"So Far, So Good..." is one of the most underrated albums of all time. It's not the most technical ("Rust In Peace"), it's not the most powerful ("Peace Sells...") but has an incredible atmosphere that gives me goosebumps.
SFSGSW is way more difficult to play than people think. Feels like Dave was progressing super quickly as a songwriter and riff machine, but not quite to the level that we see on Rust in Peace yet. So SFSGSW is full of complexity but its unrefinement results to difficult transitions, odd time signatures, among other things. Super fun to play on guitar, it's full of nuance.
This book was MADDENING to me when I was starting to learn guitar in high school. It was like anti-ear training. I would try to play along, and it never, ever felt right. But I ended up blaming my ear, and not the book! It never occured to me that an "official" tab book could be so wildly off the mark. I STILL play that intro to "In My Darkest Hour" wrong to this day, haha. I have to make a point of learning the right way.
Same here dude. I feel your pain. I still own most of the books that I bought back then and they destroyed my confidence. I thought it was me even though something didn't feel right.
oh my god that's so true! maybe Microdeth is an alternate universe version of Megadeth. but instead being complex and intense, it's just... whatever the hell these tabs are, lmao.
Shocking how many of the books in this series I spent my own money on, and still actually have. I did actually give up playing for 20 years partly because these books - I thought I was the problem. Only just recently taken up playing again and the amazing free resources like this channel are absolutely amazing compared to what we had to put up with back then.
@@tomalexander4584 honestly with the resources such as this channel and the likes of Jon Bjork, even at my now ripe old age I have made such massive progress with the right advice in the last few years since taking it up again. No wonder these young kids are so amazing now with all these resources - they aren't just wasting their time like I did back then.
Great comments, thanks. I, too, have a stack of tab books I regret buying. The lessons and covers on YT are better. I still use the play-along CDs with some books. The rhythm section and band tracks there are good for ear training and learning bass parts. Best wishes.
That last part that they split into 2 guitar parts on bad omen made me laugh.. sounded like the bass from Sgt. Baker by Primus being played on guitar 😅
I too had issues with these books as a kid but as an adult I've always felt bad for the transcribers of these books. I'd imagine it was a mad dash behind the scenes to get the transcriptions out the door as soon as possible after album release (I wonder if they got access to the albums ahead of release for this?). And so it's not a huge surprise that they just weren't finished in may cases. Would be interesting to see if you can compare different editions of tab books on the same album or song released a few years apart to see how they possibly got updated/finished properly?
Repeating random notes is so common in these old books. I think if they couldn’t figure out the next note they would just copy/paste or maybe it was an easy mistake with whatever they were using between the software to printing process. Because I would see it all the time and especially in fast licks or riffs.
Good ol' Megadeth tabs. Way back (like 2003ish), I was on an Iced Earth forum (ugh...most of the members are still good friends, we all just jumped off the Iced Earth bandwagon after The Glorious Burden dropped and we knew Jon Schaffer went off the deep end) that was run by a guy who did Iced Earth and Megadeth tabs, and even though Russ was an amazing transcriber, I and a few other members would constantly argue about the "correct" way to play the riffs (he'd have the correct notes and the correct rhythms, but none of us could agree on the correct positions). Bad Omen, My Last Words, and Good Mourning...Black Friday were constantly getting revised :)
I love this series of videos. I grew up with all of these tab books and scratched my head making my way through them as a beginner as well. I eventually learned where I could use the tab as a starting point and adapt it to something that sounded better, made more sense and was comfortable to play, but I've never had a strong enough musical ear or formal training to be able to determine appropriate patterns or techniques that could/should be used. So in many cases, I would just abandon it if seemed too difficult to play. These videos make me feel like I was not alone in my frustration and confusion. Thank you!
I didn't have this tab book but I originally learned these songs the same way from online tabs I found back in the early 2000's. When I later learned alot of these riffs the correct way it gave me a WHOLE new appreciation for the musicianship on Peace Sells. That one and the first album are my favorite Megadeth albums because of the insane riffs and solos. As many have noted before, some of the riffs are more like leads.
For change of pace, you should review the Cowboys from Hell tab book from Alfred that was carefully and accurately transcribed. Give some props when due.
Congrats on 843k Subscribers! 🤘🏻🔥Loved this video! I had one of those Gameboys!! I loved playing Tetris on that thing so much, would love to get another and relive my childhood. haha
In the wake up dead breakdown riff dave plays a triplet gallop (eighth note followed by 3 sixtuplets) instead of a regular one. Makes it a lot harder than a standard maiden style gallop
I’d love to see something from an early (82/83) issue of Guitar For The Practising Musician where you had to flip pages back and forth. If I remember correctly, Ratt - Round and Round is in this format.
