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          * PLAYING PUNK GUITAR *

Written by A.H.
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My point with this is not to teach anyone how to sound like Rancid, it's 
just some kind of guideline to help beginners improve their skills as
guitarists. The parts about guitars and amps are what I have learned by 
trading, buying and selling. 

REMEMBER, IT'S JUST SOME ADVICE! 

I've learned a lot from Rancid, and I believe that when you're in the process 
of learning to play there's nothing wrong with copying others. Your personal 
style will still be there in the end.  

A lot of questions has come up on the messageboard at "The Complete Rancid 
Guitar Tab Compilation" about how to get the sound Rancid has on their records. 
I'm a very big Rancid fan, and I also play guitar in a punkband, and I've always
loved the sound on the records, so here's a little something about what I've
learned during the years. There are basically three things that makes the sound:
The way you play the guitar, what kind of guitar you use and what amp you use. 

I've divided this into the three parts mentioned above and all parts include
stuff about both punk and ska. I have not included any chord charts or scales, 
since there's plenty of that all over the internet. I'm just a guitar player 
sharing my personal thoughts and experiences to beginners, so that they can 
improve as guitarists.  I'm not English nor a teacher so I'm sorry if it's 
difficult to understand certain parts. 


-PLAYING TECHNIQUE-

This is something that affects the sound more than one might believe.
Everyone keeps saying: "It's Punkrock it's just powerchords" That couldn't 
be more wrong. I've discovered that Rancid uses a lot of open chords which 
gives a very full sound. It's also a lot easier to jump around on stage while
playing if you don't need to move around your hands to much. I never use 
powerchords, I use open chords or full barré chords.

It's always worth experimenting a bit to find out how a song is played the
easiest way.

When it come to solos, there's not much to say, keep practising and, soon 
you'll learn the scales without using some boring book, just keep playing and
you'll know where to play and where not to play to get a good sound. Remember 
to try and make it easy. Don't go all over the neck, playing just one string, 
it's easier to play several strings using frets close to each other.

How about ska then? To play ska I use the same chords as usual, sometimes a bit 
simplified, since I never play the E and A strings. 

There are two basic strumming techniques:

The first is to simply just play upstrokes, this sounds OK but it's hard to
keep tight, and the sound becomes slightly "empty". 

The second way is to strum as when playing any kind of music, and then you use 
the hand on the fretboard to get the right rhytm, by lifting your fingers 
slightly on the downstroke to mute the chord. This gives a fuller sound because
of the "twang" caused by the muted downstroke. It's also easier to keep tight
and I believe that it's actually easier to learn (although it might cause some 
severe pains in your "fretboard hand" in the beginning!).

Now this is just some advice, you got to find a technique that suits you, but
this is hopefully something to get you going. 
 

-GUITARS-

I've been experimenting a lot with different guitars buying and selling and
through the years I've learned the following (It has cost me a lot so if you
are about to buy a guitar read this, and you might get something you like from 
the beginning):

The Pickups are very important. Single Coil pickups (found on Stratas for 
example) are great for ska, but they sound piss poor with lots of distortion. 
Humbuckers on the other hand are OK for ska and they're real killers when it 
comes to distortion. So getting a guitar with Humbuckers is propably the best.
Guitars with Humbuckers does not need to be more expensive than for an example 
Squires. The Fenix SG is a real good and cheap guitar with Humbuckers.

When playing with distortion I use the treble pickup with maximum volume and 
tone. For ska you just have to experiment because the clean sound depends very 
much on the guitar itself. On a hollowbody the treble pickup works just fine, 
but on a Les Paul you'll need more bass in the sound so you would propably have
to use both pickups or the rhytm pickup only. Always use maximum tone though! 

That's the basic "tech" stuff. The rest is just personal taste! 


-AMPS-

It's not very hard to find a good amp: Just plug it in and try it out, if it 
sounds good, fine! If it sounds bad, fuck it! Just remember one thing: It's 
better to get an amp with a good clean sound than one with good distortion: 
A good distortion pedal can make any clean sounding amp sound cool, but no 
pedal in the world can make a distorted amp sound clean.

Also remember that cranking up the volume can radically change the sound of the
amp so give it all when you try it out! 

To get a good sound just experiment with the settings, if the amp is good 
you'll get a sound you like sooner or later. 

That's all folks! I just want to say one more thing: This is NOT some fucking 
"punk-school", It's just some advice from me, as a guitarist who have learned 
and been influenced a lot by Rancid. 

C ya! A.H.

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Nov 01 1998