Porcelain Guitar Slides (aka ceramic guitar slides)

I confess. Mudslide/moonshine porcelain guitar slides are my favorite slides of all time. I've mentioned this on some of the other pages. I have quite a few reasons why I prefer them. They're not for everyone, but they are great for me. Here's why I like them more than any of the other guitar slides.

They are heavy - This is not always a good thing but I prefer heavier guitar slides. They feel more solid and less flimsy. I'm always afraid I'm going to break a glass slide.

They absorb moisture - This is an awesome built-in feature to ceramic/porcelain guitar slides. They have a bisque interior typically. The pores take in any moisture. This is important when playing with sweaty fingers. My fingers like to sweat when I play guitar.The slide never gets slippery on the inside. The interior is, of course, rougher than glass and metal slides but it won't hurt your fingers. It provides needed traction and stabilization.

They sound sweet. The sound is much warmer than glass. It's not as "metally" as metal guitar slides. I feel that brass, copper, and other metal guitar slides give a harsh sound and add extra noise to the overall sound. You don't get that with porcelain.

They are pretty much the middle ground of guitar slides. They offer the benefits from both sides, without the bad parts. For instance, glass guitar slides are easy to break while metal guitar slides aren't. Porcelain is somewhere in between. I've dropped them plenty of times with only minor chips, if that. Glass guitar slides don't corrode but metal guitar slides usually do. Porcelain doesn't corrode at all. Metal slides may not corrode on the outside but I can't tell you how many times I've gotten rust all over my finger from the inside of metal guitar slides. Brass tarnishes real easy but it doesn't really effect the overall sound or playability of the slide.

I wouldn't use a porcelain slide for electric playing at all. This may sound a little harsh, and it could very well be that my playing causes most of the trouble, but the heaviness of porcelain guitar slides make them hard to keep from getting fret noise. For electric playing, I prefer glass guitar slides. However, since I rarely play electric slide, I typically don't have glass guitar slides laying around.

Porcelain guitar slides are typically a bit more expense than glass guitar slides. I've owned two mudslides and I just recently purchased one of the Joe Perry Signature porcelain guitar slides. They were all around $20 when I purchased them locally.