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Neil Young News Page of the Moment Photos Reviews Influences Lyrics Analysis Interviews FAQ Link of the Moment Search Guestbook Home - Thrasher's Wheat |
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Discuss Neil Young's Sound and Equipment
A collection of articles on Neil Young's Guitars, Amps, Whizzer and Equipment on how he obtains his unique grunge and feedback sound. Neil's electric guitar sound has been described as like "a jet plane in a thunderstorm" and those who have witnessed and directly felt in their chest the aural assualt that is known as "Crazy Horse-style" know that which we speak.
Jimmy McDonough writes of Neil's performance of "Rockin' In The Free World" on Saturday Night Live - one of the greatest live TV musical performances ever -- as "whipping off earsplitting solos that sounded like falling power lines".
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Here are some Frequently Asked Questions and answers to Neil trivia. Many of the standard questions like "What's the meaning of 'Powderfinger'" song lyrics?, "Can Neil really out jam Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page?, "Were Lynard Skynard and Neil Young friends or enemies?", and "What song did Kurt Cobain quote in his suicide note?" and lots more.
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Over on Old Black replica, some great photos of Neil's guitar Old Black. This photo is amazing, with guitar tech Larry Cragg showing the extreme wear and abuse which Old Black has suffered over the years from "Hurricane", "Down by The River", and other feedback laden finales that leave him lying in shreds on the stage floor.
Visually, Ol Black is the electrical equivalent to Willie Nelson's battered "Trigger" -- his well-worn Martin acoustic guitar.
Neil Young's guitar Old Black has been meticously reproduced right down the the wear and tear.
Some amazing photos of the reproduction of Neil's Gibson Custom Shop Historic R6 Les Paul Goldtop electric guitar over on TeleModders: The Telecasters Modification Discussion Group. Jeff posts some beautiful photos and details of the job.
More details on Neil Young's guitar Old Black reproduction.
At Neil Young's Nashville concerts at the Ryman Auditorium on August 18, 2005, he introduced the song "This Old Guitar" by saying: 
Hank Williams' Martin D-28 Guitar
Hank Williams' Martin D-28 Guitar
Neil loaned the guitar to Bob Dylan
(photo from Prairie Wind CD booklet)"This is Hank William's guitar [he points to
the guitar]. I try to do the right thing with the guitar. You don't
want to stink with Hank's guitar. I lent it to Bob Dylan for a
while. He didn't have a tour bus so I lent him mine and I left the
guitar on the bed with a note saying Hank's guitar is back there.
He used it for a couple of months."
Also see tabs and chords for songs in the book Neil Young Guitar Anthology
Neil Young won the Les Paul Award in September, 1998. According to Gibson Guitar:
The Les Paul Award was created in 1991 to honor those individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards in the creative application of technology examplified by its namesake. Since achieving international fame in the early 1970s as a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, he has forged a successful career as a solo artist, songwriter, and innovator in the use of recording technology. Among the first major artists to record in his own studio, Young owned one of the first digital multitracks in the United States. Most recently, he has been doing 5.1-channel mixes on a state-of-the-art analog 2-inch, 8-track machine. Young has played a customized Les Paul Standard, among other Gibsons, throughout his career."
From Neil Young interview in Zuerich Weltwoche (July 1996):
W: That sounds rather esoteric.
Young: Bullshit. It's similar to how the musicians in the old jazz era functioned. We don't have to prove anything to nobody - besides ourselves.Only that brought us to where we stand today. Only that moves me. I can't go out with big light shows and that shit. No interest in that."
From "Shakey" the Neil Young biography by Jimmy McDonough on Neil's Deluxe amp (from page 7) posted on Plexi Palace - Vintage Amp Forums:
In a September 1993 Guitar Player interview with Pete Townshend he was asked about the Gretsch guitar and his equipment's sound. The story is that Joe Walsh gave Townshend the guitar that made Pete’s defining electric sound on record -- a 1959 Gretsch 6120 ‘Chet Atkins’ Hollow Body -- which is similar to the guitar Neil Young began using with the Buffalo Springfield.
