neal schon – oklahoma city's guitar god

by Nathan Spencer

There is no way that you might not have heard of the name Neal Schon if you are a music fanatic, especially one that has a craving for guitars. This world renowned Oklahoma guitarist is considered by many to be guitar’s God. Born on the 5th of February, 1954, this American guitarist is famous for his performances with the world famous band Journey. In fact Neal is the only member of the band Journey to have played in all of their recordings. Neal, picked up the guitar at the tender age of 5 he was born in an air force base situated close to Oklahoma City.

Few people know that his father too was into music and was a jazz saxophonist. A fast learner, Neal joined Santana at the young age of 15. Before forming the group Journey in 1973, which he still leads, Neal was connected with Azteca. Those who are familiar with the playing style of this guitarist consider it as soulful. Neal has also recorded albums with various other musicians, apart from the 14 studio albums he has made with the group founded by him.

Neal had been requested by another guitar great, Eric Clapton, to join his group, Derek and the Dominos, quite early on in his career. Since he was first called upon by Santana, Neal turned down this offer. For recording the album Santana III, Neal Schon joined Santana. The first guitar used by Neal was an acoustic Stella and this fact might be interesting for those who are interested in learning electric guitars. A Gibson ES-335 replaced this guitar two years later. Neal replaced his stolen Gibson with the 1956 make Les Paul Goldtop reissue and he used the same for quite a number of years.

Gibson guitars are currently endorsed by Neal. “Neal Schon Signature Model Custom Les Paul” is one of the limited editions signature models that are also available. Only 35 numbers of such custom guitars were manufactured according to the official Gibson website. Neal has also used a number of other guitars during his vast career and Goldin guitar is one of them which he had used for the solo album “Beyond the Thunder”, which was released towards the end of the 1980’s. Gibson, which manufactures some of the best solo guitars, is endorsed by Schon.

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