Neal have new rig?

[schonfan]

After watching the dublin videos, it seems Neals guitar and the rest of the band sound is really thin. I don't get Neal sometimes...he goes from the best guitar sound ever in the late 70's to the sound he had in HSAS and ROR. Then from the terrible Hiwatt sound in '08 to the great sound he had on the 09' tour. Also just found the video below as I was writing this. I guess he switched to Blackstar now. Looks like nice stuff but sounds like crap in the vid. What do you guys think?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brpd8vfc1OE

[ebake02]

Sounds too muffled for my taste.

[StringsOfJoy]

After watching the dublin videos, it seems Neals guitar and the rest of the band sound is really thin. I don't get Neal sometimes...he goes from the best guitar sound ever in the late 70's to the sound he had in HSAS and ROR. Then from the terrible Hiwatt sound in '08 to the great sound he had on the 09' tour. Also just found the video below as I was writing this. I guess he switched to Blackstar now. Looks like nice stuff but sounds like crap in the vid. What do you guys think?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brpd8vfc1OE

Although the Dublin videos are recorded with a portable camera, I thought they sounded fine. Interesting...I actually liked his "Hiwatt sound" and thought his sound in the '09 tour, supposedly with the Marshall JVMs, was thin and reedy by comparison. In the Hiwatt tour he was also frequently using a fuzz pedal, which is unusual for Neal, and I think it gave him a great front-of-stage sound with plenty of balls.

Different amps and gear do matter, but I think it's next to impossible to conclude much from the endorsement deal of the year/tour. Pedals color sound just as much if not more than choice of amp. And let's not even get into the amp modeling (the Axe FX) he always uses.

And even the choice of speaker can make an incredible (some would say biggest) difference: Neal's used x-pattern Greenback/T75s in the past (I thought made him still "fart out" too much) and supposedly simply straight T75s, but who knows what he's got in those cabs now.

I've been a fan of Blackstar since they first came out. They are great amps...but there's so much in the secret sauce that just looking at one ingredient (the amp) isn't going to tell you much.

[Rick]

I'm going to have to hear it first hand to be able to tell if he sounds good or not. Youtube is a terrible way to sample anything.

[San Diego Gary]

Neal talks about his new rig in this interview.

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ ... ear-455206