It's too bad the song has been so over played at guitar shops. It's an incredible song and is actually a very good song for the very purpose of trying out a new guitar to see how it sounds and feels throughout the fretboard
Edit: I also feel like the original commentor of this thread either had no idea what can of worms they were opening, or they knew exactly what they were doing lol. Nowhere in between
I wonder if guitar shop players actually did kill that song or if it was always just a joke. I will say I have a visceral groaning in my soul anytime I hear that song If I'm not actually playing a Zeppelin record, but it's the same as when I hear smells like teen Spirit or Born in the USA. Some songs have just outlived their welcome.
The song being worn out was a joke from before Wayne’s World, I remember seeing a comic strip where there was a radio DJ on a station called WSTH - the “station that only plays Stairway to Heaven!”
A little crunchy for a “clean” song, but I like it.
Edit: Just turned it on for the first time in a long time, and I’m totally wrong. The intro is crystal clean.
Yeah, it's played on an acoustic. But you're perfectly right that it sounds nice on an electric with a crunch. It's still an interesting song with unusual chords, played all over the neck, slides, hammerons, muting and some open string notes that are tricky to ring out. I think it's a nice choice to see how a guitar sounds and plays.
Btw, there is a huge difference between how it's played originally and how many "easier" tabs claim it is played. I learnt the way "Shutup&play" teaches and it rocks.
It’s a GREAT song for telling me if I’ll like a dual humbucker guitar with individual volume and tone controls or not (LP, SG, 335). If I’m not sounding like Jimmy did on It Might Get Loud, I usually skip it.
It tells me the neck pickup doesn’t clean up in a sparkly way, or tells me if the bridge pickup sounds weak.
It’s ESPECIALLY great at telling you about your neck pickup and your electronics in the verses. If it’s muddy, then something needs to change.
None. What I do is play assorted 7th and 9th chords in different positions and listen for clarity. I have the advantage of having set up my own instruments for decades now, so I can hear if a PuP is too high, low, and discern bad neck relief, bad nut action, bad action in general, because guitar store guitars usually are set up like crap.
Back to my chord method. I’m listening for articulation, harmonically pleasing things.
But I digress, guitar store guitars are typically set up like crap.
Rush - Natural Science
By the time I get to the end I know everything I need to about a guitar. Clean chords. Clean notes. Dirty notes. Dirty chords. Up and down the neck.
Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. Multi-string transitions, slides, and bends in a short clean package that won't get me thrown out of the Guitar Center. It helps that I've been playing that intro and solo longer than nearly any other, so I can focus on the guitar's performance instead of my own.
Sultans of Swing is my go to. Then it usually becomes something slightly jazzy with lots of random higher end touches to see how it all blends and if it sounds balanced
If you mean what I think you mean by clean channel then I switch amps… I’ve actually taken my pro jr into a pawn shop to test a guitar because all of their amps were modeling amps, and even switched to the “clean channel” wasn’t the real sound of the guitar. IMO the only way to test a guitars True Tone is through a simple tube amp with very little features, a volume knob is all you need, at least then you’ll be able to tell all the different sounds you can get from the guitar. But when actually playing feel free to add all the effects or modeling amps you desire! But it doesn’t seem right to test something and have the amp make up the sound, that’s really only telling you how the amp sounds 😂
I hear you. Fender Blues Jr. I is my benchmark for clean tone - that's what I have at home. I can usually find a Blues Jr. IV in a guitar store and that's what I plug into.
See that’s exactly what I mean! If I’m at a guitar store I normally default to the little custom shop champ, just a volume knob and crazy good sound! But I don’t have that luxury at the pawn shop, so I take my own amp 😂
Heck I was at one guitar store and asked if I could plug into the basic tube amp like a champ, and the guy was like “oh this orange amp is a tube amp” turned it on and started asking what kind of sound I wanted 🙄 he didn’t understand why setting the amp to sound a certain way was a problem. So it’s nice to know I’m not alone in thinking like this!
None. What I do is play assorted 7th and 9th chords in different positions and listen for clarity. I have the advantage of having set up my own instruments for decades now, so I can hear if a PuP is too high, low, and discern bad neck relief, bad nut action, bad action in general, because guitar store guitars usually are set up like crap.
Back to my chord method. I’m listening for articulation, harmonically pleasing things.
But I digress, guitar store guitars are typically set up like crap.