These videos are great. I've owned a lot of tab books and Megadeth's were always the most difficult, but I think it was just because I wasn't good and their stuff is crazy. Hey Mike I have a request if you see this: Can you listen to Metal Church "Method To Your Madness" and tell me why it sounds like the solo is in the wrong key? It always sounds to me like after the solo was recorded to a different rhythm track they redid the rhythm track in a new key or something. Is it just the scale the solo uses? I'm not at all learned enough to figure this out on my own and it's bothered me forever.
Bravo for making this video! As a huge Megadeth fan I bought this tab book and still have it in my book case today and when I was beginner this book was often closed in despair. I was thinking I'll come back to this in a few years when I'm a better guitarist. I was originally self-taught and these sort of errors crushed me when I was alone in my room trying to become a better player. So disappointing these errors actually had a negative impact on my guitar journey.
Hey Mike, love the videos and bad tab series. I was wondering if you could make a video on unwanted string noice. It messes with me whenever I play something, for example, the Enter Sandman intro riffs.
i remember those wolf hoffman tab books, i remember they were lame, but you could learn soooome stuff from them. i remember a judas priest book that had the song the ripper in it, and when it came to the sinister sounding picked part in the middle, all they put was some dead palm muted notes and we all know its a really slow scale of some sort. what i understood is that they transribers actually played the music on a piano and it is how they transcribed some of the music. nowadays with youtube tutorials, you're getting the best correct version other than the artist themselves doing a tutorial.
The bend at 15:17 is surprisingly correct but only in the non remastered recording. I guess they pitch corrected it and added some extra horns too Kelvin Monteza on youtube has the originals uploaded if you wanted to compare
It sounds to me like a half step bend on the 20th fret so you're totally right about the initial pitch but when it comes down you can hear it's a C instead of a B. However I might be out of tune with the album.. hehe.
This issue is really not limited to guitar tabs. The same is true for drum transcriptions, if you train your ear and with the help of an AI separation tool like Spleeter you quickly realize that most of the transcriptions are simply not correct. The worst was Pat Steward (drummer of Bryan Adams) who explained Summer of '69 on Drumeo ... but something totally different than on the recording. You can either say "it doesn't matter as long as I keep time" or try to get it right .. but which right is right?
Yep, I still have this book somewhere and it's a reminder of how awful it was trying to learn these songs back in the day with it. If only I could have been born later and started to learn guitar during the internet days. My progress would have been sped up 10 fold without having to rely on janky tabs.
I always learned from these friggin books as well, I took my own skill for granted as I could NEVER pull off the "real way" the books tell us. I always just tinkered until it sounded right, but was way off from the book and thought I just sucked and was faking it till I could make it. Turns out I was just playing it like the actual artist and the books were a sick joke....
The thing that baffles me about Set The World Afire here is I'm terrible at transcribing songs but I probably learned a good minute of it a lot more accurately than this just messing around from time to time
I have the Megadeth Greatest Hits: Back to the Start tab book. It seems pretty ok but I'm far from a good guitar player. Are you familiar with this book, do you have an opinion on it? Thanks!
15:23 I think you just summed up the entire "tab book" experience wholly. Seriously it's like a sick joke and I am pretty confident you just literally stumbled upon the punchline with what you said there.
This book truly is terrible, but I've gotta admit it is also hilarious on how bad it was. I will say, there was a few parts that the book or what you did wasn't quiet right, but as you mentioned it was a lot closer than what that book offered. It was also awesome to see you do that solo for Chris Poland, all while using a B.C. Rich Mockingbird NJ series. I'd love to see what other B.C. rich guitars you've got! I love these tab book series.
Imagine if Mustaine and Poland/Young/Friedman (or Hetfield and Hammett etc - any living guitarists from any band) could sit down together on a youtube series and go through these albums riff by riff and lick by lick, with them properly transcribed on the screen. Just as a gift to all the guitarists out there. Maybe get the drums and bass involved too. When physical music sales were declining, I often thought what a great thing it would be to include a DVD with your special edition box set, let's say the new Testament record and they have Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick showing you how to play the songs with accurate tabs on screen. Chuck in a couple of picks and a vinyl decal...We'd all want to own that right?