Whizzer Replica (Not Neil Young's actual Whizzer) from The Guitar Refinishing and Restoration Forum :: View topic - The Whizzer...
Also, see technical details for Neil Young's Whizzer.
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From Gibson Guitars on Neil's Les Paul Ol' Black:
The Firebird mini-humbucker appears outwardly like the mini-humbucker used on other Gibson guitars such as the Les Paul Deluxe, except for its solid cover. Underneath, however, critical differences are revealed. Whereas the standard, Epiphone-derived mini-humbucker is designed like a PAF-type humbucker but narrower, with a bar magnet placed beneath the two coils and in contact with the individual steel pole pieces running through them, the Firebird pickup is constructed with two alnico bar magnets, positioned one each within the two coils, in a dual-blade-styled design. Using magnetic material within the coil helps to increase a pickup's definition and treble response; the Firebird pickup is, therefore, a little weaker than the standard PAF-style humbucker or mini-humbucker, and also a lot brighter than either. As heard in Young's playing, it's also a very lively pickup, with a certain amount of microphony contributing to the dimension of the sound, and also easing the way to feedback, a tool that Young exploits like few other players. (For a shortcut to Neil Young's feedback zone, check out the 1991 release Arc, a montage of feedback segments at the beginnings and ends of songs from the Ragged Glory tour, the full songs themselves released on the live Weld album.)
A relatively simple mechanical device, the Bigsby vibrato added to Neil Young's Les Paul (also occasionally available as a factory extra on a Les Paul) makes a very real contribution to his tone. Used to give lead lines anything from a jagged, angular irregularity to a bouncing, wobbly vibe, Young's Bigsby also functions as a trigger into feedback, and is used to bend decaying notes to nail down the howl zone.
Of course, truly effective use of feedback is enabled by the right amp and the right amp settings. The first part of the equation is achieved by a surprisingly simple, petite piece of gear: a late-1950s tweed Fender Deluxe. This little beastie, with just two volume controls and a single, shared tone control, puts out a mere 15 watts from two 6V6GT output tubes, and carries just a single 12" speaker, but has powered Neil Young's rock sound in stadiums and arenas around the world since he acquired it in 1967 (although the sound is fed through other, larger amps and its own monitoring system in order to be heard on large stages). A raw, hot little amp, the tweed Deluxe breaks up early, with a lot of tube-induced compression at most volume levels. Up past around 11 o'clock on the dial these amps really don't get much louder, they just saturate more, issuing increasing levels of distortion tone. (Young's Deluxe is reported as being rebiased to use larger 6L6 output tubes; the change wouldn't increase its volume all that much, but would most likely fatten up the lows some and give the sound more body.)
The Deluxe's hot, hotter, and hottest gain structure brings us to the second part of Young's lead/feedback tone equation: the settings. In order to access the Deluxe's varying degrees of overdrive, Young uses a custom-made amp-control switching device known simply as "the Whizzer." Consisting of two parts, the foot controller and the mechanical automated switching device that physically turns the amps knobs, the Whizzer allows Young to stomp a footswitch on the floor to command the unit to twist the Deluxe's volume and tone controls to any of a number of carefully determined preset positions. As such, and rather incredibly-if you're familiar with the Neil Young overdrive sound-he uses no booster, overdrive, or distortion pedals to achieve his unhinged tone; just the little 50-year-old tweed Deluxe, and the Whizzer.
Young does, however, use a range of pedals and devices to create effects sounds in and of themselves. He relies heavily on a particular vintage Fender tube reverb unit, which is set up with a separate spring pan mounted to the top of a microphone stand that is anchored on the cement floor below the stage he is playing on (often with a hole drilled through the floor to bring springs and tube-reverb chassis close enough together!). The convoluted arrangement is undertaken in order to avoid the disruptive, wet "sproing" sound that ensues when you stomp on a stage with a lively spring reverb unit sitting on it. Young also makes use of an analog delay, an octave divider, a flanger, and a digital delay.
