Click where your fingers go (one note per string). Click the O / β markers on the left to switch a string between open and muted. Click a dot again to remove it. High e is at the top, the same way tab is written. Numbers on the dots show which finger to use. All 24 frets of your S621 are here, with the offset dot inlays.
Look up a chord shapeβΎ
Chord detector
Where your fingers probably are
waiting for soundFor a chord, it takes the notes it hears plus the lowest note and works out the most natural shape. For a single note (riffs, solos), every place that note can be played glows, and the one nearest where your hand already is gets highlighted. A pickup can't tell which string a note came from, so this is a best guess.
β±οΈ One-minute changesβΎ
The quickest way to get fast at changing chords: switch between two chords as many times as you can in a minute. Fretlab listens and counts every clean change. A minute a day on the changes your songs need, and you'll watch the number climb.
β‘ Power chords (the "5" chords)βΎ
A power chord is just two notes: the root (the note it's named after) and the note a fifth above it. That's where the "5" in F5 or G5 comes from. Often the root is doubled an octave higher too.
There's no third, so a power chord is neither major nor minor. That means it fits over almost anything. It also stays tight and punchy with lots of distortion, where full chords turn to mush. That's why rock, punk and metal use them everywhere.
The best bit is that it's one shape you move around. The fret your first finger is on tells you the chord.
Find any power chord
Tips
- Only let 2β3 strings ring. Let your first finger lightly touch the strings it isn't pressing so they stay quiet, and keep your strum small.
- Palm muting: rest the edge of your picking hand on the strings right by the bridge for that tight "chug" sound.
- Moving between chords: keep your hand in the same shape and slide it. Relax your grip between chords.
- Your sound: use the bridge pickup (switch position 5) and some gain.turn the gain up on the amp.
- Drop D trick: tune your low E down to D (pick Drop D at the top) and power chords on the bottom three strings become one finger laid flat.
Power chords on Ultimate Guitar
Play any song's chord sheet as power chords. A small add-on puts a switch on Ultimate Guitar's chord sheets. β‘ Power turns every chord into its power chord (Em7 becomes E5, G/B becomes G5). πΈ Normal keeps the chords as they are. Either way, hover over or tap a chord to see FretLab's shape for your tuning, and the button under the switch lists every chord in the song. Open a song's Chords (Ultimate Guitar) button here and the sheet uses the tuning you've picked in FretLab.
- Add 𧩠Tampermonkey to Chrome. It's a free extension that runs small add-ons like this one.
- Go to chrome://extensions, press Details under Tampermonkey, and turn on Allow User Scripts. Chrome needs this for any add-on of this kind. On an older Chrome without that switch, turn on Developer mode at the top right of the page instead.
- β‘ Install the power chord add-on then press Install on the Tampermonkey page that opens.
Do this once on each computer. The switch sits on the right-hand edge of the sheet, and the button under it opens your tuning, the capo, and every power chord in the song.
β‘ Power chord challenge
Plug in, press Start, and play the power chord shown. Fretlab listens and moves on when it hears it. How fast can you get?
Songs made of power chords
πΊ Triads (three-note chords)βΎ
A triad is a chord's three notes: the root (R, the note it's named after), the 3rd and the 5th. A major chord and a minor chord only differ in the 3rd: lower it one fret and major becomes minor. Your big open shapes are triads too, just with notes doubled up.
Played on three neighbouring strings, each chord makes three little shapes, one for each note at the bottom (the inversions). They join up all the way along the neck, so you can play any chord almost anywhere, with no barres.
That's how rhythm players add those little chord stabs and fills, and the triad's notes are the safest ones to land on in a solo.
Find any triad
Play a song with triads
Pick a song and Fretlab picks a shape for each of its chords on the strings above, each one as close as it can to the last, so your hand hardly moves. Tap a chord to see it on the fretboard.
Tips
- Start on the top three strings (G B e) with C, F and G, or Am, C, D and Em. Learn one shape of each, then the next one up.
- Only those three strings should ring. Pick them, or pluck them with your thumb and two fingers, and let your fretting hand rest lightly on the others.
- Say the notes as you go: "root, 3rd, 5th". Soon you'll see the root inside every shape, and know where the next shape up starts.
- Major to minor: find the green 3rd and move just that note down a fret.
- Over a song: let someone else (or the play-along) strum the big chords, and play the triads higher up for a second guitar part.
πͺ Barre chord doctor
Hold a barre chord and pick it one string at a time. Fretlab listens to each string and tells you which ones ring clearly, which buzz or sound dead, and what to change with which finger.