To be fair to the TAB guys, neither Mustaine, Poland or Friedman play like normal folk. I’ve been listening since RIP and I’ve only been able get my head around the songs by seeing them live 8 times and getting to actually sit down with Chris Poland and discussing his playing. I certainly remember this book and I’m sure some of it’s mistakes are still in my memory.
I have this tab book and it is truly horrible. What sucks is that back in the day all we had were these books. We learned from these books and played what we "learned" for years that way and its hard to relearn something after playing it a certain way for so long.
I used to think I was just a bad player trying to learn from tabs back in the 80's and 90's. Many of the times I'd think, this sounds nothing like the song. Good to know it could've been the tabs to a certain degree.
I didn't own a book like that but when I started playing guitar and looking up riffs online, I am pretty certain they were just copied from these books and posted online. It would always sound off no matter how hard I tried to listen to the songs and I always assumed I was doing something wrong. It took me years to realize that I was just playing a horrible tab that's barely close to the song in some places.
Just a few days ago I saw a CZcamsr playing guitar, & showed the tabs on the screen & didn't make sense have the time. Some notes had thick black lines under them. Sometimes he'd pick them multiple times; sometimes he'd use whammy bar for them. & Some notes were circled. He would randomly do one or the other for those notes as well. He seemed to play everything correctly as far as I could tell, but his tabs didn't make sense half the time.
I’ve commented on this “Tab” before. It wasn’t licensed by the band, so it was close enough to not get sued. Think of modern CZcams copyright claims. I know, I grew up playing in the 90’s. Got ya close enough. Nothing back then was note for note. Had to rewind, play, pause, rewind, a tape for hours…
@The-Art-of-Guitar I know its been a while but can u pls do a vid on joe perry's greatest techniques. He's my fav guitarist and I would greatly appreciate it!
Always hoped he would tackle this book one day, worst TAB book I ever had and didn't bother with it as I knew it was all crap. Such a shame that the early Megadeth albums have never had a good transcription released.
Can you please share the correct tabs or where to find the best Megadeth tabs? I was also fooled by those books but I’m of the ones that basically quit guitar because of those inconsistencies and intricate fake transcriptions.
I'm 52 now but remember as a 19 year old thinking that if I had the Metallica Black Album Tab Book (bass) that the book publisher (or whomever it was tabbed by) sat down with Jason Newsted & got the skinny straight from the source haha. Then when I'd watch Jason live I'd be like "Interesting...he's not playing it the way my tab book says to.".
This is why I learned to hate tabs way back when. These days you can find some pretty good Tabs online. But I’m happy I learned to trust my ear rather than the old tab books.
Future video idea…track down as many people that you can that transcribed these tab books(if they are still alive) and interview them on the process they went through to make these tab books and ask them if they are aware of how badly they are transcribed (obviously said a little nicer)
I have all Megadeth and Metallica books, and they ALL have huge mistakes (this book is beyond crappiness because they literally either INVENT melodies, or leave the transcription in blank), for example FAR BEYOND DRIVEN book has the parts missplaced (don't remember which song, but the bridge riff is placed under the verse lyrics!).......but no label is free of charges..........for example, I have the Japanese Full Score of the Black Album by Virgin Music, and they transcribed Sad But True for a 7 String Guitar, because they never thought of detuning the guitar, and the only way they imagined a low D could be achieved is with a 7th string......................I would say CHERRY LANE was the most accurate of all the transcription companies .
It's almost like this book was released after just the first draft. It's a shame all these books from the 80s and early 90s were so bad, that it gave people this idea that tab books are *always* wrong, but by the mid-2000s the quality of transcriptions increased almost infinitely. I think a lot of these albums deserve to be re-transcribed and have their tab books corrected and reissued.
And by far, the WORST tab book I've ever seen in my life is the Aerosmith Greatest Hits tab book Hal Leonard put out in 1988. Almost no indication of any articulations on any guitar part, very little separation of Joe's and Brad's guitar parts, some very obviously wrong fingerings, completely missing some parts like solos, almost makes me think of what happens if you just input a MIDI file raw into Guitar Pro or something... it's absolutely awful in every conceivable way and I don't think there's even one single part in it that's correct. I mean, I bet even this appallingly bad Megadeth book has one or two riffs that it didn't mess up too badly...
I have perverse suspicion that whoever was transcribing these was doing so holding a nylon string acoustic guitar. Like, you can kind of see a trend where the transcriber seems to be using techniques that make the played part 'louder' and avoiding techniques which emphasize the amplification. Why would you use single string palm mutes, power chords or pick scrapes when the dynamics would be too quiet on acoustic?
