The Byrds's "Eight Miles High": 12 String Guitar Lesson
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- čas přidán 20. 08. 2024
- Here's a "Jangle-fied" rendition of the The Byrds classic "Eight Miles High." It all started with transcribing Roger McGuinn's iconic opening lick, and then modifying it to make it more solid and less free-jazzy, a.k.a. playable for we who are not Roger :-)
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Thanks for watching!
#thebyrds #12string #guitarlesson
Great session! At 78 years old, I’m not about to tackle 12 string, but I will try a version on my relatively high quality 30 year old classical guitar!! Thanks for the post. Great quality!!
Yeah that'll be much easier than these high-tension 12 strings!
A song that still sounds as fresh and relevant today as I'm sure it did back in '66. Incredible. Great lesson as always, Eric. Thanks
Yeah! I've always loved this one!
6:49 A little snippet of "I See You" same chord progression with a few jazzy bits and pieces in there. The Byrds circa '66 are amazing.
Just bought a Rickenbacker 360-12 to specifically do this song. Well and a lot of others. I love 12 strings. Found your vid and am locked on. Will be playing this in your transcribe in a week or two. Started playing in 1959 and have been blessed playing with many many talented musicians. To give you a compliment, you rank very high with me in you being such a natural player if you understand my meaning. Thank you for the vid.
Oooh congrats on that Ric!
And thanks so much for the kind words - I truly appreciate it!
Try a Jangle Box. The big thing with McGuinn was that he plugged right into the board, like Motown and got a high level of compression. Compression intensifies the jangle and sustains it. The Jangle Box gets the best approximation, unless you can find a Ric McGuinn 370/12 with an internal compressor.
This rocked. I have always loved this song but I still cringe during the second part of the intro on the original recording. Thank you for bringing the stars into a resolved alignment. Love your videos. Respect!
Eric, it happens so often where I'll type a song into CZcams that I love and want to listen to and just below the original in the search results, you always seem to have done a lesson on it. Isn't It A Pity, Going Down, this one, and a hundred others there you are. So glad there's a teacher on CZcams that shares my tastes in music. Between you and Anyone Can Play Guitar, I'm covered.
It’s funny - Adrian and I chat via instagram to make sure we don’t do the same songs 🤓
@@EricHaugenGuitar That 100% doesn't surprise me lol
One of my all time favorite tunes. You really are egging me on to buy one of those Danelectro 12s... Thanks man!
Man, for the money they’re pretty darn great!
@@EricHaugenGuitar i just bought a cream danelectro 12. Its the best guitar ive ever owned
That is a very nice reinvention. The original is iconic but is, honestly, full of fluffed bits...free jazz is used to excuse the fast, indistinct fluffing and add a touch of copping some Shankar and deification was solidified. The original solos "sound" exotic, Quixotic and interstellar partly due to the perceived wisdom of the times. I LOVE the cleanly played parts and suffer the blurring silently. Your interpretation is VERY cool and clear.
Great job✌🏼...The Byrds would be ever so proud.🎤🎶🎶🎶🎸🎸🎸🥁
Awesome. To me, this song best encapsulates the vibe of the 60s. One of my all-time favorites. Headed for your website now.
You caught that well... very nice. Like the tone you got there.
Thanks man!
Yeah - I think the sunroom is a little punchier than my living room. It’s interesting how the space affects the tone!
I love this song.
Yeah! The Byrds were such an important piece of the 60s sound!
dude this is soo sick great job on the lead so cool see that in real life... rip David Crosby forever love this classic!
Man, i need an 12-string for myself now. A friend of mine recently acquired an 12-string Danelectro for his The Beatles tribute band and that thing is a blast to play!
Yeah! Speaking of affordable guitars - these new Danos play great!
I got a cheap Cozart 12 string for 139$. I will move up to a DanElectro one day, but I figured I'd start on a cheap guitar first. Way different from a 6 string but it did sorta help improve my playing. I got a compressor and it really brings out the chime and jangle of the 12 string.
man that danelectro NAILS the sound. so good
Thanks Patrick!
It's crazy how good that bridge position lipstick humbucker sounds!
“I don’t know, but it’s some kind of sequence” 😂
Great vid 😎
Ha! Yeah, every so often I can't really explain what I've come up with :-)
That shirt sounds fantastic!
Everyone knows plaid has the best tonal properties 😂
Nice Electro 12 Banger ! And as Always killer Tone and Great playing my Friend
Thanks Kent!
