Unforgettable Fire

[pathologypete]

Hi there,

Does anyone know a good tab for this song? I am not quite sure that the ones I found via google are right-on. I suspect that Edge is using some alternate tuning. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Cheers,

pete

 

[whackjester]

I don't know about this particular song, but I haven't known Edge to use alternate tunings.

 

[discothequeLP]

he seems to be using an open tuning on this song, but i'm not sure.

 

[Edge_Orchestra]

I don't know about this particular song, but I haven't known Edge to use alternate tunings.

Actually, The Edge does use alternate tunings at times. "The Unforgettable Fire" would be one. His tuning for his lap steel he made up (used for "Surrender"). And "Love and Peace" is 'open D', if I remember correctly. And I remember someone stating that he was playing "Stuck In A Moment..." (acoustically during Vertigo) with an open tuning...

...As for The Unforgettable Fire and Surrender...

From Guitar Player magazine June 1985:
GUITAR PLAYER - Jun 85

You seem to change guitars a lot. Is this due to different tunings?

It's really because each song suggests to me a different guitar sound. The strange tunings that I have are for the lap steel and the Fender Telecaster. The Tele has a very odd one that I made up: F, A, D, D, G, D. As I was putting down some guitars on The Unforgettable Fire, I was having a little bit of difficulty coming out with something I was pleased with. So I decided as a radical change of approach to just tune the guitar up to the notes that seemed right. It was pure chance, but it does sound a beautiful chord in relation to the song. I play "Unforgettable Fire" onstage with the Tele and an E-Bow. I used E-Bow for another few tracks that didn't make the album. It's an interesting device, but it tends to make everything sound the same. So whether or not you get a nice, pleasant effect or that same whiny sound is really down to how you treat your sound after the guitar. [Ed. Note: The E-Bow is a small, hand-held electromagnetic bowing device for guitar.]

What kind of lap steel do you use?

I bought an old Epiphone, dating from 1945, in Nashville around 1982. I used that on the War album, and I use it live for "Surrender." It's a great old thing, tuned in a very unusual way. When I first got it, I researched the tunings a little bit and found them all to be extremely uninteresting for me -- I mean, they were country tunings. So I made up my own. I put the strings in couples an octave apart: The first and fourth strings are the same notes, the second and the fifth are the same, and the third and the sixth. So there's basically three notes making a minor chord with a ninth or a seventh. On standard guitar, I play slide in regular tuning, using a piece of chrome on the middle finger. A lot of good slide players use the trailing finger to stop any resonance in the strings behind the bottleneck. I don't do that. I control some of the problem with my picking hand, but I like the rest of the effect it gives, the sort of strange ambience.

 

[Edge_Orchestra]

Hi there,

Does anyone know a good tab for this song? I am not quite sure that the ones I found via google are right-on. I suspect that Edge is using some alternate tuning. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Cheers,

pete

As for a tab, I've not seen a good one. You can find an approximation of what the chords are...

I think that Chas from The Joshua Tree uses a similar approach for the song (standard tuning)

He alternates between keys and guitar. I have sorted out the ebow parts on my own but not made a tab.

Check YouTube. Someone might have made a tutorial of it?

 

[KEVIN051269]

There was a really good acoustic version U.Fire on youtube.
Guy looked (and sounded) a bit like Joe Cocker, cant find it anymore though