I learned to stay away from recorded version books very early on playing. It was the 1st book i ever bought after maybe 6 months of lessons and only playing as long. Black Sabbath book around 1991-92. It was awful and never bought another book from that company, all of thiers are bad.
Another amazing video as always Mike. I know I mentioned this in the comments of almost every video you post. But please, can you please do a artist series video on Trivium’s Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu.
I heard a rumor back in the nineties that guitar transcriptions were done by piano players. That would explain why the tabs seem to have a limited understanding of guitar technique. I imagine they had no clue about tapping or let alone basic fretboard layout. Ponder that for a while. 🤔
I totally had this tab book as a teenager! I resented it even then,because I would've greatly preferred to have a tab book for all of the songs on So Far,So Good...So What! instead of an incomplete one for two Megadeth albums. What an odd choice for a tab book,right!?
I had this book back in the day, and it seemed like terrible transcriptions for incomplete albums were pretty standard for this book publisher. (see also Queensryche, Pantera) But to be fair, they arguably turned out to be decent ear training.
I remember borrowing this book off a mate. I was starting to get good as a player at the time and couldn't understand why I couldn't get these riffs sounding right. I thought i must be rubbish. Turns out this book was hopeless, especially the bridge of Peace Sells which is actually really easy to play! Can you reach out to the publusher and get their take on why they released such a pile of garbage??
I had this book. I was so damned determined to make these screwed up tabs sound correct that I really put my fingers through it. By the end, I could actually pull off the majority of these songs as they had them tabbed out. Some of the stuff was just so clearly wrong though I went with my gut and changed things. There were a lot of lines, mostly the lead stuff, like that. Anyhoo, I might not have learned them the proper way but as a result the dexterity of my fingers shot through the roof because a person shouldn't be doing what some of these tabs are telling us to do.
I don't understand how these tab books always seem to come up with ways to play things that are completely impossible with human hands. It's like they just wrote down numbers for notes and said "Well those are the notes, good luck"
I didn’t realize it was possible to make Dave Mustaine’s riffs more difficult to play
Gotta be the most complex rhythm guitarists
"So Far, So Good..." is one of the most underrated albums of all time. It's not the most technical ("Rust In Peace"), it's not the most powerful ("Peace Sells...") but has an incredible atmosphere that gives me goosebumps.
I always thought it was very good despite what most people say.
Mary Jane is super underrated!
I love every song on that album! So many songs should be up there with their best!
The original mix has an amazing atmosphere, yeah. Pure 80’s. The remaster/remix hack job of it is one of the worst of the 2004 remasters imo.
SFSGSW is way more difficult to play than people think. Feels like Dave was progressing super quickly as a songwriter and riff machine, but not quite to the level that we see on Rust in Peace yet. So SFSGSW is full of complexity but its unrefinement results to difficult transitions, odd time signatures, among other things. Super fun to play on guitar, it's full of nuance.
This book was MADDENING to me when I was starting to learn guitar in high school. It was like anti-ear training. I would try to play along, and it never, ever felt right. But I ended up blaming my ear, and not the book! It never occured to me that an "official" tab book could be so wildly off the mark. I STILL play that intro to "In My Darkest Hour" wrong to this day, haha. I have to make a point of learning the right way.
Same here dude. I feel your pain. I still own most of the books that I bought back then and they destroyed my confidence. I thought it was me even though something didn't feel right.
I've never felt so betrayed and yet validated in my whole life than from these old "official" books
Ohh ya, I still play my darkest hour wrong from that fucking book
Same.
Same experience but these horrible books actually got me to develop some crazy string hopping skills.
I always wanted to learn how to play Microdeth… looks like these tabs are the way! 😀😀😀🤬😀😀😀
oh my god that's so true!
maybe Microdeth is an alternate universe version of Megadeth.
but instead being complex and intense, it's just... whatever the hell these tabs are, lmao.
It makes you wonder how many new young guitar players bought a book like this, thought “I can’t play this” and just stopped playing
Though the transcription is botched, this makes me realize how cool Megadeth parts are for every little detail.
Shocking how many of the books in this series I spent my own money on, and still actually have. I did actually give up playing for 20 years partly because these books - I thought I was the problem.
Only just recently taken up playing again and the amazing free resources like this channel are absolutely amazing compared to what we had to put up with back then.
You and me on this journey together! I quit for 30+ and just got back into it
@@tomalexander4584 honestly with the resources such as this channel and the likes of Jon Bjork, even at my now ripe old age I have made such massive progress with the right advice in the last few years since taking it up again. No wonder these young kids are so amazing now with all these resources - they aren't just wasting their time like I did back then.