Tips for barre chords
- Use the side of your first finger, rolled slightly towards the headstock: it's bonier and flatter than the soft front.
- Right behind the fret wire, not in the middle of the fret. The closer, the less you need to squeeze.
- Pull, don't pinch. Let the weight of your arm pull the finger back into the neck, with your thumb behind the neck about level with your middle finger. A death grip makes it worse.
- Build it up: barre just the top two or three strings first, then add one string at a time.
- Little and often: a minute or two several times a day beats an hour once. It does get easier as your hand gets stronger.
πͺ Slash chords
A slash chord is a chord you know with a different note at the bottom. Before the slash is the chord; after it is the bass note, the lowest note you play. So Asus2/G is your Asus2 with a G underneath, and D/F# is a D with an F# underneath.
Usually your fingers hardly change: keep the chord and add one note under it, or lift a finger so a lower string rings. Pick one below and Fretlab shows which fingers stay, which move, and where the new one goes.
Pick a slash chord
Bass walks
Most slash chords are there to make the bass walk from one chord to the next, a note at a time. Press Play to hear each one: the bass note comes first, then the chord. Tap a slash chord to see how to finger it.
Tips
- The bass note has to be the lowest note you hit. Aim your strum at its string, and don't catch the strings under it.
- Play the pair: switch slowly between the plain chord and the slash chord. Usually only one finger moves, so learn which one.
- Thumb over the top: for an F# or G on the low E (D/F#, G/F#), let the neck sit in your palm and press the low E with your thumb. The side of the thumb also keeps the A string quiet.
- Bass, then strum: pick the bass note on the beat, then strum the rest. That makes a bass walk easy to hear and keeps it in time.
- Can't reach it yet? Play the plain chord. Fretlab already counts Asus2 for Asus2/G, and the band's bass player covers the low note in the play-along.
ποΈ CAGED
The five open chord shapes C, A, G, E and D, slid up the neck, fit together like jigsaw pieces: the top of one shape is the bottom of the next. So every chord can be played in five places, and they always come in the order C-A-G-E-D up the neck. It's the map that joins your open chords, barre chords, triads and scales together.
How to use it
- Start with C major and play the five shapes in order up the neck. Notice that each one starts where the last one ended.
- Find the roots (the ringed dots) in each shape: they're your landmarks.
- The E and A shapes are the barre chords you know. The others fill the gaps between them.
- Solo in a shape: the pentatonic boxes sit around these same shapes. Box 1 of A minor pentatonic wraps around the E-shape Am barre at fret 5, so pick Minor and A here to see it.
π Keys and chord families
Ever wondered why G, C, D and Em keep turning up together? Each key has a family of seven chords, numbered I to vii, and most songs stay inside one family. Know the numbers and you can work out songs faster, and play any song in any key.
Famous progressions
What key is my song in?
π² Find the noteβΎ
Learn where the notes are on the neck. Fretlab names a note and a string: find it, play it, and it moves on as soon as it hears it. How many can you find in a minute?
πΌ Pentatonic scales
Five notes that sound good over nearly any rock, blues or pop song in their key. Learn them as five box shapes that join up along the neck, then jam with the band. The gold dots are the root: the note that sounds like "home".
Jam with the band
How to use it
- Learn box 1 first. Play it up and down slowly, saying where the roots are. Then make up little phrases inside it.
- End your phrases on a root (gold) and they sound finished. Notes outside the scale are fine if you're passing through them.
- Minor or major? For bluesy and rock songs, use the minor pentatonic of the key. For happy, country or pop songs, try the major. The same shapes do both: A minor pentatonic has the same notes as C major pentatonic.
- Then add box 2, which joins on above it, and slide between the two.
π₯ Timing trainer
Play along with the click, one note or strum on each beat (or two to a beat), and Fretlab shows how early or late each one was. Good timing matters more than speed: it's what makes a band sound tight.
Best: β. Delay allowance:
π€ Bends and vibrato
Most players bend short: not quite up to the note. Bend while Fretlab draws your pitch, and aim for the green band. Or hold a note with vibrato and see how even it is.
Tips
- Bend with three fingers: the ring finger on the note, with the middle and first fingers on the same string behind it, all pushing together.
- Push from the wrist, turning it like opening a door, rather than pushing with the fingers alone. Hook your thumb over the top of the neck.
- Hear the target first. Play the note two frets up, then bend until your bent note matches it.
- Vibrato: small, even wobbles from the wrist, about 5 or 6 a second. Slow and wide sounds bluesy; fast and narrow sounds nervous.
π Ear training
Train your ears to recognise what you hear. It's the skill behind working out songs by ear, and it makes everything else easier.
