Back In Black Guitar Tab

Getting the Black Label Tab Right

The Blackback riff is straightforward in notation but tricky in execution, mostly because most tablature versions you'll find online omit the subtle muting patterns that make it sound like the record. The core chord progression runs E5 to A5 with a hammer-on from the fifth to seventh fret on the D string, then a quick pull-off back to fifth before moving to the B5 shape. Standard tuning is all you need, though a lot of players mistakenly try to capo up or alter their tuning because they think the record sounds in a different key. It doesn't. It's just played through a Marshall and a lot of gain. I've spent years compiling and refining the Back In Black Guitar Tab for my own reference and for students who keep showing up with half-arsed versions from subscription sites that don't bother getting the palm muting notation correct. The main problem with almost every tab I've seen on major platforms is that they write out the chords as block shapes without indicating which strings should be muted. That's the difference between it sounding like AC/DC and sounding like you're strumming power chords in a garage. You need to know that the low E string rings out on the first hit of each chord change, then goes dead immediately after. Here's the actual breakdown, written the way it should appear:

E5: 0-2-2---(let ring) then palm mute the rest
A5: x-0-2-2-x-x (ring the A string once, then mute)
E5 again: same pattern
Then the iconic hammer-on: x-x-0-2-2-x on the A and D strings, hammer from open A to second fret on the D, pull back off, then slide into the next A5 position. The verse progression loops back to E5 and stays there for four bars before hitting the A5 turnaround. Most tabs compress this into two bars because they're lazy, which throws off your timing when you're actually playing along. I spent about three weeks in 2014 trying to get this piece to sound right at tempo because every tab I used had the rhythm notation wrong. The fix was stopping the search for a perfect written version and just learning it by ear using the album track at 0.75x speed on a borrowed iPod Classic. For a reliable source, you can download a properly notated version from the official Hal Leonard songbook, which is available through most sheet music retailers and runs about twenty dollars. There's also a free community-maintained tab on Truefire's public archive that I've used as a reference check, though I always cross-reference it against the record. The tablature file itself is in PDF format and includes both standard notation and tab, which helps because the rhythm notation in standard form catches a lot of the timing details that tab alone misses. If you're looking for the Back In Black Guitar Tab specifically, that's what you want to pull up first before you even attempt to play it.

Playing It Correctly

The thing nobody explains about this riff is the dynamic contrast. The opening E5 chord needs to be struck hard and allowed to decay naturally, then the palm-muted version that follows has to be tight and choppier. That's the groove. Most beginners play everything at the same volume and it loses all of its punch. I use a light touch on the picking hand for the ringing notes and firm down for the mutes. It's not complicated but it takes about two hours of slow practice to get it to feel natural. Another detail that matters: the hammer-on from the open A string to the second fret on the D string needs to be clean. If you let the open A ring while your left hand is hammering, it clashes with the mute coming off the D string. The solution is to roll your picking hand slightly so the pick brushes the A string lightly as you hammer, killing the ring at the exact moment the hammer lands. This is the kind of technique nuance that doesn't show up in any tab ever written, which is why ear training matters more than reading notation for this particular song. Speed is not a factor here. The tempo sits around 137 beats per minute but the feel is loose and behind the beat, almost draggy. Playing it rigidly on the grid makes it sound mechanical. Try listening to the original recording and focusing on how Angus plays slightly late on the downbeats of each measure. That's what gives it the swagger. When I first recorded a cover of this piece, my timing was technically perfect and it still sounded wrong until I intentionally pushed my playing a few milliseconds behind the beat. It felt unnatural at first but it locked in within a session.

What This Doesn't Cover

Tab alone won't teach you the tone. The sound of this record comes from a Les Paul through a Plexi Marshall into a few different mic configurations, and the guitar has a specific bridge pickup selection and volume knob roll-off technique that changes between the ringing chords and the muted parts. If you're recording and trying to match the album sound, you'll need to look elsewhere for that information. Tab handles the notes. It doesn't handle the physics of why those notes sound the way they do on that particular record. For tone work, you're better off studying pickup positions and amp settings separately from learning the tab itself.