# Savatage tabs (full discography)



## Evan89 (Sep 17, 2018)

Greetings, fellow Savatage fans! I thought I should post here about a project I started working on in April of last year. My initial goal was to transcribe a few Criss Oliva solos and make a small e-book/collection. This morphed into full songs, then full albums, and eventually the band's entire studio discography.

The more I worked on transcribing this band's music, the more I saw how inaccurate the existing tabs are. I have painstakingly pored over every detail and have referenced live videos whenever possible to ensure that things are in the correct position. As some of you may know, there was a Gutter Ballet book put out by Cherry Lane in 1990. I did all of my transcriptions from scratch, and discovered plenty of errors and positional differences compared to the original book. I can't imagine transcribing this stuff without all the technology that's available now!

I have done many Savatage videos on my youtube channel, which should hopefully illustrate my attention to detail. Here's a playlist for all of them: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNYXfMfhF-A_zphkudwTQJEe_jBXPZhk1

Please email me at [email protected] if you are interested in this project.

Thanks!


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## DLG (Sep 18, 2018)

that's some dedication! salute!


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## Siggevaio (Sep 18, 2018)

Insane job! I love Savatage and might be interested in something like this.


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## ArtDecade (Sep 18, 2018)

This is amazing. I would love to see this project through!


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## Element0s (Sep 18, 2018)

Very interested. I've transcribed a lot of Savatage riffs and covered a few of their songs in my band but the solos often stump me. Criss was a legend!


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## ArtDecade (Sep 18, 2018)

Are you already done tabbing it all out?


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## Evan89 (Sep 18, 2018)

ArtDecade said:


> Are you already done tabbing it all out?


Yes! Please send me an email at [email protected]


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## HungryGuitarStudent (Sep 20, 2018)

Criss was a huge influence in my teens. His sense of melody has stayed with me ever since. I'd definitely like to see those tabs. Thank you for the insane amount of work you had to put to bring this to fruition.


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## ArtDecade (Sep 20, 2018)

If anyone has emailed him, let us know what the deal is!


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## HungryGuitarStudent (Sep 20, 2018)

While he waits to set up a deal with the band, he's selling the tabs at 10$ per album or 100$ for the lot (140 songs). Assuming these are quality tabs, it's a good deal.


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## Evan89 (Oct 3, 2018)

Here are my newest videos breaking down some classic Criss Oliva licks:





I also just finished transcribing the Doctor Butcher album, send me an email if you're interested!


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## Evan89 (Oct 8, 2018)




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## Element0s (Oct 9, 2018)

God damn that tone match. So good. Criss had some of the fattest, meatiest 80's belters of all time


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## InHiding (Oct 11, 2018)

Did you do Shotgun Innocence? Great song.


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## Evan89 (Oct 11, 2018)

InHiding said:


> Did you do Shotgun Innocence? Great song.


Yes, I did 8 "bonus" songs: The Message, This Is Where You Should Be, Jesus Saves (original version), Stay, Forever After, Shotgun Innocence, Post Script, and Voyage. All 12 studio albums are also complete, for a grand total of 140 songs!


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## Evan89 (Oct 17, 2018)

Today marks 25 years since Criss Oliva was tragically killed by a drunk driver. With my transcriptions and videos, I'm trying to do my part in keeping his music alive.


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## ArtDecade (Oct 17, 2018)

Nailed it. Well done, Evan!


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## Mourguitars (Oct 18, 2018)

Pretty awesome and fantastic work Evan !

Mike


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## ArtDecade (Oct 22, 2018)

Sent Evan some cash and I can confirm that he did an amazing job. Painstakingly worked out with oodles of tracks in GP7 format. You can tell this was a labor of love.

No, I won't send you freebies, but Evan will send you some samples if you are interested!


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## Evan89 (Oct 24, 2018)

ArtDecade said:


> Sent Evan some cash and I can confirm that he did an amazing job. Painstakingly worked out with oodles of tracks in GP7 format. You can tell this was a labor of love.
> 
> No, I won't send you freebies, but Evan will send you some samples if you are interested!


Thank you @ArtDecade for the great feedback! I'm happy that my attention to detail and passion for this music is evident. Hopefully @eayottes will chime in as well on the Edge of Thorns transcriptions. It's also worth noting that I transcribed piano parts for many of the songs, as well as counterpoint vocals for songs like Chance and Morphine Child.

I have several other transcription projects in the works, I look forward to sharing them with you guys soon!

Lastly, in honor of the album's 23rd anniversary today, here's my Dead Winter Dead medley:


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## ArtDecade (Oct 24, 2018)

I synced up the album version and your version of Chance. It was pretty cool. Do all of the Blue Oyster Cult albums next!


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## HungryGuitarStudent (Oct 24, 2018)

Loved your tabs man ! I found tiny bits of phrasing details missing in a handful of places, but regardless you did great work  I appreciate the effort that went into this. Let me know if your plan on doing Scar Symmetry tabs


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## Evan89 (Oct 24, 2018)

eayottes said:


> Loved your tabs man ! *I found tiny bits of phrasing details missing in a handful of places*, but regardless you did great work  I appreciate the effort that went into this. Let me know if your plan on doing Scar Symmetry tabs


Let me know which songs/where they are and I can always take another look. One of the nice things about doing everything digitally is that I can make edits/updates if needed. Thanks!


