It’s a case of Fender by name and Fender by choice here in the 2017 debut from the North Shields indie songsmith, who dons his American Pro Jazzmaster to deliver the retro-chorused jangle and funky 16ths. Released over two years ahead of his debut album, Play God grabbed Sam early attention from the music press who unanimously praised his vocals, melodic guitar work and politically charged lyrics. We’ve tabbed out the main guitar riffs and given you the chords you’ll need if strumming is more your style. If you’re swapping between riffing and strumming, make sure to adjust how you hold your pick - a tight grip near the point gives accuracy for riffs, whereas a looser approach is better for strumming.
The tab will of course give you the most authentic approach for this song, but you can easily strum your way through too - Bm, G and A are easy enough, and, if E5 is a stretch, simply switch to an open position Em chord instead. G6, Bm11, Asus2/4 and Aadd9 are the shapes used in the outro. The open high E string gives a rich, colourful sound to these chords and you could also experiment with an open B string, too.
For the recording, Sam tuned to Eb standard tuning (all six strings down a semitone), but we’ve stayed in E standard for convenience.