Tim Henson is no stranger to covering massive pop hits – who could forget his killer harmonic-embellished take on Ginuwine’s Pony? – but the Polyphia guitar hero has outdone himself with his latest reimagining of Ariana Grande’s blockbuster new single, Positions.
In the video above – appropriately entitled Pop Song Shred – Henson opens the track with the original’s nylon-string intro, before switchin’ to an Ibanez AZ to transform Grande’s vocals into a very Polyphia-sounding solo showcase.
In between nailing Grande’s vocal inflections, Henson deploys hybrid picking to switch rapidly between bass and treble strings, throwing in a host of wide sweeps, dizzying pentatonic runs and a few cheeky two-hand taps to boot.
To paraphrase the original artist, it’s like Tim’s in the Olympics, the way he’s jumpin’ through hoops.
Some of guitar’s biggest names agree, with Mateus Asato dubbing the cover "so great" and Manuel Gardner Fernandes commenting "damn baby" when Henson shared the clip on Instagram.
If you dig Henson’s take, he’s posted tabs and backing tracks up on his official site, w6rst.com.
You can compare his version with the original below.
