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To prepare myself for the onslaught of Xmas shopping I popped my copy of Journeys “Escape”on the CD player the other morning.

As I munched on my fruit N Fibre Neal Schon’s beautifully executed tasteful solo work gave me goosebumps and if anything still stands up today as an example of less is definetly more.

Schon is something of an Enigma to me. A cursory glance at his playing could lead you to believe he’s just another 80′s hard rock guitarist with a bad mullet and silly sunglasses, but there is so much more.

The son of a Jazz Saxophonist Schon was a hotshot guitarist at the age of 15 and was courted by both Eric Clapton to join Derek and the Dominoes and also by Carlos Santana…..this is while the young Schon was still a teenager???? WTF???

Schon eventially joined Santana, toured, played on a couple of albums and then formed Journey with Santana bandmate, keyboardist Jonathan Cain. They recorded gazillions of albums of varying quality and still treads the Classic Rock nostalgia circuit with a different Journey lineup regulaly. Although “Escape” is probably their biggest worldwide hit.

However Schon is also a bit of a pioneer, back in the mid 80′s he had his own brand of guitars made (well ghostbuilt by Jackson & Larrivee in fact) under the ‘Schon’ brandname long before Brian May had a stab at a reproducing the Red Special for the mass market.

In addition his latest Gibson Les Paul signature model actually has some amazing features such as a heeless cutaway and Fernandes Sustainer. It also comes with a Floyd Rose, but apparently, Neals also tried out other types of licensed Floyd, by Ibanez in order to find the perfect whammy. I wonder how Gibson feel about that.

When I saw Rush recently. I noticed Alex Lifesons Floyd Equipped LP Custom had the same heeless cutaway as Neals. So Gibson will surely do a stock production run of contemporary LP’s at some point?

Schons rig is also unusual in that he prefers using old Boss Multi FX units (ME-5′s/ME10′s/GT-5′s etc) and programme up endless big fat overdriven sustained tones with washes of chorus and echo, before running these units into big fat clean valve amps such as Hi-Watts. In a world of boutique this and handbuild bespoke rigs. Its nice to think a world class player fiddling with his FX units overcooked presets like Barry in the covers band down the Dog & Duck on a Friday night.

Back to his playing, while Schons name is littered across numerous American Melodic Rock album credits, he has made an instrumental album as well. But its his better work with Journey that shows how to really deliver raw emotion with just a few well placed licks. The guitar break in “Who’s Crying Now” is just 4 or 5 simple notes, played with such heartfelt emotion and raw passion it harks back to an era when guitar solo’s were common in pop/rockmusic.

Schons tasteful phrasing gives a nod to classic soul vocalists such as Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett and its this wider influence that marks him out as a true original.

Merry Xmas

Anyone familiar with this blog will know I have been less than impressed with Giant UK music chain Soundcontrol on a number of occasions. I have often berated both its sometimes high prices and what I percieved to be a shortfall in certain employees training & a lack of product knowledge in its London and Nottingham stores. I’ve also been less than impressed with the range of stock and have bought very little from there in recent years.

However, unlike Ishibashi Music or Chandler guitars, it is right on my doorstep, so they do get some custom out of me from time to time. So while in there buying some strings and plecs the other day I noticed my local Derby branch has appointed a guitar tech and were offering guitar setups and maintenance in a clear and very well laid out menu.

That evening I noticed that the Telecaster was rattling a bit and due to the recent seasonal changes, could probably do with a set-up. Now I have been known to do my own from time to time. But feeling lazy and also wanting to know if the service was any good. I booked the old girl in.

After chatting to SC Derbys resident guitar tech Mick, he told me he’d have it ready in a few days. I picked it up a couple of days ago and he was woried the action maybe too low. He basically said ‘see how you get on’ and if it wasn’t right I could bring it back.

After an afternoon with it. I noticed that the action was probably too low for my traditional tastes. So a quick phone call later and it was back on Micks workbench and he adjusted it to my taste perfectly.

In short I was impressed. I don’t know if all SC shops do this service, but top marks to Mick at SC Derby. It reminded me of the kind of customer service I used to see back when it was called Wishers in the 80′s. God I’m showing my age now!