Great comments, thanks. I, too, have a stack of tab books I regret buying. The lessons and covers on YT are better. I still use the play-along CDs with some books. The rhythm section and band tracks there are good for ear training and learning bass parts. Best wishes.
Same here... they were so damn discouraging.
That last part that they split into 2 guitar parts on bad omen made me laugh.. sounded like the bass from Sgt. Baker by Primus being played on guitar 😅
thats what i was thinking lol, almost the exact same rhythm
based on the 502 tab, I hope they never do a Van Halen or Primus book
"Pull over shithead, this is the cops!"
Man that part was bad lol
- Dave Mustaine high as fuck
I too had issues with these books as a kid but as an adult I've always felt bad for the transcribers of these books. I'd imagine it was a mad dash behind the scenes to get the transcriptions out the door as soon as possible after album release (I wonder if they got access to the albums ahead of release for this?). And so it's not a huge surprise that they just weren't finished in may cases.
Would be interesting to see if you can compare different editions of tab books on the same album or song released a few years apart to see how they possibly got updated/finished properly?
Repeating random notes is so common in these old books. I think if they couldn’t figure out the next note they would just copy/paste or maybe it was an easy mistake with whatever they were using between the software to printing process. Because I would see it all the time and especially in fast licks or riffs.
Good ol' Megadeth tabs. Way back (like 2003ish), I was on an Iced Earth forum (ugh...most of the members are still good friends, we all just jumped off the Iced Earth bandwagon after The Glorious Burden dropped and we knew Jon Schaffer went off the deep end) that was run by a guy who did Iced Earth and Megadeth tabs, and even though Russ was an amazing transcriber, I and a few other members would constantly argue about the "correct" way to play the riffs (he'd have the correct notes and the correct rhythms, but none of us could agree on the correct positions). Bad Omen, My Last Words, and Good Mourning...Black Friday were constantly getting revised :)
I just rewatching some of your old bad tab videos so this was definitely fun to watch, love that BC Rich as well
I love this series of videos. I grew up with all of these tab books and scratched my head making my way through them as a beginner as well. I eventually learned where I could use the tab as a starting point and adapt it to something that sounded better, made more sense and was comfortable to play, but I've never had a strong enough musical ear or formal training to be able to determine appropriate patterns or techniques that could/should be used. So in many cases, I would just abandon it if seemed too difficult to play. These videos make me feel like I was not alone in my frustration and confusion. Thank you!
I didn't have this tab book but I originally learned these songs the same way from online tabs I found back in the early 2000's. When I later learned alot of these riffs the correct way it gave me a WHOLE new appreciation for the musicianship on Peace Sells. That one and the first album are my favorite Megadeth albums because of the insane riffs and solos. As many have noted before, some of the riffs are more like leads.
For change of pace, you should review the Cowboys from Hell tab book from Alfred that was carefully and accurately transcribed. Give some props when due.
Yes, I found Alfred tab books to be accurate. They are close enough to impress most listeners.
Agreed. I have an Alfred tab book of the Pantera Anthology and it’s mostly on point…..mostly.
Congrats on 843k Subscribers! 🤘🏻🔥Loved this video! I had one of those Gameboys!! I loved playing Tetris on that thing so much, would love to get another and relive my childhood. haha
The album is also tuned like 15 cents flat so that doesn’t help as well lol
In the wake up dead breakdown riff dave plays a triplet gallop (eighth note followed by 3 sixtuplets) instead of a regular one. Makes it a lot harder than a standard maiden style gallop
Yes, finally! Been waiting for this video for so long. I love these albums so much.
I’d love to see something from an early (82/83) issue of Guitar For The Practising Musician where you had to flip pages back and forth. If I remember correctly, Ratt - Round and Round is in this format.
These videos are great. I've owned a lot of tab books and Megadeth's were always the most difficult, but I think it was just because I wasn't good and their stuff is crazy.
Hey Mike I have a request if you see this: Can you listen to Metal Church "Method To Your Madness" and tell me why it sounds like the solo is in the wrong key? It always sounds to me like after the solo was recorded to a different rhythm track they redid the rhythm track in a new key or something. Is it just the scale the solo uses? I'm not at all learned enough to figure this out on my own and it's bothered me forever.
Mike knows all these Megadeth and Metallica riffs and solos, maybe he should start producing tab books! Would love to see a Sanctus tab book lol.
