Neal's Guitar Tone

[Carlitto H@kk]

I got a question on Neal and his guitars...

I didn't pay attention much on this tour but did anyone
notice if Neal was swapping out guitars alot during their sets?
I know he swaps between the LPs and Stats for specific tunes but I'm more
curious about swapping the LPs out alot.

Does he use any alternate tunings?

Nowadays most guitarist are using a bunch of crazy tunings
to simplify things or come up with crazy progressions...
Hell, watch the Goo Goo Dolls Live; that fucker
Reznick swaps his guitar out for every song.
i hate trying to learn his shit because 90% of Goo tunes
has its own specific tuning.
The way they are tuned, you could pretty much play them with 2 fingers.

It just says so much about Neal's playing if he sticks with standard all the time.
Not only is he always coming up with incredible riffs, runs and progressions
but he makes it look so damn easy

yea bud,, i think neal is in standard 440 all the time.. some of bad english was tuned to Eb... it makes me wonder is some of soul sirkus might be drop D , ive never sit down and learned those songs,, but they have a hard edge,, i bet he messed with the drop D some..i bet jeremeys guitar player has all those ansewers.. that dude had to learn a huge cataloge!!! ... as far as neal swaping out guitars.. he always seems to have the black beauty with the notch worn out where his pinky hangs!!

As far as the SS stuff...
I was front and center for a show and Neal didn't stray too far from the black beauty too much...
A strat here and there, the 7-string Ibanez for that "Stand Up and Shout" low end...
I SS was pretty much all standard or at least nothing lower than Eb (which is my tuning of choice)

[SF-Dano]

Neal used this guitar alot around the HSAS days. What is the make and model? Anyone . ... Anyone .....?[/img]

dano,, a while back styxcollector gave me this info.. the ebay is gone and some of the links , but you can still get the overall.....
http://forums.melodicrock.com/phpBB/vie ... nd#3720125

Thanks Larry

[maverick218]

I like to shop Ebay so just goofing around and looked up Neal Schon guitar and one came up with a starting price of $19,000.00, Buy It Now $35,000.00... It says, "buy a piece of rock history." Holy smokes!! Is that normally what a guitar sells for?

A classic guitar with a lot of history would be a collectors item so yes, you could see prices that high. I saw a Charvel Schon on Ebay for about $800 a few months ago that I would have bought in a heartbeat if I had the cash.

[JrnySuxBalls]

Beginning of the SS set was drop D (Highest Ground, New Position etc) then 7 string for Sanctuary
& Stand Up, then to the current Black Beauty(in E) for the rest of the show.

[maverick218]

I got a question on Neal and his guitars...

I didn't pay attention much on this tour but did anyone
notice if Neal was swapping out guitars alot during their sets?
I know he swaps between the LPs and Stats for specific tunes but I'm more
curious about swapping the LPs out alot.

Does he use any alternate tunings?

Nowadays most guitarist are using a bunch of crazy tunings
to simplify things or come up with crazy progressions...
Hell, watch the Goo Goo Dolls Live; that fucker
Reznick swaps his guitar out for every song.
i hate trying to learn his shit because 90% of Goo tunes
has its own specific tuning.
The way they are tuned, you could pretty much play them with 2 fingers.

It just says so much about Neal's playing if he sticks with standard all the time.
Not only is he always coming up with incredible riffs, runs and progressions
but he makes it look so damn easy

yea bud,, i think neal is in standard 440 all the time.. some of bad english was tuned to Eb... it makes me wonder is some of soul sirkus might be drop D , ive never sit down and learned those songs,, but they have a hard edge,, i bet he messed with the drop D some..i bet jeremeys guitar player has all those ansewers.. that dude had to learn a huge cataloge!!! ... as far as neal swaping out guitars.. he always seems to have the black beauty with the notch worn out where his pinky hangs!!

As far as the SS stuff...
I was front and center for a show and Neal didn't stray too far from the black beauty too much...
A strat here and there, the 7-string Ibanez for that "Stand Up and Shout" low end...
I SS was pretty much all standard or at least nothing lower than Eb (which is my tuning of choice)

Carlitto,
I read somewhere where Neal said the he used a 7 string live to get more bottom end with SS. Never seen/heard of him doing that before. I thought it was pretty interesting.

[JeremyP]

Never been a big fan of seven strings personally. Steve Vai sounds good on one though!

[aorgeneral]

The problem with his tone is he is playing through so many processors of course his sound is going to sound digital. Another culprit is his desire to use that sustainer on every solo, works great for the slower melodic passages (which he tends to avoid these days), but muddies the shit out of his sound when he plays fast. As a player, I always respected his sense of melody and his ability to build a solo. He was always one of my favorite guitar players to listen to, while he may not be technically a shred monster like Macalpine, Moore, Malmsteen etc. his ability to construct a MEMORABLE solo has seem to take a back seat to just burning the same pentatonic licks over and over as fast as he can. He should take that sustainer out of the les paul and go back to playing the way he did years ago, while not as flashy, a hell of a lot more classy. Just take a listen to the solo Lukather does in I wont hold you back, its all of about 10 notes, but it speaks volumes. By the way this is not meant to bash him it is my honest opinion of someone who respects neal as a guitar player very much.

[JrnySuxBalls]

I disagree, the Neal "shred" is part of his vibe. He can slow down when he needs to. And besides,
it's not like Lukather never plays fast or doesn't use a sustainer.

[JrnyScarab]

The problem with his tone is he is playing through so many processors of course his sound is going to sound digital. Another culprit is his desire to use that sustainer on every solo, works great for the slower melodic passages (which he tends to avoid these days), but muddies the shit out of his sound when he plays fast. As a player, I always respected his sense of melody and his ability to build a solo. He was always one of my favorite guitar players to listen to, while he may not be technically a shred monster like Macalpine, Moore, Malmsteen etc. his ability to construct a MEMORABLE solo has seem to take a back seat to just burning the same pentatonic licks over and over as fast as he can. He should take that sustainer out of the les paul and go back to playing the way he did years ago, while not as flashy, a hell of a lot more classy. Just take a listen to the solo Lukather does in I wont hold you back, its all of about 10 notes, but it speaks volumes. By the way this is not meant to bash him it is my honest opinion of someone who respects neal as a guitar player very much.

On some of the bootlegs I heard this year, he is playing more than just the same repetitive shred licks that he got in the habit of. I heard some very creative stuff and different runs this time around. I don't necessarily think he needs to slow down. It's just that he goes on too long sometimes. Cut the number of bars that he's shredding and all will be well.