RATT: Lay It Down

[Hellraiser6502]

Definitelty Drop D...

[Endrik]

He misses a few notes in the solo, but his main riff is dead on. For the riff it's all in the strong attack on the strings like Warren does. That's what he means by "play it like pinch harmonics".

No. Play it like pinch harmonics means the thumb is touching the strings with the pick. Look at Warren's picking hand, it's a bit similar to how George Lynch holds his pic and Lynch has his thumb against the strings pretty much all the time, specially when playing leads, Lynch's lead tone is all about that thumb against the string feel even when it clearly doesn't sound like pinch harmonics. Warren is a bit similar but not as much, specially when it comes to solos, he used to do it more in the early 80's though.

As far as the attack goes, it's pretty universal in rock guitar that one has to play riffs with plenty of attack, otherwise it's like hollandaise sauce with watery texture.

[ginsambo]

I noticed what isn't evident from the tab is holding the bar chords whilst doing the pull offs, it basically looks way more fiddly than it is, it is a stretch, but not fiddly. The way I worked it out you hold the D barre through the pull offs until you extend it and then move up two frets with the same extended chord.

I play the D on the 5th fret A string as the pedal tone. It doesn't have to be drop D and the fill I just hammer on an F from a E chord and go up, with double stops (E - F/C - G/D - G#/D# - A/E - D barre) you still get a pretty low heavy sound on the fill with those doublestops. I don't see a reason why it particularly has to be played in drop D and I don't hear drop D on the record at all but maybe I'm being deaf.

[xenophobe]

I don't see a reason why it particularly has to be played in drop D and I don't hear drop D on the record at all but maybe I'm being deaf.

It's drop D. It won't sound right if you don't play it in drop. And there aren't any noticeable or notable stretches in this song.

[Dave Rocks]

It is drop D, period. When playing the part where the drums come in, it need to be drop D. Watch the video sausageofpower posted and you will know what I mean. And, yes, there is a chord stretch, the same video shows it. I do the slide holding that form but only pick the a string for the slide and then pick the full chord at the end of the slide (it's more distinct that way.