I still think that with many times more outlets than Peter Cooks and Coda’s, they could be a mite bit more competitive sometimes. But it’s nice to see that SoundControl have taken a step back from trying to be like Currys and have decided to be a guitarshop again. I hope this trend continues.

Now even though I play guitar in a band associated with Shoegazing it may suprise you I hardly use any effects…..thats right, a wah wah for a bit of tone shaping, a Pro Co Rat II for solo’s and a bit of echo and thats it for me…..as many a Gourmet Chef would only use a few simple ingredients to cook with, in order to preserve the flavour of meat or fish. I follow suit and let the tone come from my fingers and the amp. Some guitarists I know sprinkle FX everywhere like Domino Pizza Chefs going mad…piling on dollops of Chorus/Flange and phasing to the point you can hardly hear the original note…..good luck to em, but its not for me.

However I do like a good Echo unit.

Probably the most successful FX pedal of the last decade has been the Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeller. For around £200.00 you got a great delay with a myriad of amazing echoes…………

Now I don’t buy into the idea that modelling works and I don’t think for a minute that the modelled tones of the Line 6 sound remotely like those of a Boss DD-3, Roland Space Echo or EHX Memory Man plus or anything else it claims to emulate.

However it doesn’t matter, the sounds themselves are very useable and the DL-4 has quickly found itself the mainstay of many a touring professional or weekend warriors pedalboard. I bought one myself in 2000 and aside from the tap/tempo button falling off somewhere outside the Buffalo Bar in Islington, ownership has generally been a hassle free experience.

Now recently I’ve found myself needing another delay unit as the nature of my bands music changes and we add to and consolidate the sound. I did try a Marshall Echohead a while back, which is amazing and incredibly cheaply priced, but it seemed a bit “classic rock” maybe.

I then bought a Boss-DD3 off Ebay last year,but it had a fault and I got a refund. It was 50 quid used and seemed ok. But heres my beef…..

Roland have just released the “Space Echo” as a COSM modelling pedal. It probably won’t sound like an Original RE-201 or 301 Space Echo but I bet it’ll be useable and have a range of delays to get you excited, yet there like £120.00 excluding mains adaptor and thats a lot of pedal for the money.

Boss DD-3′s are around £84 new. So for less than £40 more your getting twice the functionality and twice the pedal. It seems mad. Out in retail land there are loads of cheap affordable and excellent didgital delay units that all outspec the DD-3 in a heartbeat. Line 6, Digitech,Marshall, Yamaha etc….all have a delay pedal under or around £100…..so do people still actually buy the DD-3???? If so………….. Why???

I know its an evergreen classic used on many a hit record, but surely the time has come for Roland to make it really cheap like they have with the SD-1 Super Overdrive. Come on Roland, Time marches on…you make it in China now to save money…so bring the price down;)

As I’m going to be moving soon I’ve decided to have a cull of the 300+ guitar magazines sitting on my bookcase at any one time. This has been most interesting as I’ve trawled through the lot of them deciding what to keep and what to send for recycling. I’ve unearthed some interesting facts I thought I’d share.

1: Tom Morello only has one pose for magazine covers…..it’s true!!! He’s always staring at you, pointing his fingers manically toward you as though he’s bursting out of the Magazine like some sort of twisted General Kitchener, whether its on the cover of Guitarist, Total Guitar, Guitar World or GuitarPlayer he’s always giving this self conscious pose and it upsets me, he’s been to Harvard for fucks sake, don’t they teach you how to pose for magazine covers here, doesn’t he think we’ll notice…

2: Gary Moore: Ha ha poor sod, where there was once only brilliance……now….. he’s like the senile aunt of the guitar always putting his big foot in his mouth….one minute he’s saying he’s back to Rock, then the next minute he’s slagging Rock off and saying how he’s a proper bluesman, even though back in the 60′s he bought a Gibson Les Paul off a person who at the time was starting to display signs of a mental illness and then made £399,781.00 of profit from selling said guitar 30 years later. Then he threatened to sue the bloke who bought it off him….. Oh how my heart bleeds for you Gary! Your as much a bluesman as I am a Zen Buddhist in drag.

