Return to Part #1 of interview with Neil Young on his guitars and sound.
Part #2 of a Neil Young interview from "Guitare & Claviers" Avril 1992 (Article translated from French by David Ostrosser). Discusses guitars, amplifiers and equipment.
Q : What do you look for in a guitar?
NEIL : I mostly buy guitars as a souvenir to remember
somewhere I've been. If I'm happy somewhere, I'll try a used
guitar in a corner, and that guitar will always remind me of the
place I bought it. The sound of the instrument reflects my
personal sound at that time. I've written lots on a Martin D-18
that I love, and that I stole from Elliot Roberts office. Every
time I use it, I'm instantly back in Elliot's office. But I buy
them for other reasons. I might buy them because they are
classics, standards. I collect guitars, so I'll buy an Explorer
or a Flying V, or a Black Falcon or a White Falcon just for what
they are. But now I have them, so I don't feel the need to have
any more. Material things mean less and less to me, so I really
consider myself a collector.
Q : Do you have one guitar that is so rare you don't even dare
play it?
NEIL : No, I don't ever have that sort of reaction. I have a
guitar that Hank Williams owned, but I use it all the time. It's
an old Martin D-28 and I bought it from Tut Taylor. Its always
great to realize the history that you are holding in your
hands...to understand the importance and the influence of Hank
Williams for all of us. People are almost scared to be in the
presence of something he could have touched...almost to the point
where they think that just touching the instrument will elevate
them to another plane. It's wonderful to have that guitar for
those reasons. Most of the people who should have used that
guitar have used it. I'm very careful with it, but I use it
constantly. It's not on some museum wall.
Q : Do you still have the guitars you used with the Buffalo
Springfield?
NEIL : Sure, I have all the guitars I've ever used, except
those I traded with Stills. I also have a Gretsch that belonged
to Jim Messina and that looks like the one I had during the
Springfield era.
Q : Are you a Fender fan?
NEIL : I have a Broadcaster, a Telecaster, an Esquire and a
few Strats, but I rarely use them.
Q : Apparently part of your unique sound comes from using a
certain pick-up...
NEIL : In fact, it's a Firebird pick-up that I used on my
black Les Paul, as a treble pick-up. But during the time of
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere I didn't have that pick-up and I
had an interference in my treble pick-up (Neil Young uses only
P-90 s on his Les Paul, which are simple wound pick-ups). I took
it to the store to see what they could do, and when I got back,
the store had closed and moved. I never got my pick-up back.
After I lost it, I think I tried two or three replacement
pick-ups. But the Firebird I've had since 1973.
Q : In this high-tech era, why would you want to to use a
Bigsby vibrato?
NEIL : It works. It's expressive. The vibratos they make
nowadays aren't expressive. They're too hard, too rigid. You can
go down to the low notes back up to the highs as fast as you can
doing metal bends, and you always stay in tune. Fantastic! Stay
in tune! Brilliant! You were in tune before...it makes no sense
to stay in tune! I go out of tune in every song, because my
vibrato won't stay in tune. But when you don't stop playing and
play around the melody, you never know whether you're in tune or
not. The control is in the fingers. And if you use an echoplex,
and use the Bigsby very carefully, the tone rises and falls, but
reproduces very faithfully what you play. It's as if you had two
guitars that had not only two different attacks, but also
different sustains. It's a huge sound. My Bigsby is practically
attached to my right hand, and it couldn't be otherwise.
Q : The NME recently called you the «Grandfather of
Gargantuan Feedback.»
NEIL : (Laughs) I don't know what to say to that...
Q : One of the Ragged Glory videos shows you sticking your Les
Paul in a toilet bowl to get feedback...
NEIL : Oh, that's just Hollywood shit. None of that's real,
but the toilet schtick was nice. It's the perfect visual
expression of my sound. I want everybody to know that that's how
I view my sound.
Q : Everybody knows the story of Jimmy Page recording his
guitar in the bathroom, with the mike several metres away. Are
you interested in that sort of experimentation?
NEIL : Sure. I'd try anything. That story is a good idea, if
it's a good bathroom with good tiling. He must like that sound,
very live. A big sound, that's for sure.