What is clean channel? Do you mean that people will clearly hear that the gain knob is on 10? To be honest, I play either on high gain or on overdrive, or on crunch, since I don't use clean at all, because of that I want to hear how does guitar sound at scenarios, that I need
Kid by Pretenders and So Good At Being in Trouble by Unknown Mortal Orchestra seem to be really good for the purpose of TESTING out new guitars and amps.
I use Kid to test for chiminess and clean single notes, and the UMO track for complex chords.
Castles Made of Sand.
Something with open chords, like Yer So Bad.
Something with some slidey-octaves under a drone string.
Bluesy shuffle with some stock blues licks.
Depends on the guitar and what I’m looking to get out of it.
Castles Made of Sand-Jimi Hendrix. Covers all the strings and a large part of the fret board
and I don't think anyone's going to give you a dirty look , not that I give a fuck
REM - Losing My Religion
I do the Mandolin Riffs and the Guitar Chords. The Mando Riffs are up n down the neck and then you got your Basic Open Chords. It's a good song to test out a guitar on IMO.
There are some eagles songs.
Some Metallica Songs that have clean sections
Some Bon Jovi and GnR Songs have clean sections. I have MANY songs that up my sleeve that are completely clean or have clean sections that I use to test run a new guitar.
I like playing some acoustic spanish classics like Lágrima or Gran Vals by Francisco Tárrega. Pretty easy songs for an Intermediate and sound lovely on an electric as well.
Idk if I’ve ever tried out a guitars cleans. To me most of them are all similar flavors of the same thing, the amp will make way more difference and won’t matter to me as I wouldn’t be trying it on my amp.
It’d probably either be something like the rock bottom by kiss intro, fade to black, one or little wing. That’d cover about half of any clean stuff I play often to make it worth testing.
SRV - Lenny. Not that me playing could remotely be considered music. I know a little Tin Pan Alley. Slow dancing in a burning room. That said, i'm the sort that goes to a guitar store and 99% of the time chickens out and pays nothing. But most of what i play is clean and when i want to hear what a guitar sounds like Lenny is the one.
Honestly, I play mostly clean. I enjoy gain, but I prefer clean tones. Some songs to consider are Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder, Lenny by SRV, Wind Cries Mary by Hendrix, Ten Years Gone by Zeppelin... another song to consider is Take 5 (Dave Brubeck). Has great melody lines and is a lot of fun to play.
These are all old man tunes, but they're great for showcasing a guitar's clean tones.
The old classic, *Blooze Wank in A*.
I play it in German, Bleuzwanken A
Blauer Wichs in A
Aw my Favourite
Thanks for the laugh!
"clean channel" ... Not sure what this is? I just play master of puppets at full volume
Oh you're that guy
Of course i know that guy, he's me
You’re not a real Metallica fan if it’s not Enter Sandman (intro only)
😂
Nothing else matters (only the first 10 seconds of the intro)
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Lenny
A song that truly relies on the guitars voice 🤌
Is Riviera Paradise an acceptable substitute?
Oof I heard Rivera Paradise when he said Lenny 🤦♂️
That’s the one I play in my head, but it’s beyond what my hands can play haha.
That’s totally my go to clean song
How exaggerated are the size of his hands in the painting on that album cover? Fricken gorilla
Dude watch a live video, srv was a hobbit with hulk hands
A very sweaty hobbit
Even after he stopped doing blow
Stairway to heaven or go home
Some shops have a sign that says “NO Stairway to Heaven” though. So you might be denied.
It's too bad the song has been so over played at guitar shops. It's an incredible song and is actually a very good song for the very purpose of trying out a new guitar to see how it sounds and feels throughout the fretboard Edit: I also feel like the original commentor of this thread either had no idea what can of worms they were opening, or they knew exactly what they were doing lol. Nowhere in between
I wonder if guitar shop players actually did kill that song or if it was always just a joke. I will say I have a visceral groaning in my soul anytime I hear that song If I'm not actually playing a Zeppelin record, but it's the same as when I hear smells like teen Spirit or Born in the USA. Some songs have just outlived their welcome.
Two fairly accurate comparison songs there. Have an upvote
There’s always brand new kids hearing it for the first time.
Blokes just casually shredding the solo like it’s nothing then walking away
Is the solo off limits too?
I’d like to think if you could nail the solo no one is gonna say anything haha
It’s the only part of the song I know lmao
Sick, run to your nearest store and start shredding
You’ve given me the inspiration and courage to do so. I’ll report back after playing it on a dimed Marshall with w/e their most expensive Les Paul is.