From How did he get this tone on the lead guitar? - SternFanNetwork by Tbones:
The Bigsby vibrato added to Neil Young’s Les Paul (also occasionally available as a factory extra on a Les Paul) makes a very real contribution to his tone. Used to give lead lines anything from a jagged, angular irregularity to a bouncing, wobbly vibe, Young’s Bigsby also functions as a trigger into feedback, and is used to bend decaying notes to nail down the howl zone.
Of course, truly effective use of feedback is enabled by the right amp and the right amp settings. The first part of the equation is achieved by a surprisingly simple, petite piece of gear: a late-1950s tweed Fender Deluxe. This little beastie, with just two volume controls and a single, shared tone control, puts out a mere 15 watts from two 6V6GT output tubes, and carries just a single 12” speaker, but has powered Neil Young’s rock sound in stadiums and arenas around the world since he acquired it in 1967 (although the sound is fed through other, larger amps and its own monitoring system in order to be heard on large stages). A raw, hot little amp, the tweed Deluxe breaks up early, with a lot of tube-induced compression at most volume levels. Up past around 11 o’clock on the dial these amps really don’t get much louder, they just saturate more, issuing increasing levels of distortion tone. (Young’s Deluxe is reported as being rebiased to use larger 6L6 output tubes; the change wouldn’t increase its volume all that much, but would most likely fatten up the lows some and give the sound more body.)
The Deluxe’s hot, hotter, and hottest gain structure brings us to the second part of Young’s lead/feedback tone equation: the settings. In order to access the Deluxe’s varying degrees of overdrive, Young uses a custom-made amp-control switching device known simply as “the Whizzer.” Consisting of two parts, the foot controller and the mechanical automated switching device that physically turns the amps knobs, the Whizzer allows Young to stomp a footswitch on the floor to command the unit to twist the Deluxe’s volume and tone controls to any of a number of carefully determined preset positions. As such, and rather incredibly—if you’re familiar with the Neil Young overdrive sound—he uses no booster, overdrive, or distortion pedals to achieve his unhinged tone; just the little 50-year-old tweed Deluxe, and the Whizzer.
Young does, however, use a range of pedals and devices to create effects sounds in and of themselves. He relies heavily on a particular vintage Fender tube reverb unit, which is set up with a separate spring pan mounted to the top of a microphone stand that is anchored on the cement floor below the stage he is playing on (often with a hole drilled through the floor to bring springs and tube-reverb chassis close enough together!). The convoluted arrangement is undertaken in order to avoid the disruptive, wet “sproing” sound that ensues when you stomp on a stage with a lively spring reverb unit sitting on it. Young also makes use of an analog delay, an octave divider, a flanger, and a digital delay.
Neil Young’s electric guitar tone stems from relatively basic piece of equipment, although his means of achieving his desired sounds and settings are fairly complex. Short of modifying two pieces of prized vintage gear and building your own Whizzer, run a bright but powerful guitar into a simple, low-output tube amp and give it all the gusto and emotion you can muster. That, in the end, is what’s at the heart of the Neil Young guitar solo after all.
Neil Young Complete Music (Vol.1 , 1966-1969) Neil Young Complete Music 1969-1973 Neil Young Complete 1974-1979 (Neil Young Complete, 1974-1979) Neil Young: Stories Behind the Songs 1966-1992 Neil Young: Anthology Easy Guitar Also see more on Neil Young's Music, his songs, lyrics, albums and concerts.
Also see tabs and chords for songs in the book Neil Young Guitar Anthology Guitar equipment discussion on Harmony Central User Forums - The Neil Young Gibson Les Paul Project
Read excerpts of books on Neil Young's guitar style and sound.
The Guitar Styles of Neil Young
Long May You Run:
The Illustrated History of Neil Young
"Essential for the
Neil Young library"
Neil Young