Q : Of all the guitarists that came out in the Sixties, it
seems you're the only one capable of playing in a real trash
style.
NEIL : Thank you. That's very kind of you. I think I've gone
as far as I could in that style, even when you look at what I'm
doing right now. I don't know if I still have any reason to keep
on in that direction.
Q : It's a real punk attitude...
NEIL : No, it's just rock and roll. But real rock and roll. In
fact, punk and rock are one and the same. What has degraded what
we now call «rock and roll» is not rock in itself, but rather
« pop». Commercial product. It's an imitation, a pale
ressemblance of what it once was. It's Perry Como compared to
real rock. You remember how it started? There was real rock, then
that other music that everyone listened to. Today, our parents
listen to rock. It's over. Even if I'm a parent, OK. But that's
how it is.
Q : What are the groups these days that you would classify as
rock and roll?
NEIL : It's obvious that I like Sonic Youth. In my book, they
really do modern rock. They make magnificent music. You know that
one, Expressway to Your Skull? It's incredibly good, so
beautiful. It's a classic. Superb melody, and even better live.
They have quite a few that are that good. So that's one great
group. U2 is a good rock group. I haven't heard their latest
album, but the others really rock. You'd almost think they had
been recording in their home.
Q : If you could time-travel to meet the musician of your
dreams, who would you choose?
NEIL : (long silence) Hound Dog Taylor. I'd would have loved
to have met him. Also Leadbelly and Robert Johnson. And I also
would have loved meeting Chopin and Beethoven. All in the same
room.
Q : Of all the guitarists you know, who has made the biggest
impression on you?
NEIL: Bert Jansch (Pentangle guitarist) is the best acoustic
guitarist ; he's my favourite anyway. For electric guitar, I'd
say Jimi Hendrix.
Q : Have you met Jimi?
NEIL : A long time ago. Nothing really memorable, but I ran
into him a number of times. Stills knew him better than I did.
Q : In your opinion, why is he still considered the best?
NEIL : He was excellent. He was one with his instrument. At
that time, no one had pushed the electric guitar so far, and that
goes for today, too. He was over everybody. Totally gone. So
fluid, using the feedback to create such beautiful things. For a
guitar fan like me, it was a revelation. But as for acoustic
guitar, Bert Jansch is on the same level as Jimi. That first
record of his is epic. It came from England, and I was especially
taken by The Needle of Death, such a beautiful and angry song.
That guy was so good... And years later, on On the Beach, I wrote
the melody of Ambulance Blues by styling the guitar part
completely on Needle of Death. I wasn't even aware of it, and
someone else drew my attention to it. I'd met him in England in
the early 70s, with Pentangle, but I this huge limousine and all
that shit and they had a strange attitude with me, considering me
as one of those bonehead superstars.
Q : You've often described your method of working live in the
studio as the work of a photographer rather than that of a
painter.
NEIL : That's how I've worked for years. Very quickly. I leave
it to other people to take the songs and make records out of
them. As far as I'm concerned, I just want to sing my tunes, play
them, record them as faithfully as possible, then move on to
something else.
Q : Were some of your rock song written on acoustic guitar?
NEIL : Out of the Blue was written in my living room on an
acoustic guitar.
Q : What inspired that?
NEIL : I don't remember now. Elvis had just died an I was
thinking about that. But I was a year late. That's one reason.
Then there was Johnny Rotten.
Q : Did you meet any punk groups, at the end of the 70s?
NEIL : Never. I heard about them, and I saw them on TV and
could see the effect they had on people.
Q : What do you think about those who go to school to learn
how to play guitar?
NEIL : It would give you a rather sad view of your future,
wouldn't it? First off, nobody cares if you know how to play
scales. Nobody gives a shit if you have good technique or not.
It's whether you have feelings that you want to express with
music, that's what counts, really. When you are able to express
yourself and feel good, then you know why you're playing. The
technical aspect is absolute hogwash as far as I'm concerned. It
bores me to tears. I can't play fast. I don't even know my
scales. I know that most of the notes I play aren't where I play
them. They're simply not there. So you can play any note you
like. I think about it on another level, I don't care about that
sort of shit. On the other hand, I appreciate really great
guitarists, and I'm very impressed by those metal groups with
their scale guitarists. When I see that, I go «Holy shit, that's
really something». Satriani and Eddie Van Halen are guitar
geniuses. They are incredible musicians, at an amazing level. But
it does't really grab me. One note will do.