Very nice. Crosby had set up a reel to reel tape player in their tour bus, McGuinn told me, with some Ravi Shankar , ( the twiddle at the end you mentioned as Phyrigian, is probably Phyrigian Dominant, and on the rest of the tape they had Coltrane's " Africa Brass" McGuinn takes the first few notes of his solo from it's theme which pops up throughout the piece. Roger wanted to get more flexibility and sustain on his 12 string Ric - so he ran it through TWO compressors and went modal. Crosby's droning E string was his attempt to mimic Ravi's öne- note tamboura players drone. Groovy 😁 !
My favorite version so far!!Thanks for posting!
Thanks Calvin!
Really like the Danny 12! I've always found them very easy to play.
In general, Dano is really making some affordable, playable, and toneful guitars these days!
Aha! About 4 months ago, That Pedal Show had Dave Gregory of XTC on and he's a Poster Boy for 12 string Rickenbackers...plays them a lot and knows a lot about them. He was given a 12 string Danelectro to mess with (That looks like the same one you have) and played it for a minute or two and said, "That's pretty damn good!" And you just confirmed it. It does sound pretty damn good.
Indeed they are! Especially at like 1/8 the cost of a pretty ric.
That being said, I still want a ric - so iconic!
Eric I love your lessons!
Thanks Alex!
very good !
Thanks so much Bob!
@@EricHaugenGuitar Thank -you Eric , you don't know how good it is to see young folks like you put your own fresh new injection of life into a classic with the good taste and touch of class that some others don't seem to comprehend while they only end up imposing their own crass ego
WOW!! What a great rendition of this song keeping it original but w a SMOOTH ass touch.......
And...
THANK YOU for the picking instructions that really cleared up things between me and my acoustic 12.
CHEERS!!!!
Finally an understandable version. Thank you very much.
Wow thats a beautiful guitar!
Thanks! These new Danos are really great guitars - especially for the money!
I just bought that guitar from Sweetwater in blood red. Searching for it brought me to you, and I think I'll like it when it arrives the middle of next week. Nice cover.
It arrived today, and I'm loving it. :)
So funny❗️😆 i recently started to hear the byrds, through Gram Parsons I came to it...
Thank you again, Eric❗️✊🏼🎸❤️❗️
Oooh yeah Gram’s the man! 🙌🏻
Really great man. Thanks.
Thanks Larry! I’m really happy with the tone I got on this one!
The clarity - congrats
Thanks!
I always loved this song - it was a fun one to put together this way!
Thanks for breaking it down. I've been wanting the$2300.00 Rickenbacker 12 string electric guitar 🎸 for awhile now, I must get one
I'd play one first! Rickenbackers are very very pretty, but they have the weirdest feeling necks of any guitar!
@@EricHaugenGuitar my guitar repair man ( who's also a guitarist ) told me that he won't work on Rickenbackes ! and won't even change the strings, I think he meant the 12 string, also that the low E is first ! the 6th string, so it's ass backwards from the other 12 string guitars, I have a Taylor 12 acoustic, 1700.00 range and a cheap Yamaha 12 I've had for 40 years. I priced the Rickenbacker 12 & couldn't get it cheaper than 2300.00 ! I called rainbow guitars 🎸 and am awaiting their return call, I'll buy one immediately for 1700.00
Thanks again
@@EricHaugenGuitar I think I have you confused with another youtuber playing the Rickenbacker 12 string electric guitar 🎸 he bought his recently for 1700.00
Perfect , honey to my ears -
Very nice. Thanks Eric
Great to see some Cool stuff on Roger Mcguinn! many thanks Eric :-)
Oh yeah! He’s a Ric Wizard! The hybrid picking thing he does is really unique!
@@EricHaugenGuitar That's not easy to do and you did a really cool job on that Eric:) I've been listening to Dave Gregory's 12-string Rickenbacker playing in the 80s with XTC recently too...Love that sound and lovely too see it being looked at on YT more now :-)
You play that so easily. Wish I could do that. Anyway thanks for the lesson. Will have to practice. Great song by the way..
You sound amazing Bro......very nice rendition...congrats.!
Thanks man!
I like the , "Makes sense to me part". That makes sense to me.
Great tone out of that Dano. And good chops.
Thanks Mark!
This is SO great! Thanks for doing this ✌️
Glad I stumbled across this vid, looking at the Dano for my next guitar
They're really well made - they play great, especially at that price!
Halo Eric my friend. Great lesson. Thanks for sharing. All the best/Kjell 🎸 🎸
I still haven’t heard anybody play the lead part correctly…one of the greatest solos by an American rock guitarist.
