The Last Straw tab by Marillion

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.