Bravo for making this video! As a huge Megadeth fan I bought this tab book and still have it in my book case today and when I was beginner this book was often closed in despair. I was thinking I'll come back to this in a few years when I'm a better guitarist. I was originally self-taught and these sort of errors crushed me when I was alone in my room trying to become a better player. So disappointing these errors actually had a negative impact on my guitar journey.
Hey Mike, love the videos and bad tab series. I was wondering if you could make a video on unwanted string noice. It messes with me whenever I play something, for example, the Enter Sandman intro riffs.
That Poland legato lick, transcriber says,
"Hey, what if Chris Poland picked like Al Di Meola?"
And wrote that instead
Obviously Jazz transcriber is obvious.
Legato doesn’t work too well clean!
i remember those wolf hoffman tab books, i remember they were lame, but you could learn soooome stuff from them. i remember a judas priest book that had the song the ripper in it, and when it came to the sinister sounding picked part in the middle, all they put was some dead palm muted notes and we all know its a really slow scale of some sort.
what i understood is that they transribers actually played the music on a piano and it is how they transcribed some of the music.
nowadays with youtube tutorials, you're getting the best correct version other than the artist themselves doing a tutorial.
The bend at 15:17 is surprisingly correct but only in the non remastered recording. I guess they pitch corrected it and added some extra horns too
Kelvin Monteza on youtube has the originals uploaded if you wanted to compare
It sounds to me like a half step bend on the 20th fret so you're totally right about the initial pitch but when it comes down you can hear it's a C instead of a B. However I might be out of tune with the album.. hehe.
This issue is really not limited to guitar tabs. The same is true for drum transcriptions, if you train your ear and with the help of an AI separation tool like Spleeter you quickly realize that most of the transcriptions are simply not correct. The worst was Pat Steward (drummer of Bryan Adams) who explained Summer of '69 on Drumeo ... but something totally different than on the recording. You can either say "it doesn't matter as long as I keep time" or try to get it right .. but which right is right?
I've missed the bad tab videos! So happy I get to watch this before bed 🙂
Yep, I still have this book somewhere and it's a reminder of how awful it was trying to learn these songs back in the day with it. If only I could have been born later and started to learn guitar during the internet days. My progress would have been sped up 10 fold without having to rely on janky tabs.
yes i too enjoy pulling off the 12th fret to the 12th fret
Pulling off to the 12^2 Fret
I always learned from these friggin books as well, I took my own skill for granted as I could NEVER pull off the "real way" the books tell us. I always just tinkered until it sounded right, but was way off from the book and thought I just sucked and was faking it till I could make it. Turns out I was just playing it like the actual artist and the books were a sick joke....
A BC Rich just like the first guitar Dave used for Megadeth
The thing that baffles me about Set The World Afire here is I'm terrible at transcribing songs but I probably learned a good minute of it a lot more accurately than this just messing around from time to time
Loved that you used the B. C. Rich for this one
I would love to hear some mini-recordings of a drum track and you playing what the tabs say to play. It would make the difference really stand out.
I have the Megadeth Greatest Hits: Back to the Start tab book. It seems pretty ok but I'm far from a good guitar player. Are you familiar with this book, do you have an opinion on it? Thanks!
Shiny B.C. Rich, Gameboy, discussing bad tabs that lead you astray and drive you crazy... such a specific way to call out my adolescence
15:23 I think you just summed up the entire "tab book" experience wholly. Seriously it's like a sick joke and I am pretty confident you just literally stumbled upon the punchline with what you said there.
This book was transcribed by James H.
Dude....Mary Jane is a bad ass song with 3 really bad ass solo parts in it .....should definitely know it :)
This book truly is terrible, but I've gotta admit it is also hilarious on how bad it was. I will say, there was a few parts that the book or what you did wasn't quiet right, but as you mentioned it was a lot closer than what that book offered. It was also awesome to see you do that solo for Chris Poland, all while using a B.C. Rich Mockingbird NJ series. I'd love to see what other B.C. rich guitars you've got! I love these tab book series.
badass vide like always pls make a part 3 also very happy u included bad omen that is my fav megadeth song
Imagine if Mustaine and Poland/Young/Friedman (or Hetfield and Hammett etc - any living guitarists from any band) could sit down together on a youtube series and go through these albums riff by riff and lick by lick, with them properly transcribed on the screen. Just as a gift to all the guitarists out there. Maybe get the drums and bass involved too.