π€ Fingerpicking
Pick the strings with your fingers instead of a pick. p = thumb, i = first finger, m = middle, a = ring. The thumb looks after the bass strings, and each finger looks after one of the top three strings.
Tips
- Rest your ring or little finger lightly on the guitar's top if it helps you stay steady (lots of folk players do).
- Let the thumb move on its own: practise the bass notes alone until they're automatic, then add the fingers.
- Pluck, don't pull: each finger moves into the palm, from the knuckle, and lets the string ring.
- Slow and even first: every note the same loudness. Speed comes later.
π₯ Warm-ups
A few minutes of these before you play makes your fingers looser, stronger and more accurate. Fretlab follows along note by note.
Tuner
Scope
Looper
emptyPress Record, play a few bars, then press again to close the loop. It starts repeating straight away. Press again to overdub a new layer on top. Tip: count yourself in with the metronome.
Metronome
Click Tap in time with a song to match its speed. Practise new chord changes slowly, then nudge the BPM up.
π§ Use headphones plugged into your laptop. Laptop speakers sound thin and the browser adds a little delay (shown in the input bar). Good starting points for your Quantum humbuckers: bridge pickup with the Lead or Metal channel, neck pickup with Clean, chorus and reverb.
πͺ Family
Everyone's songs and play-along scores, side by side. Click a song to open it in the Songbook. Each person's own Fretlab keeps their card up to date.
A thin, light S Series body made of meranti with a quilted maple top, and a fast, slim Wizard III neck. Two passive humbuckers and a 5-way switch give you everything from glassy cleans to heavy rock. The fixed bridge (no whammy bar) keeps tuning stable and makes drop tunings and string changes easy.
- Body
- Meranti, quilted maple top
- Neck
- Wizard III maple
- Fretboard
- Rosewood, offset white dots
- Frets
- 24 jumbo
- Scale length
- 648 mm (25.5")
- Radius
- 400 mm
- Neck width
- 43 mm nut Β· 58 mm 24th fret
- Neck thickness
- 19 mm 1st Β· 21 mm 12th fret
- Pickups
- Quantum (H) neck + bridge, passive
- Controls
- Volume, tone, 5-way switch
- Bridge
- F106 fixed, 10.5 mm spacing
- Hardware
- Black
- Factory strings
- D'Addario EXL110 (10β46)
- Factory tuning
- Standard E A D G B E
Your pickup switch
Volume is the knob nearest the strings and tone is the one below it. Rolling the tone knob back makes the sound darker and smoother, which is lovely on the neck pickup. Rolling the volume back a little cleans up a distorted sound without touching the amp.
Pickup ear test
Fretlab strums a chord through one of your five switch positions. Can you tell which one? It's a model of your two humbuckers, not a recording. It copies where each coil sits along the string, which is the main reason the positions sound different. It plays through the amp if the amp is on, and on its own if not.
Strings & tuning
| String | 6th | 5th | 4th | 3rd | 2nd | 1st |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Note | E | A | D | G | B | E |
Changing strings (fixed bridge)
- Change one string at a time. That keeps tension on the neck even.
- Unwind the old string and pull it out through the back of the body.
- Feed the new string in from the back through its hole (ferrule), so the ball end sits at the back. Then bring it up over the saddle.
- Pull it to the tuner and leave about 5β7 cm of slack past the post. Wind 2β3 wraps, top to bottom, without the string winding over itself.
- Tune up to the note. If you go too high, drop below it and come back up, which helps it stay in tune. Gently stretch the new string and retune a few times.
- Snip off the spare end.
String tracker
Setup: what "good" looks like
String height (action) at the 14th fret
Measure from the top of the 14th fret to the bottom of the string, with the guitar in tune. The strings in between should step up gradually. Each saddle on your F106 bridge has two small hex screws that raise and lower it. Too high and it's hard to play. Too low and you get buzzing and notes that die quickly.
Neck bow (relief)
Press the string at the 1st fret and at the fret where the neck meets the body, then check the gap at the 8th fret. Do this on both E strings. The truss rod sets the bow. Turn it a quarter turn at most each time, retune and recheck. Loosening adds bow and tightening flattens the neck.
Intonation
Tune up, then compare the 12th-fret harmonic with the fretted 12th-fret note on the tuner. If the fretted note is flat, move that saddle toward the neck. If it's sharp, move it away. Use a Phillips (+) screwdriver on the screw at the back of the bridge. Recheck this after changing string gauge or switching to drop tunings.
