Maiden Guitar Books --quality of arrangements?

CriedWhenBrucieLeft

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Just a quick question. I've got quite a few tab books. Does anyone have a comprehensive list of all the books & whether they're any good or not?

For example (I don't have it) I read the BNW tab book is rubbish, & doesn't have the solos. The book covering the first four albums is also pretty poor, lacking most, if not all, of the lead work. I've found SiT very good. A Real Live One is also excellent. Ditto, DOD & AMOLAD. I've seen scans of first album & it just looks like plain music, again, with no lead work.

Any to avoid, or recommend?
(I'm particularly interested in the quality of the tablature for the lead work.)
 
I only have SiT songbook. What i've read and played from it is completely accurate.
 
I have like an Early Days greatest hits songbook.

It''s atrocious. The fingering is way off, like, you play on the completely wrong string, and sometimes the chords are wrong too. It's almost like it was tabbed on Piano and then transposed to guitar.
 
I have AMOLAD and The Final Frontier. Both are great books, almost 100% accurate, every part is in there, all the solos. The only error I remember is the tapping section in H's BTATS solo is wrong. (I.E. there is no tapping) The Final Frontier is also good. It's missing the fills at the end of starblind but that's OK. Overall, they are both worth the purchase.

Oh there is also a Maiden Anthology book out there which has all the classics. That book is also very good.
 
I have the DOD one and the First Ten Years one. To be honest they are OK but I prefer to use Tux guitar and use powertabs or guitarpro tabs.
 
Powertabs are cool, but I like to play with the record, and it's pain to keep them in synch.
 
The original book - first 4 albums with Trooper cover - is some of the worst tab I've ever seen. It's close enough to give you a big head start on a song, but you heard right: almost no solos. (I think the Phantom solo is there, but that may be the only one.)

However, the book contains a lengthy Steve Harris interview which makes it a bit of a collector's item. The content of that interview can be found on the net, though. Most of it is reproduced in the Commentary.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
The original book - first 4 albums with Trooper cover - is some of the worst tab I've ever seen. It's close enough to give you a big head start on a song, but you heard right: almost no solos. (I think the Phantom solo is there, but that may be the only one.)

However, the book contains a lengthy Steve Harris interview which makes it a bit of a collector's item. The content of that interview can be found on the net, though. Most of it is reproduced in the Commentary.
Actually, now that I think of it, that's the one I have.

I think the solo for Flight of Icarus is there as well as The Ides of March. But yeah, almost no solos.

I haven't looked in it for years, but I seem to recall the intro to NoTB is off as well.
 
Powerslave has two books published by Hal Leonard - a complete transcription by Wolf Marshall and a "Signature Series" book which selects some phrases and explains them in detail.

I second the suggestion of the Anthology book - that one and the "A Real Dead One" book are the only chances to get decent transcriptions of songs from the debut album.
 
I bought the 'Somewhere Back In Time' tab book and it seems pretty accurate to me, although I'm not good enough to play most of the solos.
 
The Hal Leonard "Anthology" book is decent, but I found inaccuracies while learning a lot of songs for a tribute band. Sometimes the tabs get the notes right, but the position wrong -- meaning it's easier to play that melody (or to be in position for the next thing you're going to play) somewhere else on the neck, and if you're lucky you can confirm where the actual guys play it by watching live clips (though it can be difficult to do that for Dave, since he doesn't seem to get as much camera time in live videos).

The tab books can be helpful as a starting point and for suggestions, but there will be times when you play through the tab and realize it sounds or feels better playing it differently. Trust your ears and your fingers.
 
There were Japanese editions of Killers, Beast and Piece of Mind that are nice - although with some inaccuracies - and some of them are full band. Be warned though - Japanese transcribers are prone to write things as they personally play them rather than as they think the original musician does.
 
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