Fretplay.com : Tabs : M : Marillion Guitar tabs for Marillion: The last straw Get The last straw as ringtone now! Here is the Guitar tabs for "The last straw" by Marillion. To get the complete songlist of this band please visit the index for Marillion tabs, bass tabs, chords and CD reviews.

Check out the new guitar reviews. Electric guitars - Acoustic guitars - Bass Win prizes, easy, review your guitar here! Marillion - The+last+straw

From: James Osgood 

The Last Straw - Lyrics by Fish, music by Marillion.
Transcribed by James Osgood - jco100@tower.york.ac.uk

Legend

10b12 means bend from the tenth fret to the twelfth.
(10)b12 means pre-bend
20r18 means release bend 

~ indicates vibrato.
/ means slide
\/ means dive with whammy bar.
p indicates pull off, and
h indicates hammer on
q indicates quarter tone bend.

Intro and Verse - Clean guitar with Chorus and Delay

e-----------------------------------------------|
B-----1--3--1h3p1p0-----0-h-1--0----------------|
G-----2--------------2------------2--2-p-0--0---|
D-----2-----------------------------------------|
A--0--0-----------------------------------------|
E-----------------------------------------------|

e--------------------------------2--
B-----1--3--1h3p1p0-----1--------3--
G-----2--------------2-----0-----2--
D-----2-----------------------3--0--
A--0--0-----------------------------
E-----------------------------------

There are slight fills at the end of this, which are different
for the two verses. They are 

  1         2 
e---0h2--|--3-2---|
B--------|--------|
G--------|--------|
D--------|--------|
A--------|--------|
E--------|--------|

The bits between verses are just Eb and F chords played as
follows

    Eb    F

e---6---------|
B---8----10---|
G---8----10---|
D---8----10---|
A---6----8----|
E-------------|

It goes Eb - F - Eb - F - Eb - F -Eb - F - F - F.

SR arpeggiates the chords second time around.

After the second 'chorus' he whips on a capo at the third fret 
and plays an arpeggiated Cm7 as follows.

e------------------6--|
B-----------4p3h4-----|
G--------5------------|
D-----5---------------|
A--3------------------|
E---------------------|

He plays this repeadedly until the solo (There are various odd
bits of guitar under it but I haven't bothered to work them out)

Solo - a cracker. It's simple and very effective and I think I read
somewhere that he improvised it!!

e--------------------------------------------------------|
B--(16)b18~---11--9--11--(11)b13~------------------------|
G--------------------------------------------------------|
D---------------------------------------3--6--3--8/10\8--|
A--------------------------------------------------------|
E--------------------------------------------------------|

             dive with bar
e----------------------------------------------------13--|
B-----------------------16-p-13--16~--16p13--(16)b18-----|
G--------------------------------------------------------|
D--8p6p3--3--6q\----/------------------------------------|
A---------------\--/-------------------------------------|
E----------------\/--------------------------------------|

                                            |-------| rpt x 8
e--(15)b16~-16--(15)b16--16--18--(18)b20~------16p13-----|
B-------------------------------------------13-----------|
G--------------------------------------------------------|
D--------------------------------------------------------|
A--------------------------------------------------------|
E--------------------------------------------------------|

e----------------------------------------------------------|
B--(16)b18-------------------------------------------------|
G-----------13--13~--13h15p13--13~\------------------------|
D------------------------------------6~-3--6h8-6-8/10--10~-|
A----------------------------------------------------------|
E----------------------------------------------------------|

e----------------------------------------------16-18-(18)b20~|
B-----------------------------------16-(16)b18---------------|
G--10\-------------------------------------------------------|
D-------6~-8--6--8/10--8~--10-6p5p3--------------------------|
A------------------------------------------------------------|
E------------------------------------------------------------|

Then this bit which is great fun - still distorted.

e-----3---------------------3--3-----------------|
B-----4--3------------------4-----4-----6--------|
G-----5-----3-----5---------5--------3--5--------|
D-----5--------3--6---------5-----------3--------|
A--3--3-----------6------3--3--------------------|
E-----------------4------------------------------|

This chord sequence is used until the end. Steve solos over it
after a while, using the same melodic ideas as the solo, but
now in Cm as opposed to Fm.