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## HungryGuitarStudent (Oct 25, 2018)

Evan89 said:


> Let me know which songs/where they are and I can always take another look. One of the nice things about doing everything digitally is that I can make edits/updates if needed. Thanks!



Thanks for the offer  When I have a bit of time I'll get back to you.


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## Evan89 (Oct 29, 2018)

I put together a video with audio samples straight from my Guitar Pro 7 transcriptions. The original recordings are on the left side, GP7 audio on the right.


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## Evan89 (Nov 28, 2018)

I've also transcribed a bunch of Jon Oliva's Pain and Circle II Circle songs if you guys are interested in any of those!


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## Evan89 (Jan 30, 2019)

Some "new" Criss-era live videos have surfaced:

Chicago 1993: 

Johnny Lee Middleton's first show 1986:


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## Mourguitars (Jan 30, 2019)

Awesome stuff Evan , i made a Ax8 patch this week for a Savatage tone the gutter era, turned out great...

I had a lot of bootlegs of copies of copies of VHS i bought of eBay years ago...they were pretty bad, but it was nice to see chris playing tho....very underrated guitarist in my book !

Mike


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## technomancer (Jan 30, 2019)

HungryGuitarStudent said:


> Loved your tabs man ! I found tiny bits of phrasing details missing in a handful of places, but regardless you did great work  I appreciate the effort that went into this. Let me know if your plan on doing Scar Symmetry tabs



Damn a Holographic Universe tab book would be awesome...


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## Evan89 (Jan 30, 2019)

technomancer said:


> Damn a Holographic Universe tab book would be awesome...


I'd love to do some Scar Symmetry! I'm currently trying to get something going with them/Per Nilsson as well as a few other bands. Will keep you guys updated.


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## TheShreddinHand (Jan 31, 2019)

technomancer said:


> Damn a Holographic Universe tab book would be awesome...





Evan89 said:


> I'd love to do some Scar Symmetry! I'm currently trying to get something going with them/Per Nilsson as well as a few other bands. Will keep you guys updated.



I support this 100%! Where do I pay!?


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## ArtDecade (Jan 31, 2019)

TheShreddinHand said:


> I support this 100%! Where do I pay!?



Uh... me. You can pay me and I'll see that it gets where it should. Yeah, that's the ticket.


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## Evan89 (Feb 4, 2019)

Here are some samples of my Jon Oliva's Pain transcriptions for anyone interested:


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## Evan89 (Dec 6, 2019)

I've been going over my Savatage transcriptions again, and making some edits. Mostly little formatting things that probably no one will notice. However, I did discover something interesting yesterday. After watching some live videos of the Gutter Ballet title track, I determined that Criss played the song in D standard, not drop D as originally thought (the old Cherry Lane book has it in drop D). So I've updated my transcription and will be sending it to anyone who has gotten the tabs from me in the past. Of course, if anyone is new to this thread and would like more information about the project, please email me at [email protected] or [email protected]

Another interesting wrinkle is that in the post-Criss era, the band did play this song in drop D.
The solo section (around 2:30) makes it clear that he's in D standard tuning: 
This video was also helpful in adjusting the fingering for the part at 1:15:


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## Louis Cypher (Dec 13, 2019)

Just got my tabs sent through from Evan, really nice guy and proper helpful. Looking forward to getting started on some of my favourite Savatage songs tonight. 

Cheers Evan!


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## Millul (Mar 31, 2020)

Is this still a thing? If so, well, my money is ready!


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## Evan89 (Mar 31, 2020)

Millul said:


> Is this still a thing? If so, well, my money is ready!


Yes, it is! Please email me at [email protected] and we'll get the details sorted.


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## Seahwkerman71 (Jan 20, 2022)

I emailed the Comcast email over a week ago. Evan, you still offering this?


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## MidnightMetalMaster (Apr 4, 2022)

I’m still waiting on a reply for these myself


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## Bodes (Apr 4, 2022)

Best to always tag the user you are wanting to reply, most don't hover over their old threads. Evan last posted in this thread in april 2020.
Paging @Evan89


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## MidnightMetalMaster (Apr 5, 2022)

EVAN89 emailed me back yesterday and said the following.



> On Apr 4, 2022, at 3:10 PM, [email protected] wrote:





> Hi Nicholas, thanks for getting in touch. I'm still trying to get my Savatage transcriptions officially released, and have been in contact with their management on and off for the last couple years. Last time we spoke, I was told there were publishing issues that needed to be cleared up and they were working on it, but it would be a while. Now that the the vinyl reissues have started to be released, I plan to contact them again soon and see if there is any update. So in the meantime, I'll have to hold off on offering the tabs until I hear back from management. I will keep this email on file so I can update you on this (hopefully with good news) in the future. Thanks again for your interest in this project!


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## AMOS (Apr 6, 2022)

Would it help if I put you in touch with Chris Caffery and Jeff Plate?


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## MidnightMetalMaster (Apr 9, 2022)

Me?
I’m just looking for the tabs for
Savatage “The Message”


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## Spaced Out Ace (Apr 9, 2022)

I've always been interested in trying out two SD-1 Super Overdrives into an edge of breakup amp. More on topic, I hope those who are interested in the tabs get their moneys worth.


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