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Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench - Guitar Tab

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Key B major
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench guitar tab video
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Classic Rock

Gain6
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Master7
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Roll back the gain slightly and pick near the neck for a warmer, more open crunch.
Foo Fighters Hard Rock B major
Capo Advisor 0 B major · Original key

About Monkey Wrench

Drop D tuning is doing a lot of work in "Monkey Wrench." That lowered sixth string gives the riff its thick, slightly aggressive low end, and at 160 BPM you need your picking hand locked in tight before the chords start flying. The song sits in B major, but the feel is driven hard toward the root, so expect plenty of power chord shapes built off that dropped D. The main challenge for most players is the relentless pace: keeping rhythm clean and consistent across the whole track takes real stamina. Foo Fighters built a lot of their mid-tempo Grunge catalog around exactly this kind of high-energy rhythm work, and "Monkey Wrench" is a good test of where your right hand really sits. Use the Practice Toolbar to isolate the faster chord-transition passages and slow them down until each change is clean before pushing the tempo back up.

  • The song uses Drop D tuning, which lowers the sixth string to D and makes the heavy low-end power chord shapes more accessible at speed.
  • At 160 BPM, right-hand stamina and consistent alternate picking are the main physical demands across the full song.
  • The fastest chord transitions in the verse and chorus are ideal candidates for looping slowed down until muscle memory is solid.

How to Play Monkey Wrench

Tuning: Drop D · Key: B major · Tempo: 174 BPM

The drop D tuning lets you fret the low power chords with a single finger, which is central to the heavier riffing here. At 174 bpm it moves fast, so the real test is building picking stamina and keeping every note clean at speed.

Loop the hardest passage and creep the speed up from around 70 percent until it holds at 174 BPM.

Fender Telecaster
Guitar

Fender Telecaster

Chris Shiflett's Telecaster Deluxe with dual humbuckers provides a brighter, more cutting lead tone than Dave Grohl's darker semi-hollows, creating essential tonal separation in Foo Fighters' layered recordings.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Chris Shiflett uses Les Paul Standards live for their thick humbucker output and sustain, matching the band's preference for guitars that push tube amps into natural saturation without pedal-based distortion.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

The Les Paul Custom's thick body and potent humbuckers deliver the compressed midrange and sustain essential to Foo Fighters' heavy, saturated crunch when paired with cranked Mesa/Boogie and Marshall amps.

Gibson ES-335
Guitar

Gibson ES-335

Dave Grohl's signature DG-335 semi-hollow body produces warm, chimey overdrive on cleaner parts and thick midrange on heavy sections, becoming the sonic foundation of Foo Fighters' studio and live sound.

Gibson Explorer
Guitar

Gibson Explorer

Grohl's white 1980s Explorer delivers aggressive humbucker tones and extended upper range, providing the raw power and cutting presence needed for the band's louder, more distorted passages.

Marshall JCM800
Amp

Marshall JCM800

The JCM800's legendary crunch and natural tube saturation perfectly complements Foo Fighters' philosophy of tone-first guitar-and-amp combinations, delivering the heavy, responsive drive heard throughout their discography.

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