Ace of spades - powerchords?

[FireArm]

Hi there, does anyone have the powerchords lemmy uses for ace of spades? or something similar?

Thanx

[P. Aaron]

Motorhead's Ace of Spades is a '440' record. By that I mean the songs are all in standard tuning.

The title track is pretty much an E7 blues oriented song. It has a few elements about it that could be considered it E minor as well. It is very simply ferocious and delightful.

Before defaulting to TABS, I recommend you tune up, listen and play along with the recording. You can do the whole record and it is a great recording to learn rock basics from.

Lemme I believe is a 'pick player'. So if you're using fingers, the attack will be different.

Playing along forces you to really listen to what's going on in the recording. DO NOT let your instrument be louder than the recording.

My 2c.

[Oratorio]

I believe I understand what you are asking about. I don't think Lemmy used powerchords on Ace of Spades, I think he just cranked up the sound, and what you hear is a really overdriven tube amp, probably Ampeg(?). Sounds to me kind of new strings, high action and distorting it like hell .. I could easily be wrong, though!

[Jazz Ad]

Originally Posted by P. Aaron

bla bla tabs suck bla bla

I think you should read the rules of this forum and put your 2 cents back into your pocket.

[ROON]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

I think you should read the rules of this forum and put your 2 cents back into your pocket.

+1

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by P. Aaron

Motorhead's Ace of Spades is a '440' record. By that I mean the songs are all in standard tuning.

The title track is pretty much an E7 blues oriented song. It has a few elements about it that could be considered it E minor as well.

The recording sounds in Eb, so most likely they played the song with half-step downtuned instruments.

[gcb34]

Lemmy used a Marshall bass head.

[CelinderMotoMan]

From the Youtube video, it looks like he is holding the D and hammering onto the E, not the Eb.

[Vic Winters]

http://ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/m/mo..._ver6_btab.htm

Sounds really accurate to me. The only thing missing is what's played during the solo. If someone knows what is played during the solo that would be awesome.

[SlavaF]

First of all, it's definitely Eb tuning, NOT standard. 99% of Motorhead tunes are in dropped tuning, although there's no actual low E in this whole song so you can play it on the 6th fret in standard if you don't wanna detune.

But other than that, the only power chords I hear are in the verses (If you like to gamble...), so you'd be playing a Gb power chord, and then a Db and Cb on the crawl down. At least this is how I play it in my band. I'm pretty sure the main riff is all single notes. Also, the Db in the bridge (right before "Don't forget about the joker) is all power chords.

The key to this tune is just to be as loud and rude sounding as possible. Just hammer away at the strings, crank up the gain, and you'll get close.


Edit: that tab isn't very good at all. Lemmy doesn't follow the guitar in the main riff, he just pounds on the Eb (6th fret on the A) the whole time. As for the solo, it follows a Ab - Bb - Ab progression, I usually play them as power chords.

[NKUSigEp]

Originally Posted by SlavaF

First of all, it's definitely Eb tuning, NOT standard. 99% of Motorhead tunes are in dropped tuning, although there's no actual low E in this whole song so you can play it on the 6th fret in standard if you don't wanna detune.

But other than that, the only power chords I hear are in the verses (If you like to gamble...), so you'd be playing a Gb power chord, and then a Db and Cb on the crawl down. At least this is how I play it in my band. I'm pretty sure the main riff is all single notes. Also, the Db in the bridge (right before "Don't forget about the joker) is all power chords.

The key to this tune is just to be as loud and rude sounding as possible. Just hammer away at the strings, crank up the gain, and you'll get close.


Edit: that tab isn't very good at all. Lemmy doesn't follow the guitar in the main riff, he just pounds on the Eb (6th fret on the A) the whole time. As for the solo, it follows a Ab - Bb - Ab progression, I usually play them as power chords.

+1 Whew! Thank God someone got it right! I about pulled out all my hair reading through these posts...Lemmy's gear and bass lines are pretty well documented on TB and the rest of the internet (Ampegs...are you kidding me?!?!). A search might do ya some good.

Sounds like he's playing custom Rickenbackers through Marshall stacks to me - that's just my opinion though.

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by SlavaF

you'd be playing a Gb power chord, and then a Db and Cb on the crawl down. At least this is how I play it in my band. I'm pretty sure the main riff is all single notes. Also, the Db in the bridge (right before "Don't forget about the joker) is all power chords.

The key to this tune is just to be as loud and rude sounding as possible. Just hammer away at the strings, crank up the gain, and you'll get close.


Edit: that tab isn't very good at all. Lemmy doesn't follow the guitar in the main riff, he just pounds on the Eb (6th fret on the A) the whole time. As for the solo, it follows a Ab - Bb - Ab progression, I usually play them as power chords.

Exactly! Here's how I play it and trust me: IT WORKS.





Of course, I don't try to follow the studio version note for note. For instance, in the Db - Cb section ("The pleasure is to play...") it seems that he holds long power chords. I keep striking the same rhythm. The fill after the break section ("But that's the way I like it baby") is also different. Changes are loosely based on live versions (I particularly like this one).


This is one of the very few tunes I play with a pick. Unfortunately, I haven't played it at gigs (just for fun at rehearsals) since I don't have a good bass distortion. I use a Boss OD-2 Turbo Overdrive for guitar. Still thinking if I should get a good bass distortion just for one song (that I like so much).

[SlavaF]

Alvaro - right on the money dude, that's pretty much exactly how I play it. And it gets 'em moshing live every time.

At least someone here knows what they're talking about when it comes to Motorhead.


PS, I use a Sansamp Programmable BDDI for that one (with the gain cranked of course), and it sounds killer. You should check one out if you're looking for some good distortion.

[CelinderMotoMan]

Originally Posted by SlavaF

Alvaro - right on the money dude, that's pretty much exactly how I play it. And it gets 'em moshing live every time.

At least someone here knows what they're talking about when it comes to Motorhead

Except for the fact that the fret positions should be should be 5 & 7s instead of 4 & 6s.

[CelinderMotoMan]

Originally Posted by SlavaF

First of all, it's definitely Eb tuning, NOT standard. 99% of Motorhead tunes are in dropped tuning, although there's no actual low E in this whole song so you can play it on the 6th fret in standard if you don't wanna detune.
.

He is playing open E while hammering on to the 7th fret octave, or at least that what I am seeing when I see the live videos, so yes they are definately tuned down to Eb.

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by CelinderMotoMan

Except for the fact that the fret positions should be should be 5 & 7s instead of 4 & 6s.

Of course. My transcription shows the way it should be played to sound in the same key without downtuning the instrument.