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Thread: Iron Man Tab Mystery

  1. #1
    Forum Member Doc W's Avatar
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    Iron Man Tab Mystery

    I was looking for tab to "Iron Man" for my grandson. The song is most definitely not my taste but hey, I am a loyal grandpa.

    Anyway, all of the tabs I find are in E. The only recording I can find is clearly in Eb. What gives? Are there two recordings or are they just doing that idiotic thing of tuning down to Eb (and none of the tabs mention it because it is so common)?

    I am not bothering with the tab anymore. The only reason I looked was to try to find something easy to print. I am just curious.
    "The beauty and profundity of God is more real than any mere calculation."

  2. #2
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    Re: Iron Man Tab Mystery

    They are tuned down a half step..

  3. #3
    Forum Member dzguitar10's Avatar
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    Re: Iron Man Tab Mystery

    From what I've read they're actually tuned down a whole step. The reason is Tommy Iommi's finger tips being cut off in a factory accident. Tuning the guitar down a whole step made playing and/or bending strings much easier on his injured finger tips since the string tension was lighter. I actually heard him talk about it on a "rockumentary" this weekend on VH1 Classic.

  4. #4
    Forum Member dzguitar10's Avatar
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    Re: Iron Man Tab Mystery

    After carefully doing a little more research on the internet here's what I have found on Wiki.

    "In August 1969, following the confusion with another group named Earth (who had minor success in England), the group renamed themselves Black Sabbath. His aforementioned factory accident impacted the Black Sabbath sound later on, as Iommi detuned his guitar from E to C# (3 half-steps down), in order to ease the tension on his fingers. As a result, Sabbath were among the first bands to detune and resulted in the technique being a mainstay of heavy metal music. The first two Black Sabbath albums are actually in E tuning, however, as Iommi didn't start tuning down to C# until 1971's Master of Reality. Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler also tuned his instrument down to match Iommi's. It may be argued that Tony Iommi was a pioneer of heavy metal riffing, due to his guitar playing on now famous tracks such as "Paranoid", "War Pigs", "Iron Man", and "Into the Void". Iommi combined blues-like guitar solos and dark, minor-key riffing with a revolutionary high-gain, heavily distorted tone with his use of a modified treble-boosting effect-pedal and a Gibson SG, as well as plugging his guitar into his amp's bass socket."

    Hope this clears up any confusion.

  5. #5
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    Re: Iron Man Tab Mystery

    The song Iron man is in standardE tuning...sorry for the mistake
    I made on the first post..

  6. #6
    Forum Member cooltone's Avatar
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    Re: Iron Man Tab Mystery

    It was not unusual for producers to make tape pitch changes on songs back then. Trying to play along with Hendrix recordings is near impossible without making slight changes in tuning.
    "If you're cool, you don't know nothin' about it. It just is...or you ain't." - Keith Richards

  7. #7
    Forum Member dzguitar10's Avatar
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    Re: Iron Man Tab Mystery

    Also given several interviews I read about Hendrix... it isn't out of the realm that he just grabbed a guitar and tuned it without using whatever tuning technology of the time... pitch pipe... piano... or another guitar and maybe possibly a strobotuner. Therefore he could've easily been a half of a semitone or more out of tune from the Eb everyone says he tuned to... causing everyone to assume that Eddie Kramer or whoever the engineer was slowed down the tape machine.... And of course it isn't out of the ordinary for that too!

    Just my .02 cents worth!

  8. #8
    Forum Member cooltone's Avatar
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    Re: Iron Man Tab Mystery

    You are probably right, dz. It was probably more common practice with "pop" records back then (to make pitch changes) in order to 'shorten' the play time to fit pop radio formats.

    I also wonder if different tape machines were being used that may have had slight differences in calibration.
    "If you're cool, you don't know nothin' about it. It just is...or you ain't." - Keith Richards

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