Tuning down: strings for each tuning
Lots of your songs use other tunings. Your fixed bridge makes switching easy: there are no whammy-bar springs to rebalance. Lower tunings make the strings looser, though, so heavier strings keep them feeling tight. These are Ernie Ball's suggestions for a 25.5" (648 mm) scale like yours.
After changing tuning or string gauge, checkβ¦
- Intonation: Ibanez says to reset it whenever you change gauge or tuning. Use the 12th-fret check in the setup card above.
- Neck bow: different tension pulls the neck differently, so recheck the gap at the 8th fret and give the truss rod a small turn if needed.
- Buzzing: looser strings swing wider. If it buzzes after tuning down, raise the saddles a little or go up a gauge.
- The nut: much thicker low strings (.056 and up) can stick in the nut slots. They "ping" while you tune and won't settle. A shop can widen the slots in minutes.
Pickup height & tools
Pickup height
Ibanez doesn't publish exact figures: its manuals say to set pickups by ear. These starting points come from DiMarzio's and MusicNomad's guides. Hold the string down at the 24th fret and measure from the top of the pickup's pole piece to the bottom of the string.
- Set the bridge pickup first, using the two screws either side of it (Phillips). Clockwise raises it and anticlockwise lowers it. Turn both a half turn at a time.
- Then set the neck pickup by ear. Flick between positions 1 and 5 while you play, and adjust until they're about as loud as each other.
- Too close and the magnets pull on the strings: notes warble or sound out of tune, buzz and die away sooner. Lower gives a clearer, more open sound with a bit less output.
Tools for each job
| Intonation | Phillips (+) screwdriver, in the screw at the back of each saddle |
| String height | Small hex key in the two screws on each saddle (usually 1.5 mm on Ibanez bridges) |
| Neck bow | The hex key or socket wrench that came with the guitar, on the truss rod nut (usually 4 mm on Ibanez) |
| Pickup height | Phillips (+) screwdriver |
| Measuring | A steel ruler with 0.5 mm marks, and Fretlab's tuner |
| Strings | String winder and cutters |
From Ibanez's Fixed Bridge guide and Maintenance Manual. The usual key sizes aren't printed in Ibanez's guides, so try the key before you turn anything.
Care & cleaning
- After every session: wipe sweat off the strings (including underneath), frets, bridge and nut with a dry cloth. That's the best way to stop rust.
- Stubborn grime on metal parts: use a soft cloth with a tiny drop of oil.
- Body (gloss finish): use guitar polish on a soft cloth. Never use household sprays, solvents or anything abrasive.
- Rosewood fretboard: it's unfinished wood, so a couple of times a year (handy when changing strings) wipe on a little fretboard or lemon oil and work it to the edge of the frets.
- Batteries: none. Your Quantum pickups are passive, so there's nothing to charge or replace.
- Big temperature and humidity changes move the neck slightly. If it suddenly starts buzzing, check the neck bow (above).
Summarised from Ibanez's S Series wiring sheet, Maintenance Manual and Fixed Bridge guide. The full documents are linked at the top of this page.
A left-handed, Super Folk sized acoustic with a laminated spruce top, mahogany back and sides, and a cutaway, so you can reach the high frets. Unplugged it's a normal acoustic. Plug a cable into the strap button at the bottom and the Fishman pickup under the saddle feeds the Presys preamp on the side. That has your volume, tone controls and a tuner, ready for an amp, a PA or Fretlab.
- Series
- Tanglewood Evolution
- Model
- TSF CE BK LH (left-handed)
- Body
- Super Folk, with a cutaway
- Top
- Laminated spruce
- Back & sides
- Laminated mahogany
- Binding
- Maple, round the body and headstock
- Rosette
- Abalone
- Tuners
- Chrome, enclosed (Grover style)
- Neck
- Mahogany
- Fretboard & bridge
- Rosewood
- Scale length
- 650 mm (25.6")
- Nut
- 43 mm wide
- Saddle
- Compensated
- Pickup
- Fishman, under the saddle
- Preamp
- Fishman Presys: volume, bass, middle, treble, phase, tuner
- Battery
- 9 V, inside the preamp
- Output
- ΒΌ" jack in the strap button
- Finish
- Gloss black
- Strings
- Acoustic light, 12β53
- Factory tuning
- Standard E A D G B E
Solid or laminated?
The shops list the TSF CE BK as a "spruce top" with "mahogany back & sides". Tanglewood always says solid when a top is solid (its dearer guitars say "solid spruce"), so a plain "spruce top" means laminated: thin layers of wood pressed together, with spruce on the outside. That's normal at this price, and it has a real plus: laminate copes with changes in temperature and humidity much better than solid wood, so it's far less likely to crack.