The magpie salute do an awesome version of that live. Cool vid man
Ooooh neato I’ll have to track that down!
Beautiful 🤩
The way the song collapses and the melody kicks in at 26 seconds may be my favorite moment in popular music. And I'm not really even a Byrds fan. Can some music theory nerd tell me about what's going on here? I've waited about a decade to learn what this is and where to hear more of it. : ).
The original has some ringing higher tone in the background that's missing in this version, it makes the effect more powerful, but whatever this magical effect is, it's in this arrangement too.
One Stephen Stills best! Nice job Eric!
Thanks J!
Stills wasn't involved in this song! It was written by Gene Clark and the iconic solo was played by Roger McGuinn, with future Stills bandmate David Crosby on rhythm guitar.
Awesome man!..... Jangly Byrdsy goodness
Ya gotta love the sound of affordable jangle 😎!
The Danelectro 12 is bomb.
Yeah! That thing RIPS!
I can't believe how good the lipstick humbucker sounds!
Thank you so much Eric! I already purchased the tab from you and will certainly purchase more. I'm also happy that you are using a Danelectro - the very same 12-sting electric guitar I recently purchased, since I cannot afford a $4000 Rickenbacker. Sonically, I cannot tell the difference!
Yeah! I love the way Rics look, but the price is quite high - which I totally understand for a made in USA instrument, but also the feel of Ric necks never made sense to me.
As my luthier friend Brian says: ".....You play econo"
Cheap Danos FTW!
Thanks, good timing. Always love your videos. Super helpful!!
Yeah! This one is such a classic - it's even fun to play on a regular 6 string too!
Nailed it ! 👌
Have you moved out your old place??? Love the rug and the floor! And the guitar playing too, ofc!
Naw, I just thought it’d be fun to shoot some vids in the sunroom - it’s the room just behind the room I usually shoot in 🌴
@@EricHaugenGuitar Lovely place! Wish I had those kinds of windows. Housing in Stockholm is not cheap :/
Excellent!
Thanks Joe!
Okay, I’ve been trying to decide between the Danelectro Vintage 12 and the 59x12 that you’re playing. I was afraid I wouldn’t get the jangle I was craving with the 59 but, after watching your video, my fears are soothed. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a guitar to order.
These recent danos are crazy good guitars for the money! The build quality is way better than you'd expect! Koreans know how to build!
Nice version!
Sounds awesome
Thanks man!
Beautifully played Eric.Like the new look. Thanks for a wonderful lesson appreciate it. You gave me another lesson to work on this weekend but only a acoustic 12 string. Have a great weekend ✌🏻
Thanks Wilbert!
I thought it’d be fun to shoot some vids in the sunroom - it’s the room right behind where I usually film 🌝
Txn May frend very good lesion my favorit song Andrzej from Poland😊
Thanks Eric, that’s my afternoon sorted ! Love your 12 string stuff. Wall of Death next?
Oooh good one! I just added it to my Spotify playlist of good recs! open.spotify.com/user/ebhaugen/playlist/6AGvurVXk7a8WkiqY5t3Nf?si=489R4gh0Q5eRh9iVuwInlg
Eric Haugen following the list. There is some great stuff on there, I got tickets to see a couple of the bands based on listening.
Cool! This community of CZcams friends has got some great tastes!
I liked that quite a bit ...a less chaotic 'John Coltrane-esque' intro freakout to begin and some very nice chord progressions that sounded more interesting. A little more compression would make it sound a hair more authentic but less sweet sounding... very well done brother!
Thanks Mark!
Yeah - I couldn’t get the authentic McGuinn squash. Man, he crushes that Ric!
Yeah don't forget the trouble booster too.
One of my favourite Byrds songs and you've done a great job in making it more 'user friendly' - playable. Great sound on that guitar and you teach REALLY well.
Also, I just noticed that your guitar has a proper bridge for a 12 string which means that each string can be individually intonated. I bought a copy Ric 12 string a few years ago but had to send it back because it was impossible to get it to play in tune all over the neck. I don't know how McGuinn tolerated his first Ric 12 string. You just cannot properly intonate two strings of hugely different gauges with a six string bridge! Maybe my ears are super sensitive but I couldn't play a guitar like that. It always sounded out of tune.
Thanks so much, man!
