convinced me of their resistance to wear and tear.

When you slide, you don’t apply as much pressure on the strings as when playing with your fingers, which requires fretting the strings. A light contact is enough, almost a caress. In addition to that, the up-and-down movements across the width of the neck mean that the strings do not always touch the slide at the same place, these movements even tend to polish the wood. Obviously, it is also because these woods are very resistant and used very dry that they last a very long time, a wood such as yew, a little less hard, will more easily reveal furrows on its surface after several hours of use. Scroll through the 3 images on the right, two slides that I’ve been using for a long time, boxwood and service tree, and a third one (yew), which I don’t use anymore, you’ll see the difference.

Boxwood is a wood reputed to be almost as hard as aluminum…

What you slide endures on the strings will be much less abrasive than the friction of the strings on the wood fretboard of your guitar, the fretboard will take many years to get worn out, if it does! Obviously, if you slide too violently, improperly, if you fret the strings, traces of impact will appear, but rest assured, it will always be possible for you to revive it, see the next question!

My boxwood slide tarnishes over time, is that normal?

It’s normal, while a copper or brass slide gets oxidized by the air, your boxwood slide will get stained by the oxidation around the strings and may become a little greyish, no worries, a bit of saliva, rub it with a cloth and it will disappear.

See on the picture on the right the difference between a brand new one and the one I’ve been using for almost a year, without “cleaning” it.

If after months of use you want to revive it, remove some possible micro-scratches, watch this video, in five minutes it will be as clean as when you received it!

Taylor sells ebony slides, Ortega sells cherry and birch slides, why buy a woodslide from La Voix de son Mètre?

Of course, I bought one of each, I had to compare!

The ebony Taylor sounds good but is only available in three sizes, 3.5mm wall thickness is too thin. The other thing about this Taylor is the small crevices on its entire surface (see photo), not great for the transmission of vibrations, the surface condition and smoothness of my boxwood slides are beyond comparison. A Taylor VS boxwood test will soon be online.

Ortega’s slide, sorry but even at 10 euros excluding delivery, it’s throwing your money out the window, it is a real shame to sell this one, rough to the touch, very questionable choice of woods (half cherry, half birch, glued together). A wooden spoon handle is frankly just as effective!

Last but important, you may prefer to encourage craftsmanship, have a real choice in diameters and lengths, not only S, M and L sizes, rather than the industrial offer. Handcrafted VS machine made.

Will my slides be delivered without any cosmetic defects?

90% of the time it will be the case, but sometimes a small knot is present on the surface, oh nothing bad, don’t worry!

If it’s very tiny, I may leave it that way, but if the knot has openings or a crack, then I systematically hollow it out until it disappears.

The resulting almond-shaped hole is then filled with a mixture of cyanolite (superglue) and very fine boxwood dust. This cement is at least as hard as boxwood itself, you don’t feel it under your finger, nor the tip of your nail and it won’t affect your playing, even if the strings go over it, here is on the right what it can look like in the case of a “very big” knot, which is very rare that size.