When physical music sales were declining, I often thought what a great thing it would be to include a DVD with your special edition box set, let's say the new Testament record and they have Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick showing you how to play the songs with accurate tabs on screen. Chuck in a couple of picks and a vinyl decal...We'd all want to own that right?
That riff before the main riff in Set the World Afire sounded if Fastway were trying to play Megadeth.
To be fair to the TAB guys, neither Mustaine, Poland or Friedman play like normal folk. I’ve been listening since RIP and I’ve only been able get my head around the songs by seeing them live 8 times and getting to actually sit down with Chris Poland and discussing his playing. I certainly remember this book and I’m sure some of it’s mistakes are still in my memory.
How do they sell this stuff?
I have this tab book and it is truly horrible. What sucks is that back in the day all we had were these books. We learned from these books and played what we "learned" for years that way and its hard to relearn something after playing it a certain way for so long.
These bad tab videos are great they save alot of money, time and effort. RESPECT!
Megadeth!!. My favorite track from Peace sells is Good Mourning/Black friday. 🤘
Please we neee a Chris Poland techniques video
I used to think I was just a bad player trying to learn from tabs back in the 80's and 90's. Many of the times I'd think, this sounds nothing like the song. Good to know it could've been the tabs to a certain degree.
Mary Jane is one of my favorite songs.
I didn't own a book like that but when I started playing guitar and looking up riffs online, I am pretty certain they were just copied from these books and posted online. It would always sound off no matter how hard I tried to listen to the songs and I always assumed I was doing something wrong. It took me years to realize that I was just playing a horrible tab that's barely close to the song in some places.
If you look at the 4th maybe 5th song you can hear swapmeet from nirvana if you slow it down
Just a few days ago I saw a CZcamsr playing guitar, & showed the tabs on the screen & didn't make sense have the time. Some notes had thick black lines under them. Sometimes he'd pick them multiple times; sometimes he'd use whammy bar for them.
& Some notes were circled. He would randomly do one or the other for those notes as well.
He seemed to play everything correctly as far as I could tell, but his tabs didn't make sense half the time.
12 with a pull off or hammer-on to 12 was cool
I’ve commented on this “Tab” before. It wasn’t licensed by the band, so it was close enough to not get sued. Think of modern CZcams copyright claims. I know, I grew up playing in the 90’s. Got ya close enough. Nothing back then was note for note. Had to rewind, play, pause, rewind, a tape for hours…
@The-Art-of-Guitar I know its been a while but can u pls do a vid on joe perry's greatest techniques. He's my fav guitarist and I would greatly appreciate it!
The book is telling you to play Megadeth in New Game + mode
Have you seen Eric Bugenhagen playing In My Darkest Hour?
Always hoped he would tackle this book one day, worst TAB book I ever had and didn't bother with it as I knew it was all crap. Such a shame that the early Megadeth albums have never had a good transcription released.
Can you please share the correct tabs or where to find the best Megadeth tabs? I was also fooled by those books but I’m of the ones that basically quit guitar because of those inconsistencies and intricate fake transcriptions.
As aforementioned, I have that book, also. I got in around '90-'91.
It sucks, but it got me "in the ballpark," on some things.
Man dave was insane back in the day 😂
11:55 sounds like one of Frank Zappa's Synclavier pieces.
I found this book from a library couple of months ago, I was waiting for this video😂
I'm 52 now but remember as a 19 year old thinking that if I had the Metallica Black Album Tab Book (bass) that the book publisher (or whomever it was tabbed by) sat down with Jason Newsted & got the skinny straight from the source haha. Then when I'd watch Jason live I'd be like "Interesting...he's not playing it the way my tab book says to.".
This book was definitely made on a Thursday afternoon before a long weekend 😂
This is my favorite series that you do
This is why I learned to hate tabs way back when. These days you can find some pretty good
Tabs online. But I’m happy I learned to trust my ear rather than the old tab books.
Future video idea…track down as many people that you can that transcribed these tab books(if they are still alive) and interview them on the process they went through to make these tab books and ask them if they are aware of how badly they are transcribed (obviously said a little nicer)
I have all Megadeth and Metallica books, and they ALL have huge mistakes (this book is beyond crappiness because they literally either INVENT melodies, or leave the transcription in blank), for example FAR BEYOND DRIVEN book has the parts missplaced (don't remember which song, but the bridge riff is placed under the verse lyrics!).......but no label is free of charges..........for example, I have the Japanese Full Score of the Black Album by Virgin Music, and they transcribed Sad But True for a 7 String Guitar, because they never thought of detuning the guitar, and the only way they imagined a low D could be achieved is with a 7th string......................I would say CHERRY LANE was the most accurate of all the transcription companies .
