Ukulele in Sun

Ken's Electric Ukulele Tabs

This is a website about playing the electric ukulele, which yes, is a thing. If you are a guitar purist, or you have very firm opinions on gear, you likely won't like this site and might already feel your blood pressure rising. Beware that my approach is as pure as New York snow: I'm freely using octavers and pitch shifters and other effects. Musically, I am cutting corners and approximating like crazy. There is only so much you can do with four strings!

I began playing ukulele out of laziness, believing it to be an easier instrument to pick up. While I do think the uke generally has a lower level of entry difficulty than a guitar, it's also a different instrument and calls for different strategies (the strings tend to be softer and allow playing without picks a bit more). As well, once you start to reach the limits of four strings and fewer frets, the fun/challenge becomes stretching what the instrument can do. To do this, you need to go electric, and such a thing does exist: solid-body electric ukuleles. I could just play a guitar. But everyone does that! How many electric ukulelists do you know? Play one for a few hours, and you'll already be the best only e-uke player among your friends.

I'm not belittling traditional acoustic ukuleles or their players, let alone guitarists. I'm sometimes accused of making fun of someone's favorite song or band, and I'm not. I guess I just found my voice and feel more comfortable with an electric uke.
Mistakes!:email

george
On this site I have links to song excerpts, a series of YouTube tutorials on electric uke, and some rough tab approximations of how to play these classic rock songs.

The Song Playlist on YouTube (Most are Short Clips)
The Tutorial Playlist on YouTube, 175+ Episodes (How to Play Them)
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Instrument. I'm playing a Clearwater tenor electric ukulele with drop-G tuning (the lowest string is an octave down instead of up). In some countries this brand name is Vorson. There aren't many makers of e-ukes apart from a few small craft shops, although the Risa line is more professionally made. One advantage e-ukes have over electric guitars is cost: the basic pickups and electronics are pretty much the same; there's just less wood and finishing. If you know anything about an electric guitar, the electronics should feel immediately familiar; mine has two pickups and a tone and volume knob. I use regular electric guitar strings (Ernie Ball Regular Slinky) and just use the top four strings (.26, .17, .13, .10). You can buy dedicated electric ukulele strings, but there's really no need to.
Uke
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Gear. Presently I'm using an Azor compressor to boost volume, then a TC mini Sub 'n' Up octave pedal (when needed), then a Mooer Pitch Box (when needed), then a Zoom G3xn effects unit, then a Behringer U-Phoria UMC22 input device to transfer the analog signal into my PC. I edit with Da Vinci Resolve, a free video editor. Again, a low cost enterprise (my video "studio" is a webcam and a smartphone). In older videos I'm using a Zoom G1-Four and sometimes a (terrible) knockoff Eno octaver. Because a uke doesn't have much gain, I have the compressor level set pretty high.

Gear
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Patches. When you see my patch setups, they are optimized for the G3xn but mostly still work for a G1-Four. The G3xn allows 6-7 pedal modules in a patch and the G1 allows five, so one or two might need sacrificing in a G1-Four. You can also use these patches with an electric guitar, but you might need to dial back the gain a bit, as an e-uke puts out less volume. I know that some type of direct Zoom loader file might be better than a picture, but they never work for me.
Patch
[76 patches. I've posted these to Tone Lib Forums as well.]
All of Them! [.zip]
AC-DC Patch
Acoustic Guitar Patch
April Wine Patch
Allman Brothers - Rambling Man Patch
Autowah Patch
Beatles - Hey Bulldog Patch
Beatles - Revolution Patch
Black Sabbath - Supernaut Patch
Blondie Patch
Boston Patch
Bow Wow Wow Patch
Brian May Queen Patch
British Steel Patch
Clean Jazz Patch
Close Acoustic Guitar Patch
Duran Duran - Undone Patch
Daft Punk Patch
David Gilmour Patch
Def Leppard Patch
Doobie Brothers - China Grove Patch
Eric Clapton Patch
Eric Johnson - Voodoo Child Patch
Eric Johnson - Dover Patch
Eagles Joe Walsh Patch
Fatboy Slim - Praise You Patch
Fleetwood Mac Patch
Peter Frampton Patch
Garbage - Stupid Girl Patch
Genesis Patch
Genesis - Dance With the Moonlit Knight Patch
George Baker - Little Green Bag Patch
Heart - Bebe Le Strange Patch
Hootie & the Blowfish Patch
Isaac Hayes - Shaft Patch
Jeff Healey Patch
King Crimson - Starless Patch
Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks Patch
Light Clean Patch
Little Feat Patch
Mandolin Patch
Max Webster Patch
Morrissey Patch
New Order - Blue Monday Patch
Ozzy Patch
Pearl Jam - Wishlist Patch
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb Patch
Pretenders (Learning to Crawl)  Patch
Queen Patch (Early Career) Patch
Queen - Innuendo Patch (Late Career)
Queens of the Stone Age - Song for the Dead Patch
REM - Bang & Blame Patch
Rob Zombie Patch
Rockabilly Patch
Rod Stewart & the Faces Patch
Rolling Stones - Happy Patch
Rush Patch
Santana Patch
Sheryl Crow - Soak up the Sun "Surf" Patch
Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock Patch
Still Corners - The Trip Patch
Sting - Demolition Man Patch
Stone Temple Pilots Patch
The Cult Patch
The Cure - Burn Patch
The Cure - Fascination Street Patch
The Police Patch
The Who - Who Are You Patch
Tragically Hip Patch
U2 - Edge Patch
U2 - Mysterious Ways Patch
U2 - Until the End of the World Patch
U2 - Zooropa Patch
ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man (Late Career) Patch
ZZ Top - La Grange (Early Career) Patch
ZZ Top - Rough Boy Patch
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Tab. Tablature occupies a legal grey area. It's sort-of legal, but you can sort-of copyright published tab books. All of this tab is made by my ear and a bit of adapting from guitar tab, particularly from Songsterr. It won't be perfect, but it should get you close. Bends or slides are indicated with slashes; an h indicates a hammer-on, and a p is a pull-off, though they aren't always marked. I've tried to indicate where I pitch-shift down with an effect. You're not going to sound like Josh Homme with these patches and tab (his tone is infamously hard to reproduce anyway). But I hope this page is useful and enjoyable, and helps you along with a fun and unusual instrument. And if you make a video, I hope you tell me.
Riff
[150 songs, Last Updated May 2024]
All of Them! [.zip]