Yeah - making that opening solo "user friendly" has been a goal of mine for years. It starts out so perfectly, and then dissolves! Not that I'd change the original recording, of course - but if I'm gonna play it, I'm gonna move some things around to make it my way :-)
Bohma - I agree! I have a 12-string Rick 370 and cannot intonate the top two strings to save myself. I finally just tuned them slightly out of tune, but where the songs need them to be. Extremely frustrating. Glad to hear I'm not the only one.
Nice job!
Thanks man!
great video
that was absolutely beautiful, mate! big love from north cardiff (wales)'s biggest byrds fan!
any chance you can show me how he plays his cover of 'it's alright ma' from the easy rider soundtrack?
Oooh good idea! That's a great version!
Spot on Eric!
Suggestions - 1 The 2 leads on 'Too Many People' from Macca's RAM album.
2 The strange rhythm of James Williamson on 'Gimme Danger' from the Raw Power album by Iggy and the Stooges.
Oooh those are both excellent ideas! That reminds me - I’ve got an arrangement of “Jet” up my sleeve, maybe add that one to the to do list as well!
Btw I just checked my uk CZcams buddy anyonecanplayguitar has a good lesson up for Gimme Danger.
@@EricHaugenGuitar Great thanks! I'll check it out.
Fantastic! Nice room improvement by the way.
Thanks Lucky! I thought it’d be fun to shoot a few vids in the sun porch - it’s the room just behind the room I usually shoot in.
You did well.
Woooooooooooooooooooooow !!!!!!
Thanks man !
That's so good I can barely stand it.
Thanks so much David! I love how zingy that dano 12 is ⚡️
Exceptional video, You should do the Byrds version of Hey Joe off of their Fifth Dimension album.
How about the Husker Du version?
Ha! Good idea - I should’ve done a mashup of the 2
In that room you have a Dave Rawlings on the cover of “A Friend Of A Friend” vibe.
Ha! Totally!
Speaking of Rawlings - I've got a vid on his and Gillie's version of Dylan's "Billy" coming out in a few weeks - stay tuned!
Nice job with the tune and the backing track as well. I've been looking to add this tune as a jam vehicle and thought it would be cool to tackle it as a chord melody along the way. McGuinn was really listening to a lot of Coltrane at the time of the recording and the "sheets of sound" influence is really obvious on the original, but I like what you did bringing it back to earth, no pun intended. Just curious about your Dano - is the string spacing more forgivable compared to a Rick and how is it configured vis-a-vis the string arrangement? The Rick, as you know, has the lower string first, which is different than every other 12 string I have played. Again, thanks and nice job!
Will try this on the 90's Japanese Fender 12 string strat I treated myself to last year.
Re Byrds, Requiem For The Timeless by Johnny Rogan is one of the best music biographies I have ever read, very much recommended albeit two friends I lend music biographies to refused point blank to read it when they saw that it was 1200 pages and Vol 1, I bought Vol 2 but haven't read it yet. Re them refusing to read it, my opinion is that their recreational pursuits have compromised their attention spans, musicians, eh.
Oooooh I love the Fender strat XII!
Wow that Byrds bio looks comprehensive indeed! The thing I'm most curious about is the nuts and bolts of the compositions, arrangements, and recordings - it seems like something like that will actually have enough time/page space to go into detail there. All too often, rock bios are basically: "....Some talented dudes got together with some other dudes, got lucky, got famous, did bad things, lawyers got involved, and now they hate each other.."
@@EricHaugenGuitar The 12 string is lovely and made me reconsider hard tail strats as it is rock solid. I usually tweak my guitars, new pickups etc but both that and the previous guitar I bought, a mid 2000's Gordon Smith GS1, wouldn't be improved by anything I did to them so I'm leaving them as I got them which is stock.
The Byrds book is a joy to read, it covers pretty much everything you could hope for I was loaned it by someone I know whom I was lending music biographies to and as soon as I finished it and returned it I bought a new copy of it as I knew I wanted it in my library to at some point read again and also to lend out but that didn't work out. I'm looking forward to reading volume 2, I also have the same authors book on The Smiths sitting unread so I'll do that first. Another I'd recommend is The Big Midweek by Steve Hanley, of the five books I've read on The Fall I felt that was the best.
Edit, re Fender 12's, Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins used one of the hockey stick Fender 12's.
Do you use compression when playing and recording 12-string electric? Your Danelectro sounds incredible. McGuinn's picking style is very influenced by banjo. Roger was a banjo player back in the old folk days before he discovered the Ric 12. Awesome video.
