Heaven Tonight

Much more accurate to the studio version of song, transcribed for electric mandocello, but can be arranged for 6-string guitars. Afinação: E A D G B ETecla: CmCapotraste: Sem capotraste Cheap Trick - Heaven Tonight Transcribed by Travis Lausch Notes: THIS IS NOT A BASS TAB. READ THIS BEFORE RATING. Rather than being played on a standard 6-string guitar, Rick Nielsen plays "Heaven Tonight" on an 8-string double-coursed instrument called a mandocello, and this particular mandocello used in the song is one built for him by Hamer guitars, in the shape of a Gibson Explorer. The result is a four-course, eight-stringed instrument tuned in fifths like a mandolin, but starting from a bass C like a cello. While I've kept this tab for a four-string mandocello for accuracy's sake, you can play this on a standard 6-string guitar by tuning the four lowest pitched strings to the same tuning, and do whatever you want with the two highest strings since you won't be using them. I tune mine down a whole step since I adapted this tuning from a guitar that was already in drop-C. Fingerings were partly figured out by watching live footage. Tuning: (low to high) C-G-D-A ---------------------- Verses: (w/very light distortion) A|------6-------6----|------6-------6----|------3-------3----|------3-------2--------| D|----5---5---5---5--|----6---6---6------|----3---3---3---3--|----3---3-5-3----------| G|--5-------5--------|----------------0--|--1-------1--------|--0--------------------| C|-------------------|--5-------5--------|-------------------|----------------3-2-0--| accent: > > > Tag into chorus: A|--------|------------------|----------------| D|--------|------------------|----------------| G|--------|------------------|-------------5--| C|--3-2-0-|-(0)-------3-2-0--|-(0)------------| > > > > > > Chorus: A|------6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-------|------6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6----------|------------------|-----------------| D|------6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-------|------6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6----------|------------------|-----------------| G|-----------------------------5--|-----------------------------------|------------------|-----------------| C|--5-----------------------------|--5-------------------------3-2-0--|-(0)-------3-2-0--|-(0)-------------| > > > > > > Tag into second verse: A|------1-------3----|------5----------------| D|----0---0---0---0--|----0---0--------------| G|--0-------0--------|--0-------0------------| C|-------------------|----------------3-2-0--| > > > Instrumental riff: A|-------------------|---------------------|---------------------|----------------|------------------| D|-------------------|---------------------|---------------------|----------------|------------------| G|--------0-1---0----|--3------------------|----------3-----1-0--|---------3------|--1---3---0-------| C|--5----------------|---------0-1----4----|--5------------------|--5-------------|--------------5---| Psychedelic bridge part: A|------1-------3----|------5-------3----| D|----0---0---0---0--|----0---0---0---0--| G|--0-------0--------|--0-------0--------| C|-------------------|-------------------| These should be all the parts you need to learn to play the song. On the studio version, a lot of the other instrumentation is handled by strings, harpsichord, and brass, but in the same live footage, Robin Zander is playing it all on a (very out-of-tune) 12-string electric guitar, but his parts are incredibly difficult to hear in the footage, so I could not transcribe it. Also in the live version, Rick switched to a regular Ibanez Iceman guitar during the psychedelic bridge and plays traditional lead guitar parts over the final verse. This is not present in the studio version. Legend: > = accent (play loud enough to overdrive amp) ( ) = note tied from previous measure (I actually tried to indicate barlines where they are for timing's sake)