ABBA - Knowing Me, Knowing You
AC/DC - Back in Black
AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion
Alanis Morisette - So Pure
Allman Brothers - Ramblin' Man
April Wine - Enough is Enough
April Wine - Just Between You and Me
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Beatles - Here Comes the Sun
Beatles - It's All Too Much
Beatles - Let It Be
Beatles - Now and Then
Beatles - Something
Beatles - Taxman
Big Wreck - That Song
Blondie - One Way or Another
Bob Segar - Mainstreet
Boston - Don't Look Back
Boston - Foreplay/Long Time
Boston - More Than a Feeling
Boston - Peace of Mind
Bow Wow Wow - Do You Wanna Hold Me
Champaign - How 'Bout Us
Chumbawamba - Amnesia
Coldplay - Adventure of a Lifetime
Counting Crows - Goodnight Elizabeth
Cream - Crossroads
Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over
Cult - Love
Cure - Burn
Cure - Fascination Street
Def Leppard - Desert Song
Dire Straits - Why Worry
Doobie Brothers - China Grove
Duran Duran - Rio
Dwight Yoakum - Guitars & Cadillacs
Eagles - The Long Run
Eric Carmen - Hungry Eyes
Eric Clapton - Promises
Eric Johnson - Are You Experienced?
Fatboy Slim - Praise You
Fleetwood Mac - Sara
FM - Phasors on Stun
FM - Shapes of Things
Foo Fighters - Have a Cigar
Gary Moore - Still Got the Blues For You
Gary Numan - Cars
Genesis - Abacab
Genesis - All in a Mouse's Night
Genesis - Dancing With the Moonlit Knight
Genesis - Deep in the Motherlode
Genesis - Down and Out
Genesis - Firth of Fifth
Genesis - I Know What I Like
Genesis - It
Genesis - Man of Our Times
Genesis - Many Too Many
Genesis - Turn It On Again
George Baker Selection - Little Green Bag
Giorgio Moroder - Together in Electric Dreams
Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown
Grateful Dead - Terrapin Station
Greenleaf - Bury Me My Son
Heart - Bebe Le Strange
Highwaymen - Poncho and Lefty
Hootie & the Blowfish - Old Man and Me
Irish Descendants - Catch the Wind
Jackson Browne - Boulevard
Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
Journey - Any Way You Want It
Journey - Don't Stop Believing
King Crimson - Starless
Kyuss - Green Machine
Led Zeppelin - Bring It On Home
Led Zeppelin - In the Light
Led Zeppelin - Kashmir
Led Zeppelin - The Ocean
Led Zeppelin - Trampled Under Foot
Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks
Lene Lovich - Lucky Number
Little Feat - Let It Roll
Londonbeat - Thinking About You
Massive Attack - Teardrop
Missing Persons - Surrender Your Heart
Morrissey - Someone On Your Side
MS MR - Hurricane
My Song is Love Unknown (Traditional)
Nazareth - Hair of the Dog
Neil Young - Harvest Moon
New Order - Blue Monday
Nina Hagen - New York New York
No Doubt - Spiderwebs
Ottmar Liebert - Distant Storm
Ozzy Osbourne - Perry Mason
Pearl Jam - Wishlist
Peter Frampton - I'm In You
Peter Frampton - I Wanna Go to the Sun
Peter Frampton - Something's Happening
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
Pink Floyd - Time
Pink Floyd - Us and Them
Police - Walking in Your Footsteps
Pretenders - Back on the Chain Gang
Queen - Bijou
Queen - Breakthru
Queen - Innuendo
Queen - I Want to Break Free
Queen - Play the Game
Queens of the Stone Age - Song for the Dead
Rob Thomas - Smooth
Rob Zombie - Meet the Creeper
Rolling Stones - Happy
Roxy Music - More Than This
Roxy Music - The Main Thing
Rush - Distant Early Warning
Rush - Subdivisions
Rush - Tom Sawyer
Santana - Dance Sister Dance
Sass Jordan - Ugly
Shania Twain - If You're Not in It For Love
Sheryl Crow - Soak Up the Sun
Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye
Simply Red - Stars
Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock
Sniff 'n' the Tears - Driver's Seat
Starship - Jane
Starship - Sara
Steve Winwood - Spanish Dancer
Still Corners - The Trip
Sting - Demolition Man
Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song
Supertramp - Goodbye Stranger
Tangerine Dream - Dolphin Dance
Texas - I Don't Want a Lover
Thomas Dolby - Beauty of a Dream
Toto - Rosanna
Train - Drops of Jupiter
U2 - Even Better Than the Real Thing
U2 - Mysterious Ways
U2 - Until the End of the World
U2 - Zooropa
Van Halen - Dance the Night Away
Who - Baba O'Riley
Who - Who are You
Yes - Tempus Fugit
ZZ Top - Cheap Sunglasses
ZZ Top - Rough Boy
ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man