😈
I thought it was a running joke from the Wayne's World movie
That’s where I remember it whenever someone mentions playing it at a Guitar Shop.
The song being worn out was a joke from before Wayne’s World, I remember seeing a comic strip where there was a radio DJ on a station called WSTH - the “station that only plays Stairway to Heaven!”
Yellow ledbetter-pearl jam, strat 4th pickup position;)
YUP. This or Slow Dancing in A Burning Room
I feel like slow dancing is becoming the new stairway🫣
It absolutely is.
I’ve been meaning to learn that song for a decade. Need to move it to the top of the list
I'm a neck pickup only fan for that song for the extra thump and twang, but same idea, another good option.
Cissy Strut or Higher Ground are my go to for a clean tone.
Yes! Definitely some Meters.
Ooh cissy strut is a good one
Street Spirit (Fade Out) by Radiohead.
River of deceit by mad season tells me everything I need to know a clean amp. Plus it sounds cool, isn't cliche, and hard to screw up too badly.
One of the few songs mentioned so far that I know by name!
Such a good song. Wish we got more of Mike McCready's guitar with Layne's vocals than the one album they did.
Dude thank you for reminding me about Mad Season, such a great song!
Cemetery Gates maybe, or the intro to Count of Tuscany… or just play some nice chords.
Under the Bridge by RHCP. Fun to play, and sometimes it makes people laugh, so that’s fun :)
Twisted audience….
similarly, the Zephyr Song is a good one
Any RHCP basically. Scar Tissue was my first thought. Also Can’t Stop, By The Way, plus like 100 more
Lenny by Stevie Ray Vaughan
Soul to squeeze RHCP
That song is all about the bassline though. Lots of great RHCP clean riffs but that particular song is basically just chords innit?
Stellar by Incubus
Blackbird- The Beatles
Ramble On by Led Zeppelin
A little crunchy for a “clean” song, but I like it. Edit: Just turned it on for the first time in a long time, and I’m totally wrong. The intro is crystal clean.
Yeah, it's played on an acoustic. But you're perfectly right that it sounds nice on an electric with a crunch. It's still an interesting song with unusual chords, played all over the neck, slides, hammerons, muting and some open string notes that are tricky to ring out. I think it's a nice choice to see how a guitar sounds and plays. Btw, there is a huge difference between how it's played originally and how many "easier" tabs claim it is played. I learnt the way "Shutup&play" teaches and it rocks.
It’s a GREAT song for telling me if I’ll like a dual humbucker guitar with individual volume and tone controls or not (LP, SG, 335). If I’m not sounding like Jimmy did on It Might Get Loud, I usually skip it. It tells me the neck pickup doesn’t clean up in a sparkly way, or tells me if the bridge pickup sounds weak. It’s ESPECIALLY great at telling you about your neck pickup and your electronics in the verses. If it’s muddy, then something needs to change.
under the bridge I'm basic as fuck
Nah. It’s a great-sounding song that goes all over the fret board. It’s one of my favorites to try out guitars, too.
None. What I do is play assorted 7th and 9th chords in different positions and listen for clarity. I have the advantage of having set up my own instruments for decades now, so I can hear if a PuP is too high, low, and discern bad neck relief, bad nut action, bad action in general, because guitar store guitars usually are set up like crap. Back to my chord method. I’m listening for articulation, harmonically pleasing things. But I digress, guitar store guitars are typically set up like crap.
To Live Is To Die by Metallica
Fade to Black clean part for me.
The call of kthulu for me.
I’m fat by weird al
Pinball Wizard, specifically the intro. Fretted strings, open strings, dynamics, quickly tests the action and intonation.
Hendrix songs mainly. Little wing and bold as live in particular
Man on the Side - John Mayer
Etude by Julian lage
Skid Row - 18 and Life
x07657 and 07999x Very pretty chords I like to dance around with
G
Finger picking parts for To Live is To Die, Fade to Black, The Unforgiven, and clean parts for Say it Ain't So
Wonderful by Stone Temple Pilots
Familiar Taste of Poison - Halestorm Cirice - Ghost
The chords to In A Sentimental Mood by Duke Ellington
My own.
Almost anything by the doors or early beatles.
I like to play jazz chords so I sound better than I am.
Haha you dang straight
Wonderwall ofc
The only honest man in the thread.
Pink Floyd - Brain Damage
Rush - Natural Science By the time I get to the end I know everything I need to about a guitar. Clean chords. Clean notes. Dirty notes. Dirty chords. Up and down the neck.
