'Ball And Biscuit' by White Stripes - Guitar Tutorial

            band -  White Stripes
song -  Ball and Biscuit
album - Elephant

Standard blues form: e/e/a/e/b/a

A song transcribed by Geraint Charles Iestyn Stevens.

||---------0---0-------||-------------------||-------------------||--
||---------0---0-------||--2---2p0-2-0-2-0--||------4p2-4-2-4-2--||--
||*-(1)------2----0---*||*-2---2p0-2-0-2-0-*||*-4---4p2-4-2-4-2-*||--
||*-(0)-----------0---*||*-2---2p0-2-0-2-0-*||*-4---4p2-4-2-4-2-*||--
||---2------------x----||--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--||--2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2--||--
||---0------------3b---||-------------------||-------------------||--
     E7     p.m.           A7                   B7

Okay, that's the main riff above. There is room to improv here. Anyone who has seen them
live will know that Jack messes around, as it were, and improvises a fair deal, which is
all good. His play can often be somewhat erratic and he its odd notes or strums rather
loosely.

However, there are aso element of precision, it is evident here with the open string
(B and e) double stops, although he can get sloppy here too.

If the above isn't to your liking, you may wanna consider this as an alternative:

----0-0-0-----|------------------|---------------------
------3-0-----|----3-p-2---------|---------------------
-----(1)------|-2--2-----2p0-2p0-|---------------------
--------------|-2--------2---2---|----etc.-------------
-2------------|-0----------------|---------------------
-0------------|------------------|---------------------

The other thing you here, which is bassy, is probably the octave pedal he uses a lot,
i'm not sure on that, but it makes sense and that would be: 

||---------------||
||---------------||
||---------------||
||---------------||
||-7---7-5--7----||
||-------------3-||

A song just isn't the same without fills, and Jack certainly does not disappoint on this
front, with a fair few, but since there is so much improv to be had, I'm not gonna tab
them all.

Fill 1

||---------------------||--------||--------||----------------||--3b4-||
||-(0)-----------------||-3b-p-0-||-0-h-1~-||-(0)------------||-x----||
||-/4~4-4-2-p-0-------||--------||--------||-/4~4-4-2-p-0--||------||
||---------------2-p-0-||--------||--------||----------------||------||
||---------------------||--------||--------||----------------||------||
||---------------------||--------||--------||----------------||------||

Fill 2

(Let's have a ball and a biscuit....)

||------0-(0)---0-0----0-0------0------------||
||----0-------------------------0-(0)--------||
||------------3------2------0h1---(1)(1)-----||
||-----------------------------------(0)--0--||
||-2--------------------------------------x--||
||-0--------------------------------------3--||

SOLO 1

The chord going into the solo(s) is a nice and simple B5:

------
------
--4--- (why i tabbed that bit out i don't know)
--4---
--2---
------

under the solo is a rhythm of E-A-B, which really is a fucked up distorted version of the
main riff yet using fewer open strings).


Right now the, um, fun part!! This is no way totally accurate, its tough, but sounds
good. It'll make do (remember this can be improvised a lot!). 

I've tabbed what i think are the main notes, you do the necessaries to them to make them
fit. In bar 5 there are some real messed up crazy flat bends.

Bar 6 is interesting, not sure if what i've tabbed is right, but when it does work
if you play along with the track.
 
Anyway, we managed to play it like this...

||----17b19r17p15-----22-22b24~-|---17b19r17-----22-----|
||----------------17~-----------|------------17---------|
||------------------------------|-----------------------|
||------------------------------|-----------------------|
||------------------------------|-------------------(0)-|
||------------------------------|-----------------------|

|-10-------------------------------|---15-15b17----15-15b17--17-15----
|-10b12-12-r10p8--b-12-p-10--10-8~-|-5/---------10/-----------------17-
|----------------------------------|-----------------------------------
|----------------------------------|-----------------------------------
|----------------------------------|-----------------------------------

                                            
--15-----|-/15--15-------------------------|
-----17~-|---------18-------------18b------|
---------|------------17-17b18r17-----17b--|
---------|-----------------quick-----------|
---------|---------------------------------|
---------|---------------------------------|

(press string on pickup for these)
|-28b29r28-24-24-24-24-24-24-22b24~22--------|-------------------------|
|-------------------------------------22b24~-|-28b29r-28b29-29-29-----|
|--------------------------------------------|--------------------28b--|
|--------------------------------------------|---------------------slow|
|--------------------------------------------|-------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------|-------------------------|

|--------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
|----------19--------------------|-20b22-22-22-22----------------------|
|/19-19-21----21b22~-21-19-21-19~|----------------19b21-19-17----------|
|--------------------------------|----------------------------19-17-14-|
|--------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------|-------------------------------------|


|----------------------------------|
|----------------------------------|
|----------------------------------|
|----------------------------------|
|----------------------------------|
|-0----4---4-5--5-5-6--6-6--7~-----|

Phew!!

Right, yet another fill!!

||-------------------|
||-0-----------------|
||-3/4-4---2p1p0-----|
||---------------(2)-|
||-------------------|
||-------------------|


And that's ya lot.  There are way way more things to this song, but since there is so
much scope and opportunityto improvise, it seems, in my opinion, futile to even bother
tabbing everything when it would get played maybe 9 different ways in 10.

So, plug in, crank it up and beast out!!

Oh and if you think this is horseshit, sue me...I'm a drummer!!

Comments/complaints/general bitchings to [email protected]