Yeah I use the tape compression side of the strymon deco to squash it a bit. That, a ribbon mic and some reverb in post go a long way!
Great shirt. Where'd you get it?
Why, at the Levi's outlet in Mebane NC - what a wonderful place!
Next up--Husker Du's cover! :-)
Oooh I didn’t know they did a version - I’ll have to check that out!
Sounds like R.E.M.
Hi there Eric. I noticed this is a 59x Danelectro . You used a single pick ups Danelectro in a previous video on using the 12string texturally for effect. How do you rate this one compared to the other?? Im curious as Im about to buy one but torn between the two.
Thanks ..great playing as always
They’re both good - one just looks cooler than the other!
@@EricHaugenGuitar
In terms of tonal sounds and settings, ,do you prefer one over the other?
I wonder, could you come close with a strat and reverb? and tape effect? I wonder how to get this sound on a budget. Maybe impossible : )
Hrmmmmmm strat and reverb is a great combination for sure!
Obviously this is on a 12 string, so there's no easy way to cop that sound other than to.......buy more guitars! :-)
I just bought a Danelectro vintage 12 and wanted to swap out the cheap looking knobs. What are the ones you have on?
I bought that guitar a few months ago. Great tone, but the action needs adjusting after just 10 weeks.
Oh yeah, I had my tech adjust the saddles to better match the fretboard radius. But honestly, all my guitars move around month to month. I’m in the south though, so the humidity changes constantly!
Is the guitar strung like a “normal” 12, or like a Rickenbacker?
It's n o r m a l style!
Is that a wider than standard neck on the Dano? I recently picked up a Dano 59 12, with the two single lipstick tubes. A little cramped but I love it. Yours might sound better though.
It does feel wider than my 6 string dano. I wish the fretboard had a bit more curve to the radius, still love it for the price though!
Is there a connection to this riff and the one in "Love goes on" by the The Go-Betweens ? ? ?
I can definitely hear some similarities in the chord structure!
Thanks for this Eric, Hope you're not any where near Dorian down there in NC.
Phrygian
We got lucky this time! We’re pretty far inland in Pittsboro, so just a little wind and rain.
Nice sun porch, does it sound any different compared to recording in your usual room?
Yeah! I noticed that it’s definitely punchier than the big old living room. The figure 8 mic is very responsive to the space - how cool!
Hey Eric great playing and sounds. What kind of guitar is that? it looks and sounds like it's well made.
Thanks Howard!
It's one of the new Danelectros - and you're right, the build quality and feel will surprise you! They're made in Korea, to what must be a very high standard!
@@EricHaugenGuitar Cool they are making them in Korea again. I have one of the first Dano-12 strings that were made in the late 90's. anyway those guitars were made in Korea and at the time their whole line of guitars were of the charts good! I'll have to check this one out. I can tell it's well made
The surprise is how smooth the neck/frets are!
Usually guitars at this price point need work in that area!
@@EricHaugenGuitar Japan was the first asian country to make 1st class guitars and then Korea. They have been building great guitars for a long time now.
Haha, I'll see how this goes on the 12 string acoustic :)
Good luck! It should work equally well on an acoustic 🤞
Just ran across this one...
Is your 12-er strung like a Ric (root string first, octave second)?
Naw it's the regular way!
John Coltrane -- India
Totally!
Do you use a compressor?
In this case, I'm using the "tape compression" mode of my strymon deco - it's a great pedal, everyone should have one!
banjo rolls on a 12 string Haugen??? FFS that is RSI inducing, but none the less very cool, as ever suitable warped ;-) ace...
It’s weird, I find them slightly easier on a 12 than a 6 - I sorta roll across the top of the strings, not digging in really hard.
How's that 12 string holding up? Neck staying straight on it?
Yeah the neck is still good! I had my tech adjust the saddles to match the radius a little better, though. Apparently it’s a common problem these days with all guitars.
@@EricHaugenGuitar Yes, I can testify to that. It looks like the saddles have adjustment screws on them similar to Fender saddles. Also, can this 12 string come close to sounding like an acoustic 12 string? I keep having issues with acoustic 12 string necks not staying put to my liking.
Lush
You know what they say. 12 string players spend half their time tuning. And the other half of their time playing out of tune.
Ha!
I've been lucky, all my 12s are pretty dang sturdy.
Honestly, my Mustang and my Starfire are the 'tuning-problem-children' in my house :-)
Nice but you need a little more gain on the guitar and to dig in and play more aggressively. You're barely grazing the strings with your pick which is not how this was played originally.