In last months Guitarist mag Gary said that someone his age shouldn’t be making Rock music anymore. Funnily enough in that same issue the album of the month was ‘Snakes & Arrows’ by Rush featuring the Rock guitar work of a certain 54 year old Alex Lifeson. Good old Alex just keeps on going and his credibility and influence seems to grow more each year, unlike a certain Mr Moore. I do wonder what Alex Lifeson, Dave Gilmour, Steve Lukather, Neil Schon, Michael Schenker, John Sykes, Edward Van Halen and the other members of perhaps the greatest generation of Rock guitarists make of such fucking stupid statements. Do they care??

3: Thin Lizzy, or whats left of them. It seems if Guitarist magazine is an article short, they will always always wheel out Scott Gorham…..the first 3 or 4 times this was interesting…..now it is fucking boring…. I know about Phil, the drinking, the fighting, the smack habits….how Scott stopped playing his Les Paul in the 80′s and now usues a Strat and how his Marshalls are modified by a guy in Chandlers…..I’ve read the same interview in different magazines so often in the last decade…..its commited to my memory forever…..this same rule applies to Lambchop and Brian May. Has anyone in future publishing got more than 10 numbers in their phonebook?

4: Gibson guitar reviews – Its amazing how the reviews text will always question the general cosmetic fit and finish of every guitar reviewed……yet they will always get high amounts of stars saying that even though the binding is falling off the neck and its 3 grand, it really is a bargain!!!! Honest Guv….

5: Oasis transcriptions……..why would anyone need any help learning such simplistic and unadventurous material, unless they were…..well…..thick. Can’t Guitarist Mag do a “special needs” edition one month to placate these poor desperate souls and give proper transcriptions the rest of the year?

At the moment I’m on a search for a nice cheap spare guitar, something that can get battered in the back of a van, fall off stage and be used as a weapon on drunken hecklers. y’know a good all rounder.

While my Kotzen Tele continues to be the only guitar I use live. I’m not enjoying bringing along a £1000+ of Les Paul as a spare. To be frank, its been scaring the shit out of me.

So in my usual saturday morning hangover time wander around the shops, I stumbled upon one of the new Squier Tele’s. These are now made in commerce friendly but very politically dubious Indonesia, a country not known for its electric guitar building. However the build quality is a real eye opener. I was expecting it to be as shocking as their human rights record. Boy was I wrong.

The modernish “C” shaped neck felt pretty good, as good as anything Fenders Mexican plant has churned out recently. Hardware is pretty basic, but good for the price. Electronics are 2 Duncan Designed P90′s with dual volumes and tone controls.

The biggest suprise is the tone,the P90 type pickups were fruity and full, not the usual cheapo guitar pickups. Much as I love the PRS SE range I know I’d have to gut the electronics in order to make it work onstage. Not so here, think Townsend at Woodstock and your almost there, I got some great rasping chords and chiming arpeggio’s but the single coils also gave me some nice modern filthy riffs on the shops Marshall JCM with equal aplomb. Clean or dirty this felt like a £500 guitar and retailing at around £220 ish thats pretty impressive.

My verdict…………… its a great sounding and playing guitar. I almost got my wallet out save for one or two tiny issues…….

1)The weight! It was like having Beth Ditto after a good feed bouncing up and down on my knee for 20 minutes, even with a guitar strap on it was as heavy as a Les Paul if not heavier. My Kotzen Tele is mediumweight for a Tele, but this is a real bruiser of a guitar.

The wood used is supposedly Agathis a locally sourced wood Fender have used before on their De Armond range of cheap guitars a few years ago. Its supposed to be tonally a bit like Mahogany, but felt more like Limestone…..Ouch. I wondered if the nice indonesians were making guitars out of all the surplus weapons of torture and oppression the British government had sold them???? (political swipe there kids)

My recomendation is yes buy this guitar but join a Gym first or have a Chiropractor on standby. You’ll be singing the blues alright when you pop your back at the Dog & Duck on a friday. My second issue is…

 2) if your an ethical consumer into fairtrade coffee and banana’s and I always see sensitive indie kids doing that kinda thing, maybe subscribe to Amnesty International and have a long think about how this great playing and sounding guitar only cost £200???