The Jack by AC/DC Lesson

Learn to play The Jack by AC/DC on JustinGuitar!


View the full lesson at The Jack by AC/DC | JustinGuitar

That 5-fret pinky stretch and the A-Bb-B power chord progression fingering are gonna take a bit of practice!

Been working on that stretch for about 3 months. :smile:

Started nearly a whole fret away, but now can just kinda get there without too much buzzing. Keep at it, takes time to have your hand grow to the stretch.

That stretch from the B chord to 11 and then 12 on the A string is really hard. I don’t see this as a beginner thing at all? I’m playing this on telecaster, maybe it’d be easier on a shorter scale guitar like the Gretsch or an SG?

The song is categorized as Grade 4, so definitely not beginner.

Well yeah I suppose so. Justin does call it a good beginner song in the video though and it is “just” a blues.

I showed it to my teacher, he can do the stretch of course but he suggested playing it in a few different ways too or that the ACDC guys must be using shorter scale guitars (SG I think?)

Hi Simon,

I have commented in a few places before. Being too lazy to go look for those, I’ll duplicate a bit here. :slight_smile:

This is a song I very much wanted to play. It has the groove and simplicity I enjoy. And, I seem to really like shuffles… In hindsight, that would have been a good avatar name for the forum!

I can say that playing on the SG vs a longer scale S-style does make a little difference while you are getting your hand to make the stretch. I can kind of make the longer scale now, and the shorter scale is pretty comfortable and sounds clean.

If you want to play this, work on the stretch daily for several weeks. Don’t be impatient and try to force the stretch. Extend your fingers as much as you can and hold it until you feel a little fatigue, then release and wait a few moments to let your hand rest, then repeat. Do this 10-15 times, then let it rest by doing something else. Repeat this morning and evening and it won’t take long before you notice you can reach further.

I would massage my hand throughout the day. Eventually, this wasn’t needed. I could feel it getting tight and also feel things pop. There are a lot of connective tissues in there that all need to adjust to making a new motion. This can take a few months, so be patient.

Thanks, that’s a very practical idea for how to even make the song physically possible. Currently my fingers don’t work that way at all. Then again a lot of playing guitar is about making your fingers do unnatural things, mine took a year to be able to play F perhaps.