To check for yourself, look at the edge of the soundhole. Laminate shows thin layers, or a different grain on the inside face than on the outside. Solid wood shows one piece with the same grain right through.
Left-handed
This is the left-handed version: the whole guitar is mirrored, with the neck pointing right as you play, and the strings, nut and saddle set up so the low E is still the string nearest your face. Strings go on the same way as on any acoustic.
Signed in on this account, Fretlab draws its chord diagrams and fretboards the left-handed way too. You can switch that off or on with Left-handed at the top of the page.
Your preamp: Fishman Presys
Fishman's sample settings
Plugging in
- Turn the volume wheel right down, and set bass, middle and treble to the middle (pointing straight up).
- Plug a normal guitar cable into the strap button at the bottom of the guitar, then into the amp, PA or your audio interface. The batt light flashes once to show the preamp has switched on.
- Turn the volume up. For the cleanest sound, have it as high as you can without distortion or feedback, and set the loudness on the amp.
Strings & tuning
| String | 6th | 5th | 4th | 3rd | 2nd | 1st |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Note | E | A | D | G | B | E |
Tanglewood's own pick is Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze 12β53. Any acoustic "light" set will do. Left-handed guitars take the same strings as right-handed ones. Don't fit electric guitar strings: the pickup under the saddle is made for acoustic strings.
Changing strings (bridge pins)
- Change one string at a time. It keeps the tension on the neck even, and stops the saddle lifting out. The pickup sits under the saddle, so it needs to sit flat to sound even through the amp.
- Slacken the string right off. Then ease the bridge pin out, ideally with the notch on a string winder. Don't lever it out with anything metal against the wood.
- Drop the ball end of the new string into the hole and push the pin back in, with the groove in the pin facing the string (toward the neck).
- Keep a thumb on the pin and pull the string up gently, so the ball end catches under the bridge rather than on the tip of the pin.
- Take it to the tuner, leaving about 5 cm of slack past the post, and wind it so the string wraps downwards on the post.
- Tune up to the note, gently stretch the string, retune a few times, then snip off the spare end.
String tracker
Setup: what "good" looks like
String height (action) at the 12th fret
These are typical figures for an acoustic. Measure from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the string, with the guitar in tune. On an acoustic, the height is set by the saddle. Lowering it means sanding the saddle's base, and with the pickup underneath, that base has to stay perfectly flat. So it's a job for a guitar shop.
Neck bow (relief)
Press the low E string at the 1st fret and where the neck meets the body, then look at the gap at the 7th fret. About the thickness of a business card is right. A truss rod inside the neck sets the bow. On most acoustics you reach it through the soundhole, just under the end of the fretboard. Turn it a quarter turn at most each time, then retune and recheck.
Tuning
Plug in and press the tuner button on the preamp (see above), or use Fretlab's tuner. Tune up to each note rather than down to it, and it will stay in tune better.
Care & cleaning
- Where it lives: an acoustic is thin wood, so it hates big changes in temperature and humidity. Keep it at normal room temperature, away from radiators, fires and sunny windows, and never in a car or loft. In a very dry winter a case (with a guitar humidifier) protects it. Tanglewood also suggests a stand or case, so it can't be knocked over.
- After playing: wipe the strings (including underneath), the fretboard and the body with a dry, soft cloth.
- Gloss black finish: it shows fingerprints. Use guitar polish on a soft microfibre cloth. Never use household sprays, solvents or anything abrasive.
- Rosewood fretboard: when changing strings, wipe off the dust with a lint-free cloth, then rub in a little fretboard conditioner or lemon oil, as Tanglewood recommends.
- Battery: a 9 V battery in the preamp powers the pickup. When the batt light stays on, it's time to change it. Open the preamp with the latch above the Fishman logo, and fit the new battery the right way round. Unplugging the cable and switching the tuner off saves the battery.
- Feedback when it's loud: press the phase button, turn the bass down a little, and don't stand facing the speaker.
Taken from Fishman's Presys user guide, Tanglewood's FAQ and the shops' spec sheets, all linked at the top of this page. Tanglewood no longer lists the Evolution guitars on its own website.
Learn nextβΎ
These chords unlock the most new songs. Click a diagram to hear it.
π PracticeβΎ
β¨ Your ideas βΎ
π Shared with you βΎ
Songs the family sent you with π Share, newest first. Click one to open it, or β to take it off the list.
π΅ Request a song βΎ
Song missing? Add it here and it's saved until it goes in the songbook. Signed in, everyone sees everyone's requests, with who asked.