Q : Like Cinnamon Girl, that one-note solo.
NEIL : That's right: two chords. The same note on two chords.
The vibrato makes each note sound different. People say it's a
«one-note solo», but in my mind, every one of those notes is
different. The further you go into it, the more you can hear the
differences.
Q : The Weld version is very close to the original.
NEIL : That's true. We try to play it the best we can, with
that part of Norwegian Wood on the end.
Q : What do you try to get in a solo?
NEIL : Transcendance. It's a feel. That's what I hope to get
to. And you can blame me for not caring about off-notes, but in
my solos, I listen to the whole group. You call that a solo, but
for me it's an instrumental. The whole group takes part. Billy
Talbot is an excellent bassist, yet he only plays two or three
notes. People always asks if he plays like that because those are
the only notes he knows, or the only ones he feels like playing.
(laughs). But when he lets go a note, it speaks to you. It's a
fucking huge note. Even the soft notes sound enormous.
Q : How would you define Frank Sampedro's playing.
NEIL : Frank uses the biggest guitar strings I've ever seen a
guitarist use. He's probably the most violent guitar player I
know -- much more than I am, because he doesn't really do solos.
His strings are so huge! 012 to 055, with a wound G string! When
he plays a note, it's like a hurricane! In the midst of all that,
I play and I don't really know where I'm going. Without them, my
sound would be ordinary. The biggest part of it is theirs.
Q : Is the art of jamming in danger of extinction?
NEIL : I don't know, I haven't seen a lot of jams recently
(laughter).
Q : What happens when you go to concerts? Most of the time it
sounds like the record.
NEIL : I know. It's disgusting. Welcome to the 90s!
Q : You've said a jam is like an orgasme.
NEIL : Sure! That's why my instrumentals are so short!
(Hilarious laughter).
Q : Do you think your playing has reached a new level?
NEIL : I think I've reached a new level with Weld and Arc.
Q : Arc is a rather daring disc.
NEIL : I don't think so. It's a logical extension of today's
rock. Feedback has always been a part of it. There's always been
a lot of temptation to go in that direction. It's like jazz. It's
like the jazz in rock, without the rythm.
Q : Like feedback John Coltrane ?
NEIL : Yes, possibly. Coltrane has had a big influence on me.
I love some of his things. Equinox and My Favourite Things, with
McCoy Tyner, are my favourites.
Q : What are the records you couldn't live without?
NEIL : I hardly listen to albums. I just listen to what people
make me listen to, because I can't make that kind of decision. I
hear what goes on on the radio in my car or on the jukebox. But I
always like to hear BB King, Ray Charles and old country stuff.
Q : What do you think you owe to your fans?
NEIL : My life. Without my fans, who would I play music to?
For myself? Talk about lonely...I owe a lot to my fans, but all I
can offer them is a new disc, if they like it.
Q : What are your future plans?
NEIL : An album with the Stray Gators, the group that played
with me on Harvest. Playing with different groups lets me
continue to move forward. It forces me to adapt to all situation.
I don't try to get used to just one group, it's not good for the
music.
Q : What advice would you give a guitarist just starting out?
NEIL : Start playing, learn a few chords and play with
somebody a little bit better than yourself. Don't try to learn
from books anything you don't already know. Music is learning
directly from others. Takes certain riffs from here and there and
use them to write songs and to discover new sounds and new chord
progressions. Create. But even if the results sound shitty, keep
creating. Soon, it'll be great.
Return to Part #1 of interview with Neil Young on his guitars and sound.
For more, read excerpt from the book "Shakey - A Neil Young Biography" by Jimmy McDonough with an interview with guitar tech Larry Cragg about Neil Young's guitars and equipment.
Also see, Neil Young's gear on guitars, amps, and whizzer equipment and sound effects.
Read excerpts of books on Neil Young's guitar style and sound.
The Guitar Styles of Neil Young
Neil Young Interviews
Thrashers Wheat - A Neil Young Archives