Is the musical notation correct, or is it just as bad as the tab?
Both are dank.
How is there so many bad tab books? I just want to know how these people made them. What was happening in their minds?!
Push it out as fast as possible, get sales who cares about accuracy when money good?
It's almost like this book was released after just the first draft. It's a shame all these books from the 80s and early 90s were so bad, that it gave people this idea that tab books are *always* wrong, but by the mid-2000s the quality of transcriptions increased almost infinitely. I think a lot of these albums deserve to be re-transcribed and have their tab books corrected and reissued.
And by far, the WORST tab book I've ever seen in my life is the Aerosmith Greatest Hits tab book Hal Leonard put out in 1988. Almost no indication of any articulations on any guitar part, very little separation of Joe's and Brad's guitar parts, some very obviously wrong fingerings, completely missing some parts like solos, almost makes me think of what happens if you just input a MIDI file raw into Guitar Pro or something... it's absolutely awful in every conceivable way and I don't think there's even one single part in it that's correct. I mean, I bet even this appallingly bad Megadeth book has one or two riffs that it didn't mess up too badly...
I have perverse suspicion that whoever was transcribing these was doing so holding a nylon string acoustic guitar.
Like, you can kind of see a trend where the transcriber seems to be using techniques that make the played part 'louder' and avoiding techniques which emphasize the amplification. Why would you use single string palm mutes, power chords or pick scrapes when the dynamics would be too quiet on acoustic?
I learned to stay away from recorded version books very early on playing. It was the 1st book i ever bought after maybe 6 months of lessons and only playing as long. Black Sabbath book around 1991-92.
It was awful and never bought another book from that company, all of thiers are bad.
Another amazing video as always Mike. I know I mentioned this in the comments of almost every video you post. But please, can you please do a artist series video on Trivium’s Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu.
You should do more bass bad tab books
I heard a rumor back in the nineties that guitar transcriptions were done by piano players. That would explain why the tabs seem to have a limited understanding of guitar technique. I imagine they had no clue about tapping or let alone basic fretboard layout. Ponder that for a while. 🤔
I totally had this tab book as a teenager! I resented it even then,because I would've greatly preferred to have a tab book for all of the songs on So Far,So Good...So What! instead of an incomplete one for two Megadeth albums. What an odd choice for a tab book,right!?
It’s funny when I was 12 years old first learning from tab it never occurred to me that some of it was incorrect. No wonder why it didn’t sound right.
You should really listen to Mary Jane is a great song. It’ll remind you of your favorite Megadeth Song.
just get hal leonard books they are awesome
I had this book back in the day, and it seemed like terrible transcriptions for incomplete albums were pretty standard for this book publisher. (see also Queensryche, Pantera) But to be fair, they arguably turned out to be decent ear training.
Actually, wait, I didn't actually have that Pantera one. But this was bad, and the Queensryche was bad.
@9:10 made me laugh out loud, that shit was hilarious
Hands up if 90s tab books ruined the experience of your formative guitar learning years 😀🙋♂️
the 12 hammer on to 12 got me good
I'm just going to mention the 'Surfing with the alien' book again.
If I do it enough, Mike might make a vid on it.
I remember borrowing this book off a mate. I was starting to get good as a player at the time and couldn't understand why I couldn't get these riffs sounding right. I thought i must be rubbish. Turns out this book was hopeless, especially the bridge of Peace Sells which is actually really easy to play!
Can you reach out to the publusher and get their take on why they released such a pile of garbage??
great video omg 💝
Please do a bay tab on 72 seasons by Metallica please Mike!!
Hahah I still have this book. I remember being like “ what the hell”
I had this book.
I was so damned determined to make these screwed up tabs sound correct that I really put my fingers through it. By the end, I could actually pull off the majority of these songs as they had them tabbed out. Some of the stuff was just so clearly wrong though I went with my gut and changed things. There were a lot of lines, mostly the lead stuff, like that.
Anyhoo, I might not have learned them the proper way but as a result the dexterity of my fingers shot through the roof because a person shouldn't be doing what some of these tabs are telling us to do.
You can really tell, that the creators of these books have been totally overburdened by the extreme music back than.
It’s good that they tabbed Dave’s solos like the same way he plays them live!
Lol he plays better than you ever have.
I don't understand how these tab books always seem to come up with ways to play things that are completely impossible with human hands. It's like they just wrote down numbers for notes and said "Well those are the notes, good luck"