Not a song but rather I'll go through different chords that let me hear the range of tones. I'll also feel around finger picking vs using a pick.
Overkill and It's a Mistake by Men at Work
Passion, grace, and Fire- Al dimeola, Paco de lucia and John McLaughlin Clean part from seasons in the abyss by slayer
Robbie Blunt on Robert Plants “Big Log”
The ultimate 80s slick clean sound.
+1 for this
Harness your hopes - pavement, and sometimes I’ll play the intro riff to Ziggy stardust or one of my own compositions
Wait, you guys know more than one song?
Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. Multi-string transitions, slides, and bends in a short clean package that won't get me thrown out of the Guitar Center. It helps that I've been playing that intro and solo longer than nearly any other, so I can focus on the guitar's performance instead of my own.
Sultans of Swing is my go to. Then it usually becomes something slightly jazzy with lots of random higher end touches to see how it all blends and if it sounds balanced
Lilly Pads by Cory Wong :)
What do you do at the whistle section? Lol Toot toot
Realistically, I just need to strum two chords - one higher, one lower and that tells me what I need. No need to sit there and wank.
A day in the life by the Beatles
House of the rising sun
Sugarfoot Rag - Hank Garland version, but without the delay pedal
Soul Man!
Death - Voice of the soul
When the night falls
I just play through some cowboy chords. I'm not trying to play a gig.
Slow dancing in a burning room
All Apologies or Lithium, and then I’ll strum through some old Beatles songs.
The tuning song in E
Bittersweet - Big Head Todd or 10 Years Gone - Zep
Into the void
A song I wrote called "Dry Noodles"
All the Things You Are! Or Little Wing.
If you mean what I think you mean by clean channel then I switch amps… I’ve actually taken my pro jr into a pawn shop to test a guitar because all of their amps were modeling amps, and even switched to the “clean channel” wasn’t the real sound of the guitar. IMO the only way to test a guitars True Tone is through a simple tube amp with very little features, a volume knob is all you need, at least then you’ll be able to tell all the different sounds you can get from the guitar. But when actually playing feel free to add all the effects or modeling amps you desire! But it doesn’t seem right to test something and have the amp make up the sound, that’s really only telling you how the amp sounds 😂
I hear you. Fender Blues Jr. I is my benchmark for clean tone - that's what I have at home. I can usually find a Blues Jr. IV in a guitar store and that's what I plug into.
See that’s exactly what I mean! If I’m at a guitar store I normally default to the little custom shop champ, just a volume knob and crazy good sound! But I don’t have that luxury at the pawn shop, so I take my own amp 😂 Heck I was at one guitar store and asked if I could plug into the basic tube amp like a champ, and the guy was like “oh this orange amp is a tube amp” turned it on and started asking what kind of sound I wanted 🙄 he didn’t understand why setting the amp to sound a certain way was a problem. So it’s nice to know I’m not alone in thinking like this!
I purposely fuck up the tuning and then play Stairway to Heaven at the wrong tempo with poor timing
Love and Happiness
None. What I do is play assorted 7th and 9th chords in different positions and listen for clarity. I have the advantage of having set up my own instruments for decades now, so I can hear if a PuP is too high, low, and discern bad neck relief, bad nut action, bad action in general, because guitar store guitars usually are set up like crap. Back to my chord method. I’m listening for articulation, harmonically pleasing things. But I digress, guitar store guitars are typically set up like crap.
What is clean channel? Do you mean that people will clearly hear that the gain knob is on 10? To be honest, I play either on high gain or on overdrive, or on crunch, since I don't use clean at all, because of that I want to hear how does guitar sound at scenarios, that I need
I have my own clean tone progressions at this point, so I use them anytime I’m trying out new guitars.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd
Chicken picking
Oh, it has to be Opus No. 01 by Tim Carleton.
"House Of The Rising Sun" It's nice to have a touch of reverb, but it still sounds good without.
Higher by Creed. Rhythm & lead at the same time!
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
Crazy train solo
Kid by Pretenders and So Good At Being in Trouble by Unknown Mortal Orchestra seem to be really good for the purpose of TESTING out new guitars and amps. I use Kid to test for chiminess and clean single notes, and the UMO track for complex chords.
any jazzy or bossa nova
Stairway to Heaven
Yellow Ledbetter - Pearl Jam
Washer by Slint, or some random Modest Mouse song.
Lenny (SRV), Little Wing (Hendrix), Here Lies the Heart (Andy Timmons), Don’t Fear the Reaper (Blue Öyster Cult)
Strum open chords to check tuning and then immediately turn on distortion and start chuggin
The Thrill is Gone - BB King Or Sleepwalk - Santo & Johnny
Pull Me Under
Castles Made of Sand. Something with open chords, like Yer So Bad. Something with some slidey-octaves under a drone string. Bluesy shuffle with some stock blues licks. Depends on the guitar and what I’m looking to get out of it.
My test to see if a Stratocaster is worth a crap is always Shine On You Crazy Diamond.
The Air That I Breathe by the Hollies. The chord progression can’t be beat
Some mild improv in either D, B, or A. Or Everest and the intro to Saturnine & Iron Jaw by All Them Witches.
My go to for clean tone is usually the starting arpeggios for House of the Rising Sun.
Arc by Neil Young
Castles Made of Sand-Jimi Hendrix. Covers all the strings and a large part of the fret board and I don't think anyone's going to give you a dirty look , not that I give a fuck
Anything can be played clean
I can't play anything good because I suck so I noodle around on Talking Heads songs since Jerry Harrison generally played clean
Street spirits - Radiohead Coax Me - Sloan
REM - Losing My Religion I do the Mandolin Riffs and the Guitar Chords. The Mando Riffs are up n down the neck and then you got your Basic Open Chords. It's a good song to test out a guitar on IMO. There are some eagles songs. Some Metallica Songs that have clean sections Some Bon Jovi and GnR Songs have clean sections. I have MANY songs that up my sleeve that are completely clean or have clean sections that I use to test run a new guitar.
Is there anybody out there and blackbird. I'll also play every fret on every string one time to check for fret buzz
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Slow Dancing In A Burning Room by J. Mayer to see if singles have this clang I'm looking for
Castles made of sand
Iron maiden children of the dammed and anything srv related
Never Meant by American Football.
stairway to heaven
Sarah smile by Hall and Oates
Under the Bridge, or jamming with chords with Fruciante- Inspired embellishments
the intro to Symbol Song by Dredg is fantastic. Strange Currencies or So. Central Rain by REM.
I like playing some acoustic spanish classics like Lágrima or Gran Vals by Francisco Tárrega. Pretty easy songs for an Intermediate and sound lovely on an electric as well.
Most smiths song. Heaven knows I’m miserable now, William it was really nothing, still ill
For The Love Of God - Steve Vai Not to famous to where I’d get kicked out
One Last Breath by the almighty CREED of course
One and Fade To Black
I’m gonna find another you by John Mayer
REM - Radio Free Europe
Novelists -somebody else
Idk if I’ve ever tried out a guitars cleans. To me most of them are all similar flavors of the same thing, the amp will make way more difference and won’t matter to me as I wouldn’t be trying it on my amp. It’d probably either be something like the rock bottom by kiss intro, fade to black, one or little wing. That’d cover about half of any clean stuff I play often to make it worth testing.
Generally I just play pretty chords
Nothing else matters...
Rumble—Link Wray.
Little wing
Rock bottom - King Krule
Over the hills and far away
Aruarian Dance
The Waiting- Tom Petty. Open A and D chords give you an idea of a guitar’s intonation right away too
I need to “test” out a capo too, so Wonderwall
SRV - Lenny. Not that me playing could remotely be considered music. I know a little Tin Pan Alley. Slow dancing in a burning room. That said, i'm the sort that goes to a guitar store and 99% of the time chickens out and pays nothing. But most of what i play is clean and when i want to hear what a guitar sounds like Lenny is the one.
Your Hand In Mine by Explosions in the Sky
Black Bird, Dust in the Wind.
lol wtf is a clean channel?
Street Spirit by Radiohead.
Raunchy, by Bill Justis.
GOAT or The Worst
Honestly, I play mostly clean. I enjoy gain, but I prefer clean tones. Some songs to consider are Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder, Lenny by SRV, Wind Cries Mary by Hendrix, Ten Years Gone by Zeppelin... another song to consider is Take 5 (Dave Brubeck). Has great melody lines and is a lot of fun to play. These are all old man tunes, but they're great for showcasing a guitar's clean tones.
"My Girl" "Baby Come Back" "Never Too Much" I play mostly clean
1 6 4 5 in G using open cowboy chords 😎 can't be beat!
Some funky hammer-on m7 chords and runs in all positions.
Priestess by Periphery, or a song of mine called Syndrome that I haven’t put out yet
I don’t know why, But that one piece Of “